There's a bit of good news in the Illinois results despite Dem loss of the Governor's office. It appears that democrats will continue to hold onto supermajorities in both the state house as well as the state senate.
More below the orange doily.
Quinn came to the governor's office on the tail of the Blagojavich scandal, during the Great Recession and after decades of irresponsible fiscal management by state government. I suppose sooner or later, voter memory fails and the office holder is such a situation doesn't get the break she or he might deserve for that context. We are sorry to lose him but I hope Rauner will be kept in check.
The Sun-Times reports:
Democrats had won 59 seats in the House and were leading in 12 other races, according to vote tallies early Wednesday by the Associated Press. If those trends continued, House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, would retain the 71 Democratic seats he needs to override any veto that Rauner might make of legislation sent to the governor's desk.
Should Madigan lose one of those seats, he'd lose the veto-proof margin, as a three-fifths supermajority is required in both chambers to override a governor's veto.
Republicans were on pace to pick up two seats in the Senate, but that still would leave Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, with a veto-proof majority in his chamber, too. If the trend held, there would be 38 Democratic state senators — two more than 36 needed to give Cullerton the veto-proof margin.
A
Right to Vote amendment was approved by voters handily:
I read this amendment as an attempt to further inoculate the state voting laws against the voter suppression that is sweeping the country. How well it works or when it might be invoked in the courts, I can't say.
Advisory measures on the ballot are non-binding but the roughly 2:1 ratio showing people support them is going to make it even that much harder for a Republican governor to veto:
* Minimum Wage Increase Question - Advises the legislature to increase the state's hourly minimum wage to $10
* Healthcare - Advises the legislature to require prescription birth control to be covered in prescription drug coverage health insurance plans
* Millionaire Tax Increase for Education Question - Advises the legislature to increase the tax on income greater than one million dollars to provide additional revenue to schools