Endorsements: The importance of the Mueller investigation

This editorial has been updated to correct Sean Casten's home town of Downers Grove.

The Congressional campaigns this year are layered with a factor not normally present: The investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller of Russian interference in the 2016 elections. We don't presuppose the outcome of that investigation, but we believe the questions the investigation is probing are serious ones worthy of exploration, as evidenced by the indictments and convictions it already has produced.

Shameful attempts to politicize it as the work of a cynically branded "dark state" conspiracy are such obviously self-interested efforts to undermine its ultimate findings that none of us should take that slander seriously.

Because of the import of the investigation, we're compelled to add a paramount standard to this year's review of the congressional candidates: Can we be confident that the candidate will defend the special counsel's work and will put nation above party in objectively reviewing and, if necessary, acting upon whatever the findings might be?

For Democrats, that means that before we could offer our endorsement, we would need to be confident that they would be fair and nonpartisan in deliberations on the special counsel's report. For Republicans, it means we would need to be confident that they would exhibit the courage that the country and history may require if the findings turn out to be critical of the president or others in his campaign.

It is against this backdrop that we begin this year's endorsement season with our assessment of the candidates in Illinois' 6th and 8th Congressional Districts.

Dist. 6: Roskam

There is no disputing Republican Peter Roskam's link to President Donald Trump as an author of the administration's signature tax reform legislation, But a broader look at Roskam's record offers a reassuring assessment of his inclination to act as a check on the president's more troubling impulses and of the role he can play as a collaborative lawmaker. Roskam, of Wheaton, was quick, forceful and unequivocal, for instance, in his condemnations the president's ill-advised tariffs and the administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the Mexican border. He voted against the president and his party on cutting funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, worked against Trump to restore funding to protect the Great Lakes and was among Republicans who joined Democrats to pass Russian sanctions that the White House originally opposed. This kind of resistance has particular value coming from a high-ranking member within the president's own party.

Roskam's opponent, Democrat Sean Casten, of Downers Grove, is steeped in the issues important to the district, a strong and effective spokesman on issues of climate change and a credible voice on economic and business issues. But he is new to politics and he has run a campaign that leads us to question how inclined he would be toward working in a bipartisan way to solve problems.

Roskam provides someone whose leadership and influence - in his party specifically and in Washington more broadly - can directly serve the interests of the district. Moreover, we're confident that he will, indeed counting on him to, defend Mueller's standing and review the special counsel's eventual report from the viewpoint of the nation's welfare, not his party's bidding. He gets our support.

Dist. 8: Krishnamoorthi

In his first term as congressman from Illinois' 8th District, Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi has performed even above the high expectations we had when, in 2016, we encouraged him to be "someone who will listen and work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle." Bipartisanship is a persistent theme when Krishnamoorthi reflects on his freshman experience in Washington, and it was affirmed with the president's signature last summer on a major rewrite of the nation's technical and career education laws that Krishnamoorthi led in conjunction with Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson.

With the background of a successful businessman, Krishnamoorthi, of Schaumburg, speaks with authority and insight on issues related to taxation and the economy. He is an ardent proponent of the Mueller investigation and demonstrates the temperament and strength of character to react thoughtfully and constructively to whatever it may find.

Back home in the 8th District, he was active and influential along with other local leaders in helping to break a logjam between the Central Pacific Railway and the Illinois Tollway that has held up the completion of the Elgin-O'Hare Western Access Project. He is attentive to local concerns and highly accessible.

His opponent, Republican Jitendra Diganvker, of Schaumburg, is a newcomer to competitive politics, and while he demonstrates a fair grasp of issues facing the nation and the district, his positions can seem unclear and at times even contradictory. Krishnamoorthi is a hardworking and sincere first-term congressman, who holds great promise for continuing to serve the 8th District well. He gets our strong endorsement.