By: Mark Glennon*
It’s fair game for state and local candidates to talk about national issues and for the media to cover what they say. Even if state and local officials don’t have direct influence on many national issues, they do indirectly as part of their movement and party. Moreover, knowing what candidates think about national issues is a useful angle to assess a candidate’s general philosophy.
But how about some balance? How about focusing on what most matters to voters? So far, in Illinois, this election year has been particularly unenlightening because so many of the national issues voters most care about are being ignored by most media campaign coverage.
Based on media coverage in Illinois over the past week, you’d think the overwhelmingly most important issue in Illinois elections is the recently leaked draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned.
Yes, it’s important. Extraordinarily important to some on both sides. And it’s no surprise that Democratic candidates for seemingly every level of office are anxious to talk about it. After all, it’s widely thought the result will help Democrats at the polls because most Americans are pro-choice.
Fair enough.
But why, suddenly, is that issue paramount when other national issues have all but been ignored? Why are Illinois candidates never asked about the national issues that polls consistently show are more important to voters?
Gallup, like many pollsters, has consistently found that abortion ranks very low on the list of issues important to voters. Not even one percent of Americans list it as most important, according to Gallup. Not much changed after the draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked. A recent Morning Consult/Politico poll found that “women’s issues, such as birth control, abortion, and equal pay” ranked fifth out of seven as a top issue. Even CNN says that “comparing the results of [its own new] new poll to one conducted immediately before the revelation of the draft opinion, the impact on the political landscape heading into the 2022 midterms appears fairly muted.”
President Biden will attend a Chicago fundraiser on Wednesday, and you can be sure that he, Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Lori Lightfoot will be pounding the table again about Roe v. Wade and the press will cover every word of it.
That’s fine, but if reporters get a chance to ask questions they should focus on what’s most important to voters. Today, if we are talking about national issues, that’s clearly inflation. A good question would be whether Pritzker and Lightfoot regret supporting the trillions in excessive federal spending masquerading as pandemic relief that unquestionably helped stoke inflation. That would not be a partisan attack, by the way, since many Republicans in Congress voted for much of the federal largesse.
It’s unrealistic to expect that or to think the press will change its ways, but voters can take matters into their own hands. As you meet candidates over the coming months, ask about what’s important to you and not what they or anybody else try to tell you is important.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
What politics has digressed into nationally or locally, left or right, is pumping up the social media RAGE machine on fb,tweeter, google-you tube, etc and then sitting back and gauging the result instantly. The general public gobbles it up and has the attention spam of a flea, heavy duty RAGE posters are in reality only approx 6% of social media posters, the hidden algorithms promote RAGE posting (it will be interesting to see what Musk does with tweeter? he promised to release to algorithms). Even alzheimer’s Joe at 80+ gets it. But trump was a master of the RAGE post/… Read more »
Most politicians, Republicans. Democrats, Independents, Write-Ins, it makes no difference, are only going to tell you what you want to hear to get your vote. They do not tell the truth and when they tell you they do tell the truth, please don’t believe them. Most politicians stretch the truth to get elected, especially in Illinois. Some start out with good intentions but they get sucked into the machine really fast. Too bad for the rest of us.
A Republican candidate who declarers pro-life is not going to be able to force JB into the uncomfortable nuances of the Democrats current stance on abortion. If that Republican comes out and declares pro-choice, he can limit the parameters (first trimester only, rape/incest caveats, etc) that most people seem to agree on, which would force JB into a very uncomfortable conversation. Of course, this will alienate the base, but they probably hate JB enough to vote for anyone else anyway. Remember, the suburbs are the key. Force JB to defend late-term abortion. Force JB to defend comparisons between Illinois and… Read more »
JB doesn’t need to defend anything, he’ll defend late term abortion without any shame. Health care he’ll call it. The goal of this election isn’t to change hearts and minds – it’s to depress turnout of the enemy, Democrats, and increase turnout for our side, Republicans, and hope that enough independents show up to support our side too (national polls show they disapprove Biden 70% to 30% approve) so hopefully they’ll show up and check the box. I think all of these guys are good candidates. They are. But they dont’ need to convince me, they need to convince my… Read more »
The point is to force JB from lumping every abortion scenario under “health care.” Back him into a corner.
If you run against JB as pro-life, he’s simply going to fall back to “health care” and there will be no way to counter him because you’ll be the “no health care” guy. You gotta be like “I’m kind of in agreement but not an extremist like you.” Force JB into radical mode.
Mark, you make an excellent point. However, you should take it even further. The left wing main stream media, especially locally, just refuse to cover issues problematic to Democrats. With crime skyrocketing in Chicago and many other parts of IL; inflation, gas and other energy prices at 8% increases or much more, only 15 % of minorities at CPS and in public schools in many other IL inner cities reading at grade level, and property taxes in IL the 2nd highest in the country, the biggest issue for reporters covering the IL Gov race and Chicago Mayoral race is abortion?… Read more »
I believe that it is important, indeed very important, to know how candidates stand on those issues which most impact Illinoisans. But if, as expected, Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion becomes an issue for each state to decide, then it is imperative that we find out each candidate’s position on this life or death subject.
And yes, I do realize Illinois will still be an abortion Mecca, but maybe we could put some restrictions on it before it becomes out and out infanticide
I don’t think it’s outside of the realm of possibilities that infanticide is the next frontier for the moloch worshipers. There’s already a bill in CA that says a fetal death within 30 days of birth cannot be used as evidence of criminal activity against a mother. The ‘fact checkers’ try to spin this as ‘stillborns births cannot be used as evidence of murder!’ which of course, it never is, especially in CA, because the real reason is to permit infanticide and prohibit authorities from investigating a post-birth abortion.
That’s exactly what I was thinking of.
The progressives are vocal about where they are going. Five year ago, they advocated for the policies of: ~Defund the police ~End cash bail ~Abortions during labor and at the time they were fringe, laughable ideas. Today these insane ideas are law. Today they are advocating for even crazier ideas: ~end single family zoning (chicago policy review dot org – Abolish Single-Family Zoning) ~abolish of child support for fathers and more welfare for single moms (upend movement dot org – What Does it Mean to Abolish the Child Welfare System as We Know It?) ~abolish prisons (abolish prisons dot org)… Read more »
Whatever happens regarding abortion, it will be a gift to the GOP if Dems focus on this issue next election. GOP will focus on economy and win big nationally. That means no chance for future Illinois bailouts. Time is running out if you plan to leave Illinois before things get worse.