In a closed door meeting, Illinois state senators voted Sunday to elect Sen. Don Harmon as the chamber’s new president, its first new leader in more than a decade.
Harmon’s primary opposition in the race to become the new Senate leader was Sen. Kimberly Lightford, the current Senate majority leader.
The change in leadership comes in the wake of current Senate President John Cullerton’s impending retirement. Cullerton made the surprise announcement in November that he would be stepping down after nearly four decades in the legislature. He has been president of the Senate since 2009.
Harmon is currently an assistant majority leader in the Senate, where he’s served since 2003. Harmon represents the 39th District, which is directly north of Lightford’s district and includes parts of Oak Park, Franklin Park, Melrose Park, Bensenville and more, including O’Hare International Airport.
“I’m asking to be judged on my 17-year record of leadership and service in the Illinois Senate,” Harmon said in a separate interview Thurdsay. “The Senate presidency really has to tackle these three areas: the policy, the politics and the personal.”
Harmon has highlighted his fundraising acumen as one reason lawmakers should support him for president. Across three campaign committees, state records show Harmon had more than $2.2 million in his war chest as of Thursday – far outpacing Lightford’s $264,000.
Lightford is the current Senate majority leader, second-in-command in the chamber, and has represented the 4th District – encompassing parts of Bellwod, Maywood, Westchester and other areas of the western suburbs, as well as part of Chicago’s Austin neighborhood – since 1998.
Pritzker, who presided over the vote, did not endorse either candidate, and had said he personally did not have a preference in the election, adding that he’s collaborated with both candidates – Harmon on the effort to implement a graduated income tax in Illinois, and Lightford on raising the state’s minimum wage.
“These are two terrific leaders and I’ll work with either of them when they get elected,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference on Friday, noting that the election would be on his birthday and the new leader would be his “gift.”
There is one major change to the election of the Senate president this time around: Harmon only be able to serve in that position for a maximum of 10 years, or five terms in the General Assembly, because the chamber passed term limits on its leadership positions in 2017.
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January 19, 2020 at 05:10PM
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