Have Democrats forgotten the people in the middle?

In the wake of Donald Trump’s national victory and his losing margin dropping to 11 points in Illinois from 17 in two prior races, state legislative Democrats have different views on how their party should proceed.

State Sen. Julie Morrison, D-Lake Forest, told my associate Isabel Miller last week that Illinois Democrats have “forgotten about the people in the middle.”

“I think we have done a lot of really good, progressive things,” Morrison said. “But sometimes I think we have the tendency to not think about the people in the middle.”

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, told Isabel that stepping back from progressive social issues is not on the table.

“There’s compromise, and then there’s erasing the existence of people,” Cassidy said.

The leaders at the top, however, have been talking about “Trump-proofing” Illinois since election day.

So, Isabel and I spent last week watching House Bill 5164′s progress in the Senate.

Commonly called the “name-change bill,” the legislation would cap the cost of name changes in the state, halve the state residency requirement to three months and allow certain people to ask that their name change be exempt from public disclosure. The bill passed the House 67-39 in April, but was never assigned to a Senate committee.

Why did it stall out in the Senate? Well, the bill includes several justifications for keeping the records out of the public eye, including that the person seeking the name change is transgender, has survived domestic or intimate partner abuse, or gender-based violence, or human trafficking, or conversion therapy, or is a refugee, or has been granted special immigrant status or asylum, etc.

The measure is supported by Equality Illinois, the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, among others.

Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune originally filed in opposition, as did the Illinois Press Association. Newspapers make money off public notices but they also stand on general principles of public disclosure with things like this, and they claimed that the legislation would get rid of the publishing requirement for everyone, not just these folks.

Somehow, despite all the hot buttons, the bill managed to mostly escape the outrage machine throughout the spring, summer and fall.

A large number of people, including at least some Democrats, believe that the party’s stance on transgender rights and immigration hurt them this year.

Other Democrats, including Gov. JB Pritzker, have strongly insisted that the party, now, cannot back away from supporting vulnerable populations simply because of partisan political considerations.

The bill was scheduled for its first Senate committee vote on Wednesday, Nov. 21. As Isabel reported at the time, the far-right Illinois Family Institute sent a blast e-mail to its followers ahead of the hearing claiming the legislation would “make it almost impossible to find illegal immigrants with a criminal history and/or those who have committed crimes while on American soil, for the purpose of deportation.”

The group also claimed that those who benefit from the legislation include, “Those who have committed rapes and murders who don’t want law enforcement to find them; A man who is pretending to be a woman and a woman who is pretending to be a man.”

Some Democrats waved off the claims as fearmongering falsehoods, and the bill passed the Senate Executive Committee on a partisan roll call, with nine Democrats voting for it and four Republicans opposed.

But when it came time for the full Senate to vote on the bill and send it to the governor, the chamber decided to set it aside.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ram Villivalam, claimed that he had the votes to pass the bill, regardless of Republican opposition and increasing pressure exerted by the IFI. He said some technical process issues were raised during the hearing and the decision was made to fix those before proceeding.

“It’s just making sure that on the administrative side, on the implementation side that each of the different entities that are involved are able to communicate with one another about these petitions,” Villivalam said.

Whatever the case, there was no “Trump-proofing” vote during veto session. That’ll have to wait until at least early January when the General Assembly returns for its lame duck session.

By then, the governor’s office hopes to have at least some additional bills for the legislature to work on.

• Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.