“The blue wave that washed over Illinois on Tuesday — and actually will likely add Democratic seats to the House — gives (Gov. JB) Pritzker and his party the political cover to argue the GOP blitzkrieg of negative TV ads and talking points have largely fallen on deaf ears, and voters agree the elimination of cash

According to Illinois PIRG, another dark cloud on the horizon is that gas utilities have not put as much in storage as in typical years. Utilities in the Midwest have 8% less gas in storage than they have on average over the past five years.

“Unfunded public pension obligations represent the largest liability for state and local governments in the United States,” Giesecke and Rauh point out. To give you some perspective, a $6 trillion pension fund deficit is twice the value of all the money that state and local governments owe on their municipal bonds. It is about 170% of their total annual revenues. And it is 10 times the amount they took in last year from personal (non-corporate) taxes.

“And the truth is Illinois is probably more of a 55-45 state for Democrats now, but they used the maps in a creative and aggressive way to lock in a very solid Democratic majority in the Illinois congressional delegation.”

Amendment 1, also called the Workers’ Rights Amendment, makes collective bargaining a constitutional right that can’t be legislated or contracted away. It goes further than any state ever has in barring right-to-work laws—and any other legislation that “interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”