What follows is a conversation the hosts had with Marty McLoughlin Wednesday morning after the election results were announced:
“Jeanne/Amy: Tell us what’s on your heart and what happened.
Marty: Well, listen, last cycle, 60,000 ballots were pulled in the 52nd District, and we had about 44,000 pulled this time. So, I think it’s pretty obvious that people were not inspired to go to the polls, particularly the independents.
I mean, let’s be frank, we didn’t exactly have the top of the ticket. We’re getting people excited, you know, for Darren Bailey, uh, the second run. And, you know, people like me that, uh, you know, kind of need the turnout, uh, definitely impacted the race that I was in.
Jeanne/Amy: You won last time by 47 votes. Last night you lost by 5,000 votes. And you’re, you’re talking about some nefarious things that were going on outside of, uh, polling places. Do you think that played a part?
Marty: No, no. Yeah, yeah, it was nuts. It was crazy. People were being accosted in the— it’s, you know, the— that’s— it’s not an excuse. I— here’s the good news, ladies. In about 14 months, we get to go out and start the process all over again. In 2 years, decide. Um, that’s what I love about this country.
Every 2 years, you get to decide the direction of our community. So for everyone that’s so devastated, I just like to remind them they’re 14 months away from going out and getting petition signatures to go at this again. That’s what I love about this country is that you get a constant opportunity to provide the direction of how your school boards go, how your park districts, how the state legislature.
I will say this, and you guys know me, we have not done a great job as whatever Republicans are anymore, because I always have a hard time figuring that one out. We should be messaging. We want to return to reasonable. We want to make crime illegal again. We want to make our taxes— tax dollars go further. And we don’t do that in a concise fashion so that nobody knows what we stand for anymore across the state.
If I were to ask, you know, how does Kevin Schmidt message in St. Louis or Joe Sosnowski in Rockford or myself, we’re all independent agents out there. And that sounds great until you’re running against people who are angry because there’s an ‘R’ in front of your name and they don’t really, they don’t really wanna know a whole lot more about you. And I’ve, from a messaging capacity, that’s been one of my big things for years. Let’s get 2 or 3 things that we all message.
So, when there’s an ‘R’ in front of your name, you go, oh, those are the people who brought low taxes. Those are the people that wanna be reasonable. And we don’t do that. And I think it’s a missed opportunity.
So, I congratulate my opponent. I’m looking forward to the higher taxes, the high-density housing, and the BUILD Act. And you get what you vote for. So this will be interesting. I’m sure she has plenty of ideas that’ll solve the state’s problem.
Amy/Jeanne: Yeah, and with super, super, super majorities now, they’re going to get it good and hard. And Maria Peterson will get to, you know, pretend like she’s not really in favor of those policies because they have so many extra votes too, with real true Marxists in Chicago that have been their long term. So, she’ll be safe from some of those terrible votes, and then she can play like, I didn’t vote for that. Again, this is what they do all the time, and this is why Marty, you’re a huge loss, in my opinion, to the caucus. You were reasonable.
Marty: And, um, you know, Amy’s really upset. 300 pounds. Amy thought I was 300 pounds. Are you talking weight-wise, or what are we talking about here? You know?
Amy/Jeanne: Well, you’re gonna run again in 2028, so that’s good news. That’s something positive.
Marty: Who, me? Well, listen, you know what, it’s only government. You know, I can do this in my sleep. Uh, if people want to, um, you know, get involved, I help people get elected all the time, Jeanne. I, I think there’s opportunities that are coming up in the spring, there’s opportunities next summer.
The only way we win this is by getting people, good people, to do this for the right reasons. I’m super proud of the way I did this for 6 years, the way I was mayor for 8. Wouldn’t change a thing. And, you know, the people in the District, it’s been a pleasure serving them.”
