House race has plenty of both

Even Avery Bourne doesn’t believe what the GOP has said about her opponent Mike Mathis in the 95 th House District race.

“Mike Mathis chaired a political group that helped bankroll a politician guilty of child pornography,” blared a mailer sent to voters last month by the Republican Party, as opposed to the candidate herself. It was part of an effort by the GOP to cast Democrats as enablers of child pornography and pedophilia, based on the fact that former Rep. Keith Farnham, D-Elgin, pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in 2014 after kiddie porn was found on his state computer.

So far as anyone knows, Farnham kept his predilections to himself until federal agents, armed with search warrants, exposed his online activities. But, to read the mailers, you’d think that Democrats held fundraisers, eyes wide open, for the North American Man Boy Love Association. Bourne herself acknowledged the absurdity after an October debate with Mathis at the State Journal-Register when asked whether she believes her opponent supports pedophilia.

“Do you think your opponent agrees with pedophilia – do you think your opponent knowingly supported somebody who was a pedophile?” I asked. “Do you think he’s in favor of pedophilia?” Bourne didn’t initially respond, then ducked the question.

“Like I said, our campaign’s focused on the positive issues that we’re focusing on…” Bourne began. I interjected.

“It was a yes-or-no question – do you think that your opponent supports pedophilia?” “No,” Bourne responded. “OK, then why are you countenancing those sorts of ads in your campaign?” I asked.

“So, like I mentioned, our race is focused on positive issues, how we can fix…” began Bourne, sounding a bit like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, at a presidential primary debate, when he couldn’t budge from a stump speech even while getting lambasted for not budging from a stump speech. Pressed for an answer, Bourne ultimately allowed that smears go with the territory.

“My opponent’s been in office for 37 years,” Bourne said. “He knows that there are attacks in this business.”

It was a less-than-refreshing take on a race that has largely devolved into a battle of accusations as the candidates hurl insults via airwaves and mailboxes. Besides being a supporter of child pornography, Mathis, a former Gillespie mayor and alderman who is chairman of the Macoupin County Democratic Party and was Macoupin County Circuit Clerk for 20 years before resigning this year to run for the House, is painted by Bourne and the GOP as a career politician and political hack.

Mathis and the Democrats have responded by pointing out that Bourne has missed more than 100 votes since being appointed last year to fill the seat of Wayne Rosenthal, who resigned from the General Assembly to become director of the state Department of Natural Resources. Bourne and Republicans have bristled at charges that the incumbent favors cuts in Medicare and Social Security, pointing out that these are federal programs and so out of reach of the General Assembly.

Bourne was a surprise pick for the job, her first-ever political post – at 22 when she took the oath of office in 2015, she is believed to be the youngest legislator in state history. She was installed with support from Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into her campaign via donations to the Republican Party, which then disperses money to legislative candidates who are painting Mathis and other Democrats as toadies of Speaker Michael Madigan, arguably the only politician in Illinois less popular than the governor. On the stump, Bourne, who was a law student before becoming a legislator, touts her family’s farming roots in central Illinois and Christian values that include a right-to-life viewpoint.

That shouldn’t be surprising, given the conservative bent of the 95 th District south of Sangamon County that is overwhelmingly rural – Rauner beat Pat Quinn by 29 percentage points in the district two years ago. But Democrats apparently see a chance, and so the party has been helping Mathis, albeit not as much as the GOP has been helping Bourne, whose campaign has been flooded with more than $1.8 million that includes more than $1.5 million from the Republican Party and political committees headed by party leaders. Mathis, who says that he’s running a grassroots campaign, has raised more than $686,000 as of Nov. 1, with more than $250,000 coming from the Democratic Party or political committees headed by party leaders. With the Illinois Association of Realtors and an Illinois Network of Charter Schools political committee kicking in nearly $120,000 in independent expenditures for mailers, radio spots and a phone bank to help Bourne, the tab for the race has surpassed $2.6 million, or roughly $24 for every person who lives in the district.

“This is a district where you wouldn’t expect the kind of spending that you’re seeing,” says Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of political science at University of Illinois Springfield. “There’ll be a dozen, easily, races where you’re going to spend more money than this. But it’s a lot of money for this district. Part of it is, the Republicans have a lot of money.”

The GOP needs to turn out its base to win, Redfield said, and the money being spent is an effort to do exactly that. And there’s more at stake than just the 95 th House District. If the Republicans lose, that would send a signal that Rauner’s money isn’t universally effective and GOP legislators faced with tough votes can’t be assured that they’ll be protected, he said.

“It’s bad for his (Rauner’s) brand,” Redfield said.

Bourne hasn’t responded to at least four requests for an interview. In two interviews with Illinois Times, Mathis said that his district needs jobs and that he’s against raising taxes, but he had few specific suggestions on how to balance a state budget that is billions of dollars out of whack. He said he can’t win the money race, and so he’s counting on doorbelling to put him over the top. And he said that Bourne, not anyone else, is responsible for mud slung in his direction.

“I would never have allowed that, myself,” Mathis said. “I chose the high road, myself, and she’s chosen whatever they’re going to put out there. I have never attacked her character. What she tried to do is wrong.”

Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].