Minimum wage question highlights differences among Democrats in Senate race

Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton’s proposal for a new federal minimum wage diverged significantly from U.S. Reps. Robin Kelly and Raja Krishnamoorthi’s ideas as the three Democratic rivals for retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat debated Thursday.

Stratton advocated for a $25 rate while Krishnamoorthi and Kelly called $17 an hour a more achievable goal during the forum hosted by ABC 7 with Univision and the League of Women Voters. Illinois currently has a minimum wage of $15 an hour.

The federal minimum wage, last increased in 2009, is $7.25. Kelly of Lynwood contended that $17 is “what studies show is viable and, also, we have to be realistic about how much we want to raise it because, of course, we have to get 218 votes in the House and 60 in the Senate.”

“It’s an abomination at $7.25,” Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg said, adding he considered $17 an hour to be “reasonable.” But “we have to do it in a way that also respects small businesses. I was a small business person … and I know small businesses need a seat at the table as stakeholders with others.”

Stratton argued that “we have a society where the wealthy continue to get wealthier. I support a $25 an hour … because I don’t think we should think about just a minimum wage, I think we should think about a livable wage. What kind of income should people have to put food on the table?”

The front-runners in the March 17 Democratic primary struck a mostly civil tone focusing on policy during the discussion compared to a more fraught debate Monday.

Asked if the country was in a constitutional crisis, all three Democrats agreed, blaming President Donald Trump.

“We have a president that is stomping on the Constitution,” Chicagoan Stratton said, adding the Supreme Court “is rubber-stamping his authoritarian agenda,” and needs reform. “I’d be open to looking at everything from expanding the court to thinking about term limits,” she noted.

“I think we, even now, need to close as many loopholes as possible,” Kelly said. Congress needs “to slow (Trump) down, cut him off, hold him accountable, hold his minions accountable like I’m trying to hold (Homeland Security Secretary) Kristi Noem accountable,” with a bill to impeach her.

Krishnamoorthi said, “we have to perform our oversight duties vigorously. We have to ban mid-decade redistricting. We have to reform the pardon power because now he’s decided to auction off pardons to the highest bidders. We have to reform our tariff laws so he can’t create tariff chaos and trade chaos.”