Political consultant weighs in on Illinois’ key Election Day races

All right. Welcome back to Good Day, Chicago. You're looking at the line. This is at the super site right here in downtown Chicago. You can see people are in line already. Our very own Saquon has been out there. People have been in this line pretty much throughout the course of this morning. We do want to remind folks, though, if you are going to vote tonight, don't forget that the polls close at seven. And if you are in that line and the line is still long and it's seven o'clock, they will still allow you to vote. And if you are coming into downtown, And that super site location is located at 137 South State Street, right in the heart of Chicago's loop. A couple of things to note, if you're not registered to vote just yet, no problem. Just bring two forms of ID with you. You can register on election day in the state of Illinois. Tia, what surprises me, we did see the polls opened at 6 AM and we saw quite a few people and I'm thinking, okay, all right. You know, people are getting in the vote before they go to work. I was assuming it would taper off. There would no longer be a line by 9 12 this morning, but that's what we're still seeing. I was thinking before work. Lunchtime after work, Cook County Clerk Monica Gordon said earlier she expects us to be on track to be 30% ahead voter turnout of the 2022 gubernatorial election for suburban Cook County. So we're already on track to see not necessarily a record turnout, but a higher than average turnout here in Cook County. Yeah, also good to hear some of the people that say I've talked to out there saying, you know, they're doing their research. They're looking into the candidates, which I think is very important as we look at some of the big issues, right, that are impacting us across the country, not just here in Illinois. Well, it is election day. That's no secret. And as you can see, voting is in full swing. We know people across Illinois will make their voices heard on key races and, of course, some tax measures out there. Tom Serafin is going to be joining us in just a moment. He's a political consultant. And, you know, right now in Illinois today, voters deciding on 17 congressional seats, It's 14 of those. And then the governor's race, also interesting, Tia, such a wide margin in spending here. Republican candidate Darren Bailey spent just over $2 million. Governor... Incumbent Governor J.B. Pritzker looking to win a third term, spent $44 million. $44 million. We know that those two have come face to face before. So this will be a very interesting race. Also very interesting in the city of Chicago. I got to get Tom's perspective on this. I could not believe there were six advisory questions. I couldn't either. You are going to spend some time in that ballot booth if you are voting in Chicago. And I'm just curious from Tom Serafin, who we have right there with us right now, our very own political consultant who's chiming in on some of these big races. Tom, we were just chatting about in Chicago, you know, maybe some folks will spend a little more time in that ballot box. And that's because of these six advisory questions. You know a lot about political history. Is this the first time we've ever had this many questions on a ballot? This is a lot of questions. No, no, it isn't. You're limited from what the legislature says you can put on a ballot advisory questions. So sometimes the legislature will load it up so that there's not enough room for the citizens to put their ballots on there. That's happened in the past. But these are advisories and we already know many of them, gunshot detection technology. The mayor is out there with someone, we don't know who it is right now, but But he's asking for permission from the voters. It's not binding. He doesn't have to do it, but it's just an obvious public relations game. That's the way they do it. Permitted festival for outdoor event space. They've been trying to do that for 40 years here in Chicago. That's a good idea. The other one is compensation for ICE operations, Operation Midway Blitz. They're looking for more money from the federal government to cover the cost that they had to incur in protecting the citizens on the street. And the other one I think is kind of interesting is the related questions of the Chicago School Board. But those are the top three I think are important. And there's a millionaire's tax question as well, which the voters voted down several years ago, which was the Pritzker millionaire's tax. It's on the ballot again, and it's also gonna be one of the hallmarks of the mayor's campaign. He's out for it, Alexi's for it. So that's another advisory issue. We know where the voters are on these issues. There's reasons why they put it on the ballot. It's all about politics. Well, and why though? Because if we know that Illinoisans voted down this graduated income tax right now, everyone in Illinois pays a flat income tax of 4.95%. So why? Why waste our time with this again and how can they use that to push their agenda in the future? Well, I think you have a lot of experience with Springfield, so you know the reasons why they do some of these things because they're filling the time clock. I mean, they're not doing the job based on what the people are asking. The people are asking for lower taxes on gasoline like Indiana did. The Republican candidate for governor is saying, if I get elected, I'll lower the taxes on gasoline, at least a temporary lower for six, seven, eight months. Well, that was something that people wanted for the summer, it wasn't gonna come. People are always, and there are a lot of kids here and parents in Chicago, they're looking for that voucher opportunity from the federal government. The governor hasn't weighed in on that issue, he's got until the end of the year to do that. There's a lot of good questions we could ask, but sometimes. The problem in politics is when you ask someone's opinion, then you know it, so that's the problem. Tom, I want you to weigh in on what some feel like is a rerun because we've seen these two go head to head before. And I'm talking about the incumbent governor, J.B. Pritzker and Darren Bailey. Obviously, big spending on the governor's side of this, the incumbent governor. But I want to get your perspective because there's been a lot of mudslinging in these campaigns. You've seen Pritzker go after Bailey using some of his own words against him saying he supports Trump. You've heard Bailey then go after Pritzker and say, Say, hey, what about taxes in the state of Illinois, which I think a lot of people would support, you know, saying, yeah, taxes are a problem. How do you think this could play out? I know traditionally people vote blue in the state of Illinois. How do you think this will play out? Well, people do vote blue in Illinois. And ironically, the big stronghold Republicans were up here in the corridor, the collar counties, the suburbs. And now that DuPage County is run by Democrats. It used to be that one of the great Republican counties in the country. People have just migrated farther and farther out. And they're having more and more of a difficult time finding Republican candidates. The Republican Party is decimated. It's rudderless, leaderless, unfortunately, for people in Illinois. So they go to other places or they decide to do other things. But the Democrats are absolutely in control. In fact, the Speaker of the House might even get a higher majority in the 80s, which is really unusual that he would have that kind of majority. I remember Speaker of the House Mike Madigan for four decades never wanted a super majority because when you have a super majority, then you can overrule everyone. And you could rule according to the way the voters rule, want to rule or way you want to rule. And so that puts you on the spot. So you don't wanna veto proof majority, but they're gonna get that again and more this time around. It certainly looks like the Democrats are. And you talk about referendums, it's kind of an interesting one downstate. I think it's a 13, 14 counties. They're voting to secede or to leave Illinois. The process is one of those advisory things. We wanna move it out of Illinois if we can. Now, if they move out of Illinois, if they decided they want to do that in this particular election, I think those 13 or 14, we already have a couple dozen that have done that in the past. We could have by tomorrow morning 44 counties out of 102 counties in Illinois who have requested to leave Illinois, leave the state of Illinois because there are no jobs, there's no opportunity, and the education is terrible. That's interesting. Mostly downstate, and the governor says it's a stunt. But for the people who are voting for that, it's not a stunt, it's their jobs, it's their livelihood. Yeah, and you paint just a rosy picture here for the state of Illinois, but you bring up a good point. I mean, the illustration of just how different the politics are. And when Tia asked, I mean, I'm sure that Bailey will do very well downstate versus here upstate. The history is interesting here in the state of Illinois because when you look at governors who have served three or four terms, there are only two others, and that is Governor Thompson and Governor Oglesby, both Republicans, and now, boy, the shoe is on the other foot. Tom, I want to talk about the 4th Congressional District because we don't just have two candidates, Republican versus Democrat. We have four, and this is the seat that's being vacated by Chuy Garcia. And some might say a very controversial way on one of the last days that you could file. He said, oh, guess what? I'm not running. But my chief of staff, Patty Garcia, no relation. She's running. You should support her. So looking at these candidates, like I said, we have the two big party candidates and then we have two third party candidates. How do you think this is going to shake out? Well, I did a forum with some reporters up in the West Suburban Chamber of Commerce a couple weeks ago. That was one of the races people were interested in, Lyons Township is in that area. How are you? That's also where Chris is the, I think he's the mayor or former mayor of Lyons Township, Lyons the city. Current mayor of Lyons, yes. Right, he's got a big following out there. And he's got a lot of workers and That part of the world used to be very strongly held by the folks that live out there. It's very hard to encroach those smaller towns in near western suburbs. So I see Chris Getty probably giving her a fight, but because of the Garcia campaign and the opportunity she's had with so much money in her campaign now, she sure looks like the favorite. But it's not out of the range of reality for Chris to pull an upset there. I wanted to talk to you about the Chicago Board of Education, you know, yeah, because they told us we don't have enough time, but talk about fireworks. I mean, of all races that you thought would be peaceful, it's like fireworks everywhere you turn. There's some type of fire that you got to put out and the ads are insane and some of the backstories insane, but they're telling us we got to wrap. What's your opinion in five seconds, Tom? In five seconds, we are creating a new bureaucracy, like we're creating a park district, we're creating a Cook County board, we're creating the city of Chicago bureaucracy. They're going to get $10 billion, and they're going to run the schools, and they have four-year terms. Our schools are desperately in need of reform. Better education for our children. We need those kids in this town to work for us, work for all of us, be part of our community. We need those schools taken care of right now. And we're building a bureaucracy, $10 billion. It's the biggest thing we've done as voters in the last 20 years in Chicago. Few people are paying attention. It's incredible. It is incredible. And to watch some of the stuff that's come out about the candidates, I hope people do their research as they head to the polls. Tom Serafin, it is always a pleasure. I wish we had more time. We could keep going on and on and on. Thank you so much. Thanks, Tom. Have a good day. Me too. I mean, but time will tell. Is a school board selected by the mayor of Chicago as it has been? For decades, for generally the tenure of the city, or is it better to be elected by the voters with each of them having certain union support? Yeah, it's so much at stake in this particular race, and I just hope people are really paying attention. That's what I will say. We will have you covered tonight. We're actually going to be at some of those locations watching those numbers come in for, I believe we're going to be at all three, if I'm not mistaken, but definitely Hilario And Jessica Biggs, for sure, we will be at those. You can watch the results as they come in live right here at your election headquarters on Fox Chicago. Our coverage starts at six. We've got more Good Day Chicago right after this break.