The seat is up for grabs this year. But, what does the job entail? With Election Day quickly approaching, WMBD News is getting a series of civics lessons from Dr. Megan Remmel, Political Science Professor at Bradley University.
For the first installment, we also get perspective from former 92nd District State Rep. Ricca Slone.
Five different Illinois State Representative seats are on the Peoria County ballot this year.
Perhaps the most hotly-contested seat is that of the 46th Legislative District, where four-term incumbent Democrat Dave Koehler will seek a fifth term. But, to do so, he’ll need to fend off the Tazewell County Treasurer, Republican Mary Burress.
In the 37th Legislative District, Republican Win Stoller is unopposed, as is his fellow Republican Ryan Spain in the 73rd.
The 91st District seat is up for grabs, as incumbent Republican Michael Unes is not running for re-election. Republican Mark Luft will take on Democratic Josh Grys.
Finally, in the 92nd District, incumbent Jehan Gordon-Booth faces challenger, Libertarian Chad Grimm.
“State Representatives are basically the state-level version of a member of the [U.S.] House of Representatives,” Remmel said.
“In Illinois, each of the State House Districts represents, based off the 2010 Census, about 110,000 people. They serve for two-year terms, their districts are going to change shape after every Census, so our current map of State House Districts will change come 2021, when they redraw it.
“They have sort of similar powers in that they are in charge of impeaching [state] officials, just like the House of Representatives can impeach Executive Branch officials and Judicial Branch officials. They have the same amount of authority to make laws and budgeting, so basically everything happening in the federal House is miniaturized in the state House.”
Slone expounded.
“As a State Rep, I would say you have two main responsibilities. The first one is to help the people in your district in any number of different ways,” she said. “To connect with state agencies that can help them and a variety of things.
“The other thing is the actual legislating when you go down to Springfield. You’re in committee hearings, you’re voting on legislation that comes to the floor of your chamber.
“So, two very different aspects.”
Like Remmel, Slone explained the state version of the House and Senate is modeled after the federal system, but the buck basically stops there when it comes to differences between a State Rep. and a State Senator.
“In [U.S.] Congress, there are significant differences going back to the Constitution between what the Senate does and what the House does. That’s not as much the case at the state level,” she said.
“The Senators have bigger districts and longer terms, and so it’s a little different there, but not as different as it is in Washington.”
Slone explained, anecdotally, there is often interaction between State Reps. and U.S. Reps, as there was between her and her then-colleagues and then-18th District Rep. Ray LaHood.
“It’s kind of a two-way conversation. For example, he might have known of a new federal program some local government in our area might be eligible to apply for, where we could all move together to move that forward,” she said.
