Working for Illinois Caucus

As the chair of the Ethics & Elections Committee in Springfield, I’m proud to be sponsoring an initiative to adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in presidential primaries in Illinois to ensure that no votes go to waste and that we elect better and more prepared candidates for the general election.

In the last competitive Illinois presidential primary a shocking number of votes were wasted: over 70,000 by Democrats and 30,000 by Republicans.

This is because state primaries take place over months, and during that time people are voting early or absentee for candidates that sometimes drop out before primary day or don’t receive enough votes in other states to be viable by the time our primary happens.

RCV prevents wasted votes because voters rank the candidates in order of their preference. If their first choice candidate drops out, the voter’s second choice will get their vote, and so on.

Therefore, the winner of an RCV election has the support of a larger and more diverse coalition of voters because they pick up second and third choice votes in order to win. This larger coalition of support means that winning candidates are more “battle tested,” having talked to more voters on the ground and through their campaigns.

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Both sides of the aisle want to put up their best candidate to be president, and RCV is a better system to ensure each party has a strong nominee.

Better yet, RCV is already a proven solution. Three red states and one blue state use RCV in their Democratic presidential primaries: Alaska, Kansas, Wyoming and Hawaii. In all four states’ primaries in 2020, voters showed a high level of understanding of the RCV ballots with no significant errors, showing that voters can easily adapt to the ranking system.

In addition, 98% of voters in these four states saw their vote contribute to a candidate winning delegates, compared to just 88% in single-choice primary states like Illinois.

This means that under RCV, the winning candidate has more buy-in from more people, making them a stronger nominee going forward.

Because winning RCV candidates need more buy-in to win (i.e. they need to earn not only first-choice votes, but also second- and third-choice votes) this has the extraordinary potential to reduce the toxic politics on both sides of the aisle. Indeed, RCV candidates do better when they run more positive campaigns that focus on the issues that matter most to voters.

Imagine fewer divisive campaigns, fewer personal attacks and less infighting. Imagine more campaigns that are focused on ideas, problem solving and solutions.

It may sound too good to be true, but when winning a campaign means winning support from a broader coalition of voters instead of simply inspiring fear or disgust, the future really does look brighter.

State Rep. Maurice West II, D-Rockford, represents Illinois’ 67th House District, an area that encompasses much of west and south Rockford, Cherry Valley and parts of Loves Park and Machesney Park.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Ranked Choice Voting means better candidates, politics

Healthcare was topic one, two and three at a Monday legislative luncheon featuring Republican State Senator Sue Rezin and Democratic State Representative Lance Yednock. The event was coordinated by the Illinois Valley Area Chamber. And, the anxious business people in the audience first wanted to know what’s going on with the endangered St. Margaret’s Health. Rezin made it clear what she and Yednock are trying to do.

Rezin noted that the Peru hospital is the very first facility in the nation to be granted status as a Rural Emergency Hospital, which allows it to be reimbursed by Medicaid at a higher rate. She also pointed out that state law at first didn’t allow two hospitals to operate under one license across county lines, as in the case of the Spring Valley and Peru facilities. Together, Rezin and Yednock got that corrected. But emergency funding has to come from a new state budget, which doesn’t exist yet. Yednock says he’s been focused hard on this issue non-stop since the two lawmakers first learned of the mess a few months ago.

Yednock made clear he doesn’t want to promise something that he may not be able to deliver, but he said he believes we’ll have a healthcare system up and running here – quote – “soon enough.” He and Rezin both cautioned, though, that we may be in for a tough couple of months.

Aside from healthcare, the lawmakers said other big issues on their plates are better access to affordable child care, as well as good, clean, reliable energy. They say all these issues, especially healthcare and child care, are top-of-mind when businesses consider moving to an area.

GRANITE CITY, Ill. (KMOV) – A bill giving a sanitary district the power to increase benefits for its commissioners is drawing criticism from lawmakers in the same district.

As of Friday, a bill awaiting the signature of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker would give commissioners with the Metro East Sanitary District the ability to offer part-time commissioners full-time benefits.

State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D) and Sen. Chris Belt (D) are sponsoring the bill. MESD is in both lawmakers’ districts. During a Senate hearing, Sen. Belt said the bill allows MESD to handle the matter internally, and it would put the district on par with other districts in the state.

Metro East Republican Senators Erica Harriss and Jason Plummer voted against the bill.

“That’s not something many regular citizens are afforded,” Harriss told News 4. “Do we want to allow part-time commissioners, who are meeting one meeting a month to be able to–not only just receive health benefits, but vote themselves health benefits. This bill affected a small area of the state, and we have people from all over the state–Chicago senators are voting to put this burden on our Madison- and St. Clair-area Metro East taxpayers. I absolutely feel like bigger priorities are being ignored with this legislation. People in our area are, absolutely, having flooding issues.”

MESD is headquartered in Granite City. It operates and maintains miles of levees, sewers and stormwater pump stations. Just last month, the executive director of MESD attended a press conference in Cahokia Heights asking for more funding from local, state and federal officials to alleviate flooding issues.

Pritzker’s office told News 4 the governor will review the bill but didn’t state if he would sign it before the end of the session.

Rep. Hoffman, Sen. Belt and MESD didn’t get back to News 4 with a comment as of Friday afternoon.

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ROCKFORD  — Illinois Back to Business grant program application is open providing funding to small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Local business owners were given the opportunity to learn more about the grant and the application process during an informational forum hosted by Positive Reflections Community Outreach.

“Things like this help not only new business owners but existing business owners or entrepreneurs to grow and prosper,” said Yolanda Nikki Green, Owner of Grace Wood Estates and Property.

The Illinois Back To Business (B2B) grant program consists of $175 million allocated between eligible businesses. 

$75 million for hotels, $50 million for restaurants, and another $50 million for business in creative arts according to State Representative Maurice West. 

Representative West wants to see every penny go to a business in need. 

“We need to make sure that no stone is left unturned, and no money is left coming back to the state. This money is truly meant to help our sectors come back to life and get back to a place where they can provide great services for our community,” said Representative West.

“It will give us better leverage as far as tools that we need to keep moving,” Shawna Young, Owner of Dust and Clean added. 

According to Representative West businesses that previously received COVID relief of $10,000 or more will not be eligible for the grant. 

Applications for the Back to Business (B2B) grant program opened on April 5th and will close on May 10th and can be found here.