June 15, 2022
"TRASH TALK" ABOUNDS IN MARTWICK VS. JONES STATE SENATE PRIMARY

Former President Donald Trump is out of office but not out of mind. And it feels like Democrats need to keep him around since he is especially useful as an anchor.

This year, incumbent Rob Martwick is trying to hang Trump around the neck of challenger Erin Jones in the June 28 Democratic primary for the Illinois 10th Senate District seat so she sinks to the bottoms. She’s a “Trump Republican” his mailers state.

Jones, a CPD detective with 18 years on the job, minces no words. She calls Martwick, who got himself appointed senator in June of 2019 with former alderman John Arena’s help, a “phony,” an “elitist,” an “opportunist” and a “misogynist.” And those were the tame adjectives this column could print.

Jones, age 46, is incensed by Martwick’s several mailers, which she said characterized her as an “insurrectionist,” a “Trump precinct captain,” and accused her of “committing election fraud.” One piece, she said, lampooned her as an elephant wearing a blonde wig, lipstick and high-heels. “I’m not even a blonde,” Jones quipped. Martwick rebuts that he never said those words and that those mailers were designed and paid for by Springfield Democratic sources, including Senate President Don Harmon’s committee and the state party (DPI).

But what’s interesting is what Jones did not say. Did you vote for Trump? She deflected the question, stating that “I’m not running against Trump. He has nothing to do with” the senate election. Chicago Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara backed Trump, and the organization is also backing Jones. My guess is that Jones is not the Biden-Harris type – but I’ve been wrong many times before.

Jones has also had 5 mailers, mostly paid by the FOP, which maxed out their donations at $59,000 to stay under the cap (thereby also limiting Martwick’s union money). She rips Martwick for (1) trying to raise state income taxes (by supporting the FAIR TAX amendment in 2020), (2) voting for hikes in the cellphone tax and IL license plate fees, and (3) voting for the Safety Act, which creates a state board to “certify” annually that every cop is in compliance with ethics and firearm use “standards,” which are subject to arbitrary determination. Failure to get “certified” will result in suspension or termination.

It makes being a cop an “at will” job with any officer terminable at any time for no reason despite collective bargaining protections she explained. It takes effect in 2023. “It will cause more crime,” Jones said. Officers are “already banned from chasing a perp on foot or by car.” Now, she said, “they will be fearful of losing their job” if they use force to subdue a criminal.

Martwick emphatically disputes Jones’s allegations. “I have always supported the police. I have always opposed those who want to defund the police,” he said. Martwick noted that he was largely responsible for removing both qualified immunity elimination and collective bargaining restrictions from the final bill. “I talked to (FOP president John) Catanzara the night of the vote” in 2021 “and he was on-board. I voted for it. It passed. The next morning he (Catanzara) fumes that it (the bill) is anti-police.”

So why does Martwick evoke such hostility, especially among cops? Martwick was opposed by cop Jeff LaPorte (D) for re-nomination as state representative in 2018, winning 9,332-4,563, or 67.2 percent. He was opposed by cop Ammie Kessem (R) for re-election in 2018, winning 21,387-13,852, or 60.7 percent. He was opposed by cop Danny O’Toole (D) in the 2020 Democratic primary for senator, winning 17,407-14,568, or 54.4 percent. He was opposed by cop Anthony Beckman (R) in the 2020 election, winning 53,351-45,841, or 53.8 percent, and now is challenged by Jones.

Way back in 2012, when Martwick won state rep Joe Lyons’s 19th District House, he was opposed by cop Sandra Stoppa in the primary and won 4,810-3,512, or 57.8 percent. And way back in 1996, when Martwick was just age 30 and a law school grad that year, he lost to incumbent senator Walter Dudycz (R), a CPD detective, by 41,218-38,900, a margin of 2,318 votes.

“These are Republicans running as Democrats,” Martwick said of O’Toole, Jones, LaPorte and Stoppa.

Jones said that a group called People’s Lobby, which according to their Web site, “works to build widespread support for public policies and candidates that put racial and gender justice and the needs of people and the planet before the interests of big corporations and the very rich,” has been sending workers in for Martwick and his House successor, Lindsey LaPointe.

They say on their Web site they played a key role in electing a number of progressive leaders, including  State’s Attorney Kim Foxx,  Democratic nominee for Congress Marie Newman, Aldermen Daniel La Spata and Andre Vasquez, alderwomen Maria Hadden and Rossana Rodriguez, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, and Jeanette Taylor, Illinois state representatives Will Guzzardi and Theresa Mah and Illinois senators Ram Villivalam and Omar Aquino to name a few.

“I welcome everybody’s support. But it doesn’t necessarily mean I agree with them,” Martwick said.

“I worked for everything I’ve gotten,” said Jones, “while he’s had everything given to him. He’s an elitist.” Jones grew up in a single-parent home in Rogers Park she said. Martwick’s father Robert was Norwood Park Township’s (Norridge and Harwood Heights) Democratic committeeman for 54 years, from 1964 to 2018, had lots of clout within the county party hierarchy, and was founding principal of Finkel and Martwick, a law firm specializing in property tax appeals. The elder Martwick had plenty of connections and plenty of business. The younger Martwick has been a partner since 2001.

Rob Martwick got his B.A. from Boston College in 1988 and J.D. in 1996. After returning from the East Coast, the elder Martwick got his son elected to 2 terms as township trustee and one term as a Norridge trustee, spanning 12 years. In 1996 Dudycz ripped Martwick for his poor attendance record.

After losing to Dudycz he got a job as an assistant state’s attorney in the state’s attorney’s office, prosecuting felonies and misdemeanors in the Skokie courthouse for 5 years, burnishing his legal resume. Forever looking ahead, Martwick ran in 2002 for county commissioner against incumbent Pete Silvestri (R), losing 49,852-42,795, a decent showing in a good Democratic year. Rather than risk garnering a loser reputation, Martwick sat out the next decade.

With Democratic legislative majorities, Mike Madigan in 2011 drew a House map which coincidentally added Martwick’s Norridge precinct to the Chicago-based 19th District, which consisted of Portage Park, Jefferson Park and Gladstone Park. Lyons, first elected in 1996, retired in 2012 and Martwick was the party’s anointed choice. Martwick later moved to west Portage Park, and eventually became a senator with the help of then-Alderman John Arena (45th), and got himself appointed by the county party as 38th Ward committeeman after Nick Sposato resigned in 2017.

Incumbent senator John Mulroe (D-10) resigned in mid-2019 to become a judge. The task of replacement fell upon local kingmakers, who were the committeemen of the then-incumbent’s party, with a weighted-vote assigned to each in the district based on the party vote in their ward/township in the most recent primary. The combined weighted-vote of Arena, who had been ousted as alderman in February of 2019 against Jim Gardiner, and Martwick were a clear majority, so they got the pick. There was some speculation that Arena would grab the seat, but the early consensus was that the pick would be 41st Ward committeeman Tim Heneghan.

Then came the old switcheroo: Heneghan was out, Martwick was in. I asked him why he changed his mind at the time and he said party leaders implored him to run because he was “the best candidate to hold the seat.” Hold it against what? Mulroe was unopposed by a Republican in 2012 and 2016.

Every politician seizes opportunities, but it is wise not to be perceived as an opportunist. However, Martwick must be commended for the creation of an elected Chicago school board. There are currently seven mayoral appointees. The new law, effective 2023, creates 20 districts, each about the size of 2.5 wards, with 10 unpaid members elected in 2024 and the rest in 2026, with a non-voting president elected citywide. Martwick was lead sponsor of the bill, and tangled with Mayor Lori Lightfoot on the issue of compensation, with the mayor wanting the members to be paid.

They won’t.

Martwick also famously tangled with Lightfoot when she was a candidate for mayor, which lead to a quasi shouting match between the two, with Martwick saying “That’s why you’re unfit to be Chicago’s mayor.”

Prediction: The 10th includes two House districts -- the 19th (east of Nagle) and 20th (41st Ward and close-in suburbs). Turnout will be 22,000-24,000. The race is clearly a referendum on Martwick, and he knows it. That’s why he’s gone after Jones. Martwick will win with 53 percent.
But his term is only for 2 years, through 2024. So the cops will keep on coming. Whatchu gonna do when they come for you?

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