Endorsement: No recommendation in Senate District 39

One major issue - public pensions - separates incumbent Illinois District 39 Sen. Don Harmon of Oak Park and his challenger in the Democratic primary, attorney Bob Galhotra of Chicago. Harmon backed a new law reducing cost-of-living increases for retired public workers, among other pension changes. Galhotra, former president of a union for Cook County public defenders, opposes the pension cuts. Like Harmon, we believe the pension cuts were needed, but we take serious issue with him over a bill he carried that created a Lake County election commission, a new and locally opposed layer of government forestalled only by court action. Harmon declines to say at whose behest he pushed the election commission, which makes him difficult for us to back. We endorse neither candidate.