By Mark Rhoads
The real reason Speaker Mike Madigan wants to move the 2008 Illinois primary election from March to early February has nothing to do whatever with helping Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign or helping Illinois get more leverage in the national Democratic and Republican presidential nominating process.
Madigan is a student of Illinois history. His real motive is the same as the motive of state lawmakers 38 years ago in 1969 when Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses of the General Assembly made a cross-party deal to move the primary from early June to the middle of March. The real reason pure and simple was to protect all incumbents in both parties from primary challenges. The strategy mostly worked in the March 1970 primary and Madigan is now looking for Republican allies to go along because he figures it can work again. To find out how, set your time machine controls to Springfield in 1969 and keep reading below.
In 1969, Democratic state legislators were worried that many independent Democrats backed by the League of Women Voters members would get elected to the special Constitutional Convention and would develop their own political power base since they were elected from exactly the same legislative districts as the incumbents were. The disadvantage to incumbents of using the same districts was not something the party leaders had clearly anticipated. Republican incumbents were also worried that conservative Republicans would challenge incumbents who had voted for the first Illinois income tax that Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie pushed through the assembly in the spring of 1969.
The solution was to make the 1970 primary as hard as possible on the Constitutional Convention delegates by moving up the filing to early December when the convention was still in session and doing its work. The strategy only partially worked but it still helped incumbents. Some independent con con delegates did win March 1970 primaries for the assembly but others were discouraged from running just because they ran out of time in the fall of 1969 and could not organize campaigns.
The first reaction of voters to March was negative. 1970 was not a presidential election year so national convention delegates were not an issue. Former Speaker of the Illinois House Ralph Tyler Smith had been appointed by Gov. Ogilvie to the seat of Sen. Everett M. Dirksen who died in October 1969. Sen. Smith faced a GOP primary challenge from businessman William Rentschler and Smith's loyalty to Ogilvie became an issue as voters were filling out their first state income tax forms in the fall.
For about 20 years from 1944 to 1964, Illinois primary elections were held in April. For two glorious election cycles in 1966 and 1968, the primaries were held in early June. The June primary was very popular with the voters but then as now party leaders claimed that the June primary of 1968 was too late to give Illinois influence on the presidential nomination. Also leaders in both parties got complaints from incumbents that too many incumbents were losing to challengers or had a more difficult time because of the later primary in June.
Early primaries usually benefit incumbents and professional office holders. An early February primary for 2008 would almost surely move the time for circulating nominating petitions by six weeks back into September and October of the previous year, that is THIS year, 2007. If the Madigan plan becomes law, any non-incumbent challenger for Congress or the General Assembly would have to start their campaign only seven to eight months from now for a filing date in October 2007 for a primary in February 2008 for a general election in November 2008 to take office in January 2009. The time and money of demands from such a long campaign cycle are an added burden on new independent candidates. The Madigan plan promotes a virtually perpetual campaign and election cycle that never stops and greatly benefits incumbents and hampers new candidates. By putting a filing date in October 2007, the window for new candidates to file will be safely in the past before many challengers even think about running or raising money.
Madigan might face some resistance from the Democratic National Committee rules that have discouraged states from starting the nominating process before New Year's Day of 2008. To get around this, he will most likely want to move the filing of delegate papers only to an absurd early date in January that would give county clerks and election administrators only four weeks to certify ballot names for delegates.
Too many gullible newspaper editorial writers in Illinois have already been fooled into supporting the Madigan early primary scam because they think it will help Illinois in national party influcence in both parties. Nonsense. The February primary idea is not about national politics, it is as always about protecting incumbents in local and state politics.
