(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – With senators returning to Springfield Tuesday, and representatives a week from Tuesday, Don Harmon (pictured) (D-Oak Park) begins his seventh year as president.
Ten-year term limits are in place for the top leaders of each chamber, but Harmon says the long tenure of now-former House Speaker Mike Madigan inspired that. “The fact is, in the Senate, we have a tradition going back some time. The longest- serving Senate president, I believe, was Phil Rock at fourteen years. So I think we do a pretty good job of organically ensuring turnover in the Senate.”
Bipartisanship sounds like a good idea to many, and the Senate president and minority leader praise one another at the end of each spring; yet Republicans consistently put zero votes on the budget. Asked how to reconcile those two views, Harmon said, “Well, not everything is revealed on stage. (Senate Minority Leader John Curran (R-Downers Grove)) and I do work well together, our teams work well together, our members work well together. The fact is that our budgeting process, at least in the Senate, is open and inclusive of Republican ideas.
“But, a little like Goldilocks, there’s always something that’s too hot or something that’s too cold for some of my Republican colleagues to vote for the final product.”
A 2025 lowlight for Harmon: an accusation that he raised too much campaign cash in too little time, for which he was recommended for a $10 million fine. “It is fairly nuanced and, really, the result, I think, of a lack of clarity in how a couple of different provisions are supposed to work together. I’m gratified that that has been resolved as I expected it would be. I’m gratified the final vote to take it off the agenda was bipartisan.”
In more than twenty years in Springfield, Harmon said the rise of partisanship is the biggest change he has seen. He does say collegiality among Illinois lawmakers of different parties is not as open as it used to be; “It still happens, but I think – at least on the other side of the aisle – they have to deny it more often than they used to.”
