Will State Parties Help in the 69th?

January 24th, 2008 at 02:42pm Aaron Chambers

State party support can make a huge difference in a local legislative race. The state party can send the dollars a candidate needs to buy advertising and the foot soldiers a candidate needs to build an organization.

But there’s also a certain stigma attached to state party support, particularly in the minds of independent voters. They want their local legislator to walk in lockstep with their own values, not with party leaders. A candidate who accepts state party support, and who goes on to win the election, certainly is under pressure to vote with party leadership — at least when it really counts.

Whether and to what extent the Democratic and Republican parties get involved in the race to represent the 69th legislative district, which includes a slice of east Rockford and all of Boone County, certainly will affect the outcome of the race. The district leans Republican. But when Democrat Greg Tuite challenged incumbent Republican Rep. Ron Wait in 2006, he came within just a few points of winning.

Tuite, of Rockford, did not enjoy support from the Illinois Democratic Party in that race. In the summer before the 2006 election, he played down the influence of state party dollars. From the Register Star:

(Tuite) said he is not expecting financial support from the Illinois Democratic Party, and that he got only a few donations from Chicago folks.

“It’s all Rockford people and Belvidere people,” he said, “who feel that they’ve been ignored and underserved.”

But after losing the election, he changed his tone. Also from the Register Star:

Rockford’s Greg Tuite came so close to ousting Belvidere’s Ron Wait, a 22-year incumbent, from the Illinois House.

Tuite was 1,383 votes — 3.5 percentage points — from beating Wait. That’s so close that Tuite on Wednesday was wondering, “What if the Illinois Democratic Party had put dollars behind my campaign?”

House Speaker Michael Madigan controls the Illinois Democratic Party. Madigan opted during the 2006 election to play defense and focus on keeping seats in the House rather than play offense and attempt to gain additional seats. He focused state party dollars on defending incumbents like downstate Rep. Kurt Granberg from GOP attacks.

Tuite wondered whether those dollars would have made a difference in his race:

“If I could have gotten some of that Granberg money — the money that was put into some of those other races — in my race, there might have been a different result,” Tuite said.

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown responded to Tuite at the time:

“I know we were aware of his candidacy. He was a quality candidate. But there is a limited amount of resources, and you’ve got to defend incumbents for starters. So we did.”

Tuite is challenging Wait, of Belvidere, again in this election. On Wednesday, I asked him whether he expected support from Madigan this time around.

“We’ll see,” he said. “I’m not gonna bank on it. You know, my opponent, he had state party support from his party last time. And obviously if that happens again, I would welcome state party support on our side. But I’m going to proceed as if it’s not going to happen.”

Tuite continued, “Obviously, if the Republican Party comes in and dumps a couple hundred thousand dollars into the race, I would appreciate if the Democratic Party would do the same.”

Wait enjoyed support from House GOP Leader Tom Cross’ organization in 2006. I asked him whether he expected the same support — money and staff — this time around.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “Usually, they’re here to help incumbents and stuff like that. The question is, Madigan probably will send somebody up to help my opponent this year. So I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see that happen. That usually happens.”

Entry Filed under: Ron Wait, Greg Tuite, Illinois politics