Although Republicans won control of the state Senate in Tuesday`s election, they were able to do little more than end the Democrats` veto-proof margin in the House.
Thanks largely to new districts drawn by the GOP, Republicans were assured at least a 32-27 majority in the Senate. That reversed the Democrats` tenuous 31-28 control of the upper chamber and marked the first time the GOP has held a Senate majority since 1975.
But the map provided little for House Republicans, who had hoped to move closer to the 60 members needed to overturn a decade of dominance by Democrats. What had been a 72-46 veto-proof majority for powerful Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago was reduced by only five seats, to 67-51.
The lackluster GOP showing in the House contests raised speculation among some lawmakers that the chamber`s Republican leader, Lee Daniels of Elmhurst, could be in for another coup attempt.
The Senate results ended the Democrats` decade of control over both chambers of the General Assembly and portended the possibility of lengthy partisan battles between the GOP Senate and the Democratic House.
Senate Republican leader James ”Pate” Philip of Wood Dale, who is expected to become Senate president, denied that he had prepared an agenda of suburban concerns-including redistribution of school and transportation dollars from the city-to bring to the table in Springfield.
But such an agenda has long existed, with items ranging from a southward expansion of the North-South Tollway to revisions in the general state aid formula for public schools, only to surface as possible trade bait for the Chicago wish list carried by the legislature`s Democratic majority.
Philip and Republican Gov. Jim Edgar acknowledged that the GOP Senate takeover would put suburban concerns on the same level as Chicago`s.
”The suburbs might have more of a say than they have had in the past,”
Edgar said. ”I think everybody has been predicting that just by the change in population.”
In the House contests, Madigan aides said the speaker was satisfied with the 16-seat edge that Democrats will hold over Daniels and the Republicans, given they were forced to contend with a GOP-drawn redistricting map.
Daniels blamed the failure of the GOP to pick up more House seats on the outpouring of support for Democratic President-elect Bill Clinton and Sen.-elect Carol Moseley Braun.
”Obviously, I wanted to win a majority. That`s my goal. But I think in the last few months, everybody realized it would be a multiyear project,”
Daniels said. ”Closer to the election, our polling showed the significant strength for Clinton, and that was affecting our numbers.”
But there were already indications that Daniels might face a coup attempt. Two years ago, he successfully put down a challenge to his position as GOP leader. One of the dissidents then, Sen.-elect Karen Hasara of Springfield, said she believed another coup attempt was likely.
Some Republicans said privately, however, that Daniels picked up just enough seats to stave off a challenge, despite the defeat of at least four incumbents. And Philip said he expected Daniels to stay on.
In the northwest suburbs, a bevy of fresh faces, many of them women and the majority out of the moderate center of the Republican Party, will represent the area in the new General Assembly.
Among the freshmen Republican representatives-elect were Verna Clayton, former Buffalo Grove village president, in the 51st House District; Rosemary Mulligan, a Des Plaines paralegal, 55th District; former Mt. Prospect Village President Carolyn Krause, 56th District; and Ann Hughes, McHenry County Board President, 63rd District.
Mulligan`s victory was noteworthy not so much in her defeat of Democratic opponent Robert Cassidy, which had been expected, but because it was widely interpreted as a vindication for pro-choice voices in the Republican Party.
When Mulligan lost a close, contested election to incumbent Rep. Penny Pullen (R-Park Ridge) in the Republican primary 2 1/2 years ago, the defeat brought the GOP`s internal debate over abortion out into the open.
Mulligan`s rematch victory over Pullen last March was seen by some as a warning to Republicans against taking too strident a stand against abortion, a warning that was ignored at the GOP national convention in Houston.
Other new faces, all Republicans, include Douglas Hoeft, Kane County regional school superintendent, in the 66th House District; Inverness attorney Peter Fitzgerald in the 27th Senate District, and Steven Rauschenberger, an Elgin furniture store owner, in the 33rd Senate District.
Republican incumbents, meanwhile, beat back their Democratic challengers. Sen. Marty Butler (R-Park Ridge), former Park Ridge mayor and a founder of the Suburban O`Hare Commission, handily defeated Democrat William Blaine in Butler`s first race in the 28th Senate District.
Butler`s victory over Blaine had been expected. Butler is a veteran of the noise wars at O`Hare International Airport, including the fight against new runways at O`Hare. Blaine, at one point in the campaign, endorsed a new runway, saying it would keep the region economically competitive.
Also re-elected were Reps. Kathleen Wojcik (R-Schaumburg), 45th; Terry Parke (R-Schaumburg), 53rd; and Bernard Pedersen (R-Palatine), 54th.
Rep. Dick Klemm (R-Crystal Lake) defeated a Democratic challenger and will move up to fill the 32nd Senate District seat of Jack Schaffer, assistant Senate minority leader, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the March primary.
And in a comeback victory, Republican political consultant and tax activist Cal Skinner, a Crystal Lake resident who served in the House from 1973 to 1981, will return to the lower chamber representing the 64th House District.
