SPRINGFIELD?
Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross gambled and lost on a potential run for attorney general and now finds himself trying to fend off attempts by rank-and-file lawmakers looking to take away the job he's got.
Cross, who has led the long-out-of-power House GOP for 10 years, had a promotion in mind at the end of spring session in late May, telling his members he'd likely run for the state's chief legal office if Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan pursued a run for governor. Instead, Madigan opted to seek a fourth term. Cross, wanting no part of the politically formidable Madigan, decided he wanted to stay on as legislative leader.
The dalliance, however, caused a flood of long-standing complaints among House Republicans to bubble up: Cross lost seven seats in the November 2012 election, giving Democratic Speaker Michael Madigan even more power. Cross allowed the House GOP campaign fund to sink to $21,000. Cross isn't recruiting formidable candidates to run next year.
Longing for more relevance at the Capitol, House Republicans sense they have a chance to pick up seats if they get a strong GOP candidate for governor. They believe their odds are better next year because they won't have home-state Democratic President Barack Obama heading the ticket. And they want a minority leader concentrating on cutting down the size of the 71-47 Democratic majority.
"We have to keep our eye on the ball," said Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican who is among those setting his sights on taking over Cross' leadership position. "Let's call it like it is. Since May through this (month), Rep. Tom Cross was focused on one thing: That was becoming attorney general of the state of Illinois."
Besides Durkin, Reps. Raymond Poe of Springfield and Dwight Kay of Glen Carbon near St. Louis have offered themselves as Downstate alternatives and are working on building support to dump Cross of Oswego.
It'll be an uphill climb. Cross has time on his side, given that caucus rules make it unlikely a leadership change could take place until after the November 2014 election. Beyond that, Cross only needs to persuade 23 other House Republicans to keep backing him instead of risking a switch to an unknown quantity.
For his part, Cross is brushing aside questions about his leadership but acknowledged that the popular attorney general's decision to seek a fourth term helped crystallize his political plans to stay on as House minority leader. "In light of what we heard (from Lisa Madigan)," Cross said, "I'm committed, have always been committed and remain committed to our caucus."
To hear numerous House Republicans tell it, that commitment of staying on wasn't so rock solid in recent months. Shortly before the spring legislative session wrapped up May 31, Cross indicated to colleagues that he was thinking about running for attorney general. That particularly stuck in Durkin's craw. He's a former Cook County prosecutor who had been looking at a bid for the office if Madigan ran for governor.
During the special session July 9, Cross told his members in a closed-door meeting that he likely would run for attorney general if Madigan did not, according to several lawmakers in the meeting. Cross indicated that he would step down as leader and stay on as a rank-and-file House lawmaker if he did run for attorney general. But if Cross didn't try for higher office, he would seek to stay on as House Republican leader. That set off a new round of questions among Republican lawmakers.
"We walked out of (there) unconvinced we were where we should be," Durkin said.
Nearly a week later, Cross held his annual summer campaign fundraiser in Chicago the same day Lisa Madigan announced she'd run for attorney general again. That meant Cross would try to stay in his current job.
Cross held a private reception for big donors, then came out for the lower-dollar cattle call. He mingled but didn't make a speech where he could have talked about his political future, according to Blair Garber, the Evanston Township GOP committeeman who attended.
"When you have a fundraiser and people show up, you know, it's de rigueur that you're going to say something," Garber said.
A lawmaker for more than two decades and a protege of former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Cross has raised his profile by taking a key role in the push to reduce the state's $100 billion pension debt. Viewed as a moderate, he's also broken from his own caucus on some social issues, such as coming out early for medical marijuana legislation. He has decried the Democrats' 67 percent income tax rate increase, fought pension proposals he fears would raise property taxes and rallied opposition to Democratic legislation to borrow more money.
As one of the four legislative leaders in Springfield, Cross has had a seat at the table in budget negotiations when Democrats were forced or inclined to share responsibilities, but his power is checked by serving only as minority leader since 2003. He's been unable to win enough House seats to take control from Speaker Madigan, the attorney general's father and Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
In November, House Republicans lost seven seats to Madigan's Democrats, the same election in which Senate President John Cullerton's Democrats rolled up an unheard-of 40-19 supermajority on the other side of the Capitol. Republicans in both chambers faced difficult odds. Not only was Obama at the top of the ballot, but GOP legislative candidates also had to run in new districts drawn by Democrats.
At least three Republican representatives are looking to replace Cross. Durkin, who lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin in 2002, is out raising money and traveling the state as he tries to build support.
Durkin, who ran U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaigns in Illinois, acknowledged that he also considered a race for attorney general next year if Madigan sought to move up the political ladder. "Tom was aware of it," said Durkin, who added he was "caught off guard" when Cross started exploring his own bid for attorney general. But Durkin insisted he is not running to be the top House Republican out of spite.
"It's not about Tom ? whether he's right or wrong," Durkin said. "It's about whether this caucus is moving in the right direction, and it's about us taking ourselves out of the superminority and becoming players and having a meaningful voice for taxpayers."
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