Eye On Illinois: All voters would benefit from more quality candidates on general election ballot

Numbers tell a story, but rarely without help.

Speaking at Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, noted that in the 2022 general election, Republicans got more votes in House races than Democrats but won only 40 of 118 seats.

That cycle 104 GOP candidates collected 1,943,438 votes – an average of 18,686.9. The 92 Democratic candidates garnered 1,872,947 votes. That total is indeed 70,491 fewer than Republicans, but it also means Democratic candidates averaged 20,358.12 votes.

“It’s because of the maps,” said McCombie, who collected 37,363 votes in an unopposed campaign. Many people (myself included) have long advocated for taking the map drawing away from elected officials. But would that alone shift the General Assembly balance?

All 59 Senate districts were contested in 2022, as they are every 10 years. The Democrats ran 45 candidates who collected 1,859,360 votes; 39 GOP candidates drew 1,729,938. So the Democrats won the overall total by 129,422, but on average, the Republicans got 44,357 votes while the Democrats only 41,319.

Summing all legislative districts, 137 Democrats outpaced 143 Republicans both in total votes (by 58,931) and per capita (the average Democratic candidate got 27,243 votes, the average Republican 25,688).

On the same ballot, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth won her second term with 628,081 more votes than Kathy Salvi, now chairing the state GOP. Gov. JB Pritzker beat challenger Darren Bailey by 514,653. Including the four other statewide offices, the average gap was 519,933.

There are Democrats in the 70th District of state Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore. Some probably contributed to his 33,748 votes in an unopposed election. But for purposes of this analysis, Keicher’s sweep isn’t as informative as the totals in the 69th and 71st districts. Both had higher vote totals, both races went to the Republican (Joe Sosnowski of Rockford and Daniel Swanson of Alpha) but the losing Democrats collected almost 30,000 of their own votes.

McCombie’s contention about the maps, perhaps too narrow to explain one outcome, remains useful as part of a larger conversation. All these numbers ignore both the entire primary cycle and any votes attributed to other parties. But when Democrats create districts that lean so heavily red they don’t even consider running their own candidate it dilutes the voting power of their own constituents in order to do the same to the few Republicans who live in the deep blue regions.

I’d love to see at least two qualified candidates in every district. If better maps get more such people in the mix, we’ll all be better off. Party officials can work to give all their voters better choices, but that effort is meaningful only if it gets voters to the polls.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.