(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The power plays are continuing between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and other top Illinois Democrats before a vote this weekend over the next Illinois Democratic Party chair.
The current chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois is Congresswoman Robin Kelly, whose status as an elected federal official makes her subject to some federal fundraising guidelines.
That’s a sore point with Pritzker, who’s not-so-quietly lobbied for state Rep. Lisa Hernandez to take Kelly’s place.
Pritzker and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) — one of the nation’s largest federations of unions — have gone public with what sounds like a compromise: Let Hernandez be the state party chair for fundraising, and let Kelly be the Federal Party chair for Illinois.
Party regulars, though, have rejected similar plans in the past.
Kelly’s backers, including Sen. Dick Durbin and the Congressional Black Caucus, said she’s done a fine job raising money.
In addition to Pritzker and the AFL-CIO, Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel Welch has also backed Hernandez.
The party leaders will vote, in a weighted ballot, on Saturday.
Expect the jockeying to continue until then.
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