Scherer and Bell attack about nothing much
In politics, no molehill is too small to be made into a mountain.
The race to represent Illinois’ 96 th House District pits incumbent Rep. Sue Scherer, a Democrat from Decatur, against Republican challenger Mike Bell of Edinburg. Attack ads are flying from both sides in the district, mostly making much ado about nothing.
The 96 th House District covers much of Springfield’s east side, most of Decatur, and the area in between. Scherer, a former elementary school teacher, is finishing her first two-year term as state representative. Bell is a retired teacher, too, though he taught inmates in the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Scherer’s campaign has been heavily subsidized by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s Democratic Majority political action committee. The PAC funds most of Scherer’s direct mail advertisements, and her reliance on Madigan has made her an easy target for Republicans.
Bell and the Illinois Republican Party have run a handful of TV ads attacking Scherer, and more are to be released soon. The ads often focus on Scherer’s connection to Madigan, whose approval rating statewide is just 20 percent, according to a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll from April. The Republican ads highlight two of Scherer’s votes in office, saying she voted to raise her own legislative salary and voted for a new school in Madigan’s district, “while our children got zero.”
The vote on a school for Madigan’s district was actually the Budget Implementation Act for the state’s 2015 fiscal year. The legislation contained funding for numerous projects around the state, so while the Republican ad is technically true, it ignores that voting against the bill would have meant voting against pork projects in dozens of districts – including the 96 th House District – and against implementing the state budget. Scherer says her vote helped fund Illinois National Guard facilities, libraries and several other facilities and projects in her district and around the state, as well as back pay the state owed employees.
As proof of Scherer raising legislative salaries, the Republican ad cites Scherer’s vote on a measure that eliminated 12 unpaid furlough days annually that lawmakers instituted five years ago in solidarity with state workers who were being asked to take off work several days without pay. Without the 12 unpaid furlough days, lawmaker compensation bumps up $3,100, back to its former $67,836 per year.
Meanwhile, Democratic mailers on behalf of Scherer use the same vote to claim she cut legislative salaries. Scherer says that’s because the measure rejected automatic cost of living increases.
Mailers sent by the state Democrats for Scherer attack Bell with a claim that he raised his own pay while serving on the Edinburg Village Board and then voted to raise property taxes, implying the property tax increase paid for the raise. Bell says he did vote for the pay increase, but it was only to increase monthly pay for board members from $60 to $70. He says the property tax increase had nothing to do with the raise because the board already had money in reserve for the raise.
“She called it a 20 percent raise at one point, but it wasn’t,” Bell said. “I’ve got to wonder, how’s her math on state business?” The $10 increase amounts to 16.6 percent. Most of the Democratic mailers on behalf of Scherer are over the top, using sensational imagery and attributing decisions to her that were made before she even took office.
One ad features a wolf’s head on a man’s body near a child and proclaims “We don’t always know who’s near our children.” Another ad says Scherer “has consistently opposed the income tax increase.” The increase took effect in January 2011, but Scherer didn’t take office until January 2013. Additionally, it was Scherer’s own political patron, Speaker Madigan, who engineered the passage of the income tax increase in the House.
Bell laughs as he recalls another ad by the state Democrats calling him a “career politician.”
“I’ve been on the village board and the school board,” he said. “The school board doesn’t even pay anything.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.
