Speaking to Capitol Connection, Deputy House Minority Leader Ryan Spain spoke about the latest tricks employed by Democrats in their last-minute election omnibus bill (SB 2412) that was rushed through the General Assembly last week.
The Democrats’ amendment to SB 2412 was filed and muscled through the House and Senate in 24 hours and favors self-serving political corruption over any semblance of transparency. In protest to the process and content of the measure, House Republican lawmakers stood united in voting “present” on the bill. Following that vote, House Republican Leader Tony McCombie and the Republican caucus held a press conference to reiterate that House Republicans will not play the political games House Democrats are prioritizing this spring.
Senate Bill 2412, which many have dubbed the “Katie Stuart Protection Act,” ends the longstanding practice of allowing local party organizations to appoint candidates to the ballot for the general election in uncontested legislative races. This slating process also requires a candidate to collect and file signed petitions by registered voters within the respective district.
Rep. Stuart, a Metro East Democrat, faced no opposition coming out of the March primary until local Republicans slated a Republican candidate and filed the required petition signatures with the Illinois State Board of Elections hours before final passage of SB 2412.
The measure also places three meaningless non-binding questions, the maximum allowed by law to prevent any other citizen driven initiatives, on the ballot to drive Democrat voters to the polls.
Governor JB Pritzker signed the measure only hours after telling reporters he had not seen all the details of the measure. The Governor signed the bill into law almost immediately following Senate concurrence with the House amendments.
Deputy Leader Ryan Spain denounced the Democrats’ political games.
“The Democratic Majority has the ability to put real questions on the ballot, such as Fair Maps and critically needed Ethics Reform; but today they chose to play games. It’s disingenuous. They are disenfranchising voters and suppressing competition: what this bill intended. In short, this initiative prevents choice and competition in our elections. The rules shouldn’t be changing in the middle of the election cycle,” said Rep. Spain.
“The losers in all of this are the voters and the people of Illinois who deserve checks and balances and they deserve elections that are actually competitive,” Spain added.