The partisan political winds that gusted strongly out of Chicago’s southland this winter, helping to warm Tuesday’s primary elections, look to be the harbinger of an even hotter campaign forecast for the fall.
Extensive primary campaign rhetoric surrounding the proposed south suburban airport near Peotone, for example, has helped rekindle bipartisan political interest in a controversial project that a year ago had lapsed into what can be described as a period of extended dormancy.
Now both Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, and the four Democratic contenders looking to break a decades-old GOP lock on the governor’s mansion, all support an airport plan to which the Federal Aviation Administration demands there be regional consensus.
The fall campaigns are certain to focus even more attention on an issue that has spanned the tenure of Gov. Jim Edgar, its chief sponsor.
That, coupled with full-bore efforts by Democrats and Republicans alike to increase or reclaim state House and Senate majorities through the south and southwest suburbs make for a hot political forecast.
The half-dozen legislative districts that cover the bulk of the politically volatile south and southwest suburbs are generally viewed as having been responsible for the power shift in the Illinois House from Democratic to Republican and back again over the past four years.
The area’s influence in the state’s political outlook has become even more pronounced this year with the proliferation of southern-based politicians seeking statewide office.
Tuesday’s primary ballot begins with Republicans Ryan, from Kankakee, and Senate hopeful Loleta Didrickson, formerly of Homewood, but also includes Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin, Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy and Calumet City Mayor Jerry Genova, who are seeking Democratic nominations for statewide office.
The 11th and 13th Congressional District are being closely watched for their national significance in November.
Running with the backing of retired U.S. Rep. George Sangmeister (D-Ill.), his mentor and law partner, Gary Mueller appears to be the odds-on favorite Tuesday to earn the right to be the Democratic nominee to take on U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.), the 11th District’s two-term incumbent.
Former steelworker Steve Barach, who operated his own specialty toy-making business in Beecher, has reprised his “Mr. Outsider” campaign of 1996 in a bid for the Democratic nomination.
A bellwether, the 11th District spans parts of five counties and stretches nearly 100 miles from the Illinois-Indiana border on the east to the LaSalle-Peru area on the west.
In the 13th District, which includes parts of northern Will County and far southwest Cook County, a pair of GOP state House members are locked in an expensive see-saw battle, along with four other lesser-known candidates, to succeed the retiring U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell (R-Ill.) as the Republican nominee to face unchallenged Democrat Susan Hynes of Naperville.
Leading the field of six Republicans vying for the GOP nomination are state Reps. Judy Biggert (R-Hinsdale) and Peter Roskam (R-Naperville).
Battles involving a pair incumbent freshmen, both Democrats who took their House districts away from the GOP column in 1996, provide two of the more interesting legislative primary clashes.
Both the GOP and Democratic primaries in the 79th District involve family feuds, party infighting and alleged turncoats.
While incumbent state Rep. Michael Giglio (D-Lansing) is challenged by Linda Slubowski, Thornton Township senior services director, the Republican primary pits his distant cousin Jim Giglio, of South Holland, against Gene Wojciechowski-Wolfe of Lansing.
In the 80th District, freshman incumbent George Scully (D-Flossmoor) is opposed by Michael Maynard of Crete, who attracted public attention when he was fired as a teacher at Bloom Township High School after officials learned that he had been convicted on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge in the 1970s. Shortly before Christmas, Gov. Jim Edgar pardoned Maynard.
An assortment of referendum proposals, including votes in Minooka, Robbins and Frankfort on whether to approve home-rule powers, also appear on Tuesday’s ballot in roughly a dozen southern jurisdictions.
The votes in Frankfort and Robbins are tied directly to proposals in those suburbs to create locally-run electric utility companies.
In addition to a $4.5 million bond issue in Beecher to underwrite the purchase of a local golf course, various school issues also are attracting voter interest.
Generating intense interest is a proposal by Lincoln-Way High School District 210 to issue $60 million in bonds to pay for additions to Lincoln-Way High School’s junior-senior campus in New Lenox and freshman-sophomore facility in Frankfort.
The school district is in one of the fastest growing areas of the county. Officials are asking voters to approve a 14-cent increase in the district’s property tax rate to pay for the bond issue. That amount could be reduced significantly, however, if the district is successful in getting a share of the state matching construction grants set aside under the financial reform legislation approved by the General Assembly.
If the referendum measure is approved, the district plans to add up to 50 classrooms at both the junior-senior and freshman-sophomore facilities and eventually turn the two campuses into separate, four-year high schools.
Other taxing bodies seeking bond approval or rate increases include Rich Township High School District 227, the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District, Hoover-Schrum Memorial School District 157 in Calumet City, the Frankfort Library District, Chaney-Monge School District 88 near Joliet and Coal City School District 1, which includes parts of Will and Grundy Counties.
