Endorsement: Duckworth for U.S. Senate

This endorsement is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

This is a particularly intriguing year in regard to national elections, partly because of the polarization that grips so much of the country and so much of Washington and partly because of the slim majorities that are apt to emerge from the Congressional elections to try, with woefully little compromise space, to exercise power in both houses of Congress.

So when it comes to the U.S. Senate race in Illinois, it's not enough for a voter to decide a preference between incumbent Democrat Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates and Republican Kathy Salvi of Mundelein.

On that score, while their perspectives sharply differ, we welcome both as solid candidates who represent their parties well and honorably. Of them, our choice is Duckworth, and she receives our endorsement, but more about that later.

Let us first step back to add that when a voter chooses between Duckworth and Salvi, there also is another choice being made - the preference between Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell for Senate majority leader and all the implications that go with that. (Assuming, of course, that McConnell would not be replaced by the MAGA wing of his party.)

This is key, one that in 2022 is likely more important than individual candidate preference. Let us ask you as a voter directly: Which party do you want controlling the Senate for the next two years? With the current 50-50 split, the election of one U.S. Senator matters powerfully to that.

Are you concerned about the future of democracy, abortion rights, responding to climate change, expansion of social programs? If you are, you have to vote for Duckworth because a Republican majority will address none of that.

Are you concerned about border control, limiting the Biden agenda, resisting Wokeism, promoting small government? If you are, you have to vote for Salvi because a Democratic majority will address none of that.

Clearly, should an opening on the Supreme Court occur, control of the Senate has long-term consequences related to that, too.

But let us add: If you are worried about next year's economy, don't kid yourself. Control of Congress has precious little to say about it in the short term. The Fed and the White House can have some impact, although even they have less than generally imagined. But candidates for the Senate or the U.S. House? They'll talk a good game, but once elected, they will have little influence over the global supply and demand forces unleashed by the pandemic and the energy geopolitics exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

In the long term, government spending and tax policy do affect our economy, but sadly neither party seems to take government deficits seriously and both seem eager to spend, only on different things.

With that as perspective, we get back to the choice confronting voters on the Nov. 8 ballot.

For the first time in Illinois, both major party candidates are women, a milestone worth celebrating even though it took more than two centuries since the state's birth to occur.

From our vantage point, we also celebrate that both are suburbanites. In fact, Libertarian Bill Redpath of West Dundee is, too. And the two official write-in candidates in this race have suburban connections as well. The field is suburban all around.

That suburban footnote may be nothing more than a coincidence. But it occurs to us that it also reflects the growing power the suburbs exert in national politics. Cities vote blue, farms vote red, but it is the suburban open-mindedness that decides.

In our endorsement of Duckworth, we not only endorse her by-now widely known personal story of commitment, courage and sacrifice, but also the hard work she has exhibited during her first term in the Senate as well as in her two terms in the U.S. House prior to that.

A left-of-center pragmatist, Duckworth is a workhorse, not a showhorse. The GovTrack.us assessment of her efforts is impressive in the workload she takes on, the efforts she makes to work across the aisle and the influence she wields as a junior senator.

Salvi is a solid candidate. We endorsed her in her spring primary and have found her even more impressive in her general election candidacy. She does not engage in election conspiracy theories and does not dance around them the way so many shrinking Republican candidates do. We believe her when she says she wants partisans to talk to each other again.

But her political views are fairly strident. They veer too far to the right to represent Illinois.

A vote for Duckworth is a vote for reasoned hard work and experience. Even more importantly, it is a vote for democracy.