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Happy Tuesday, Illinois. Tip your hat to suburban voters who will push past the cold and pandemic fatigue today to head to the polls.
TOP TALKER
Michael Madigan s exit as chairman of the state Democratic Party a move that two days ago he said he wasn’t ready to make is creating some chaos within the party.
Photo courtesy pbs.org In 2019 Pacione-Zayas was featured on a PBS program speaking about how the well-being of children reflects a community s overall well-being. State Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas is on a mission to change the status quo of education in Illinois. My objective was to be a disrupter, Pacione-Zayas said of her time working for the Illinois State Board of Education. I knew that people may not agree with me, but if I anchored my disruption in research and data it would move the conversation away from rubber-stamp, business as usual. The newly appointed legislator is 42 years old. But she s already steeped in experience addressing education and equity.
Tracy and his family members own Dot Foods based in Mt. Sterling, Ill.
Tracy becomes the first downstate GOP chair since Don Doc Adams in 1988.
SPRINGFIELD Springfield attorney and businessman Don Tracy, the former head of the Illinois Gaming Board, was elected chairman of the Illinois Republican Party on Saturday.
Tracy, 70, will fill out the remaining two years of Tim Schneider’s four-year term. The 65-year-old Schneider of Bartlett had been chairman since 2014, taking over for Jack Dorgan.
Tracy beat out Mark Shaw, the Lake County Republican Party chairman and president of the Republican County Chairmen s Association of Illinois, and Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder.
Rich Hein/Sun-Times; Provided
North Side Democrats promised no backroom dealing in appointing a successor to former state Sen. Heather Steans, vowing the process would be open and transparent.
But state Rep. Kelly Cassidy said Monday that wasn’t the case and her decision to not engage in those dealings may have been a key reason why she lost the chance to win the appointment herself.
“I think that what it says is that we’ve got a long way to go to fix the culture, and get people accustomed to doing things in a truly open manner,” Cassidy said. “A deal that is supposedly high-minded is still a backroom deal.”