Last July, 10 Republicans in the Illinois House broke with their party and voted with Democrats to increase the state income tax.
It was a defeat for Gov. Bruce Rauner, but inevitable. Most of those 10 Republicans were downstaters whose districts are home to state universities and prisons. Two years without a state budget was killing them politically, so they swallowed the tax hike to end the stalemate. Rauner never understood the pressure they were under.
House Minority Leader Jim Durkin did understand, though he worked to keep his party’s caucus united against the tax hike. It just wasn’t to be.
Now Durkin has drawn a challenger in this Republican primary, Burr Ridge Mayor Mickey Straub, who is hammering Durkin for failing to block the tax hike and helping to kill a bill to ban “right-to-work” zones by local government. Durkin is under fire, that is to say, from the anti-tax right and the pro-union left. Go figure.
Truth is, the cordial Durkin is a by-the-numbers conservative, and an easy fit for Republican voters in this suburb district. We endorse him.
When Republican Illinois House Leader Jim Durkin visited the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board on Feb. 2, we asked him about running for re-election in the 82nd District. Watch Durkin’s response:
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