Republicans who gained ground in the Illinois General Assembly two years ago with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s financial assistance have a tougher go of it this year.

 

Rauner and his top backers showered more than $40 million on legislative races in 2016. Against a legislative district map drawn by Democrats, the GOP picked up two seats in the Senate and four in the House, where they eliminated powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan’s veto-proof majority.

 

But things have changed. Madigan didn’t need that supermajority in summer 2017 to override Rauner’s veto of a tax increase and budget deal to end a record-breaking two-year state financial stalemate. A year later, Rauner’s too preoccupied with keeping the governor’s office to divert attention to the Legislature, where the Democratic Party apparatus can spread out more money because it doesn’t have to finance the campaign of its standard-bearer, billionaire gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker.

 

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