By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Most of the actors have changed recently, but it looks like the same movie to Illinois Republicans.
After a brief meeting with the governor and the four legislative leaders, the first in person in 2021, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) is already down on the process with more than a month to go in the session.
“I have been here a few times,” Durkin told reporters, “and what i do know is that when you are excluded from the table – or not invited to the table – there is a certain level of pessimism that goes along with it. So, despite the gleeful rhetoric that I am hearing from Democrats and the governor about ‘Republicans need to be at the table,’ you’ve got to be invited first. And we have not been invited to the table on any significant issue.”
In his first year as Senate minority leader, Dan McConchie (R-Hawthorn Woods) is also disappointed.
“I thought most revealing was the fact that when I asked the governor and the Democrat legislative leaders what they were interested in working on on a bipartisan basis,” said McConchie, “the only thing that was brought up was us supporting their current ethics proposal, and nothing else was really brought up.”
Democrats did not comment. The Republicans said no date has been set for future talks, other than Gov. JB Pritzker wants to meet more regularly.
McConchie and House Speaker Chris Welch (D-Hillside) are in their first years, the Senate President, Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) his second, and the governor his third. But Durkin said the majority party’s dance steps go back years.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]
