Kane County Reporter

Tracy Smodilla, the Republican candidate for the State Senate District 22 seat, recently slammed State Rep. Robert Martwick (D-Dist. 19) and his allies for complaining about their delayed paychecks in Springfield, calling one of Martwick’s arguments in particular an obvious distraction.

 

“The red herring defense … is hardly justified,” Smodilla said, referring to Martwick’s apparent sympathy for elected officials forced to take second jobs to make ends meet. “If their argument is that they should get paid for the work they’ve done as ‘state workers’… they’ve successfully defeated their own arguments by virtue of not actually doing any work, specifically allowing Illinois to unconstitutionally go without a budget for three years.”

 

When Martwick first grumbled about delayed pay earlier this month, he stood firm on his argument, despite drawing public criticism.

 

“(D)ecisions that affect middle-class and poor communities are made by wealthy people who most likely do not deal with the same daily struggles as the people who their decisions are affecting,” Martwick commented via his Facebook page Aug. 10. “That is nothing less than a corruption of our democracy.”

 

Smodilla took issue with Martwick’s position, reiterating that legislators really are not “state workers” at all. As elected officials, Smodilla said “they should understand that their fiduciary responsibility is to the Constitution and the taxpayers, not their personal checkbooks.”

 

“So, no -- no work, no pay,” Smodilla said. “That’s how it’s done in the private sector, and it’s an expectation that has served economies and governments well. Rather than whining, they should be meeting with the people in their districts who have truly felt the burden of Springfield’s duplicity and lack of political will to do the right thing.”

 

Asking how Illinois’ government could be more divided than ever despite the stopgap compromise budget, State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Dist. 42) also parsed the Prairie State’s precarious political position earlier this month, stating, “It all comes down to two things: a man and money. The money is ours, and the man is Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.”

 

Smodilla said Martwick and his Democratic colleagues are using an old playbook.

“Mr. Martwick’s comments underscore just how out of touch the ruling political class truly is with the middle class and poor,” Smodilla said. “He and his cronies profit mightily off taxpayer backs, then cry foul when responsible government steps in to right the ship. When will they learn that the old saw of hypocritical, finger-pointing, crybaby Democrat tactics to demonize honest, reform-minded leadership isn’t really working anymore?”

 

Martwick’s stance has done little to earn him a reprieve among struggling Illinois residents. Family connections tie him to property-tax law firms in the greater Chicago area. Martwick and his father, Robert Martwick Sr., as well as Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Dist. 22) and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke, run property-tax law firms in Cook County.

 

As one of 31 state representatives who voted against a property-tax freeze in April, Martwick opposed the very policies that would benefit his constituents. Yet when Martwick and his colleagues weren’t paid sooner than the state’s vendors — who themselves must deal with untimely payments due to Illinois’ $7.5 billion budget backlog — he nevertheless complained.

 

The budget impasse has led some legislators to scramble for personal financial solutions. State Rep. Jaime Andrade Jr. (D-Dist. 40) recently made headlines when it was revealed that he took on a second job as an Uber driver just to make ends meet for his family, driving up to 50 hours a week.

 

Martwick defended Andrade with the argument that withholding elected officials’ pay is no better ethically than offering a bribe. “I often hear ‘you should work for free,’” Martwick said, but also noted that if only wealthy lawmakers served, they would not be truly representative of the people.

 

“Jaime Andrade Jr. is an extremely effective, smart and hard-working representative,” Martwick said on his Facebook page, praising Andrade’s “unparalleled” grasp of legislative procedure. “By denying him pay, (Comptroller) Leslie Geissler Munger and (Gov.) Bruce Rauner are trying, and succeeding, at putting him in a very difficult financial decision. That is extortion and corruption. Plain and simple. Kudos to Jaime for being willing to do whatever it takes to stay true to the people he represents.”

 

Martwick said he defends the middle class while failing to address issues it's most concerned about, such as property tax hikes, Ives said.

"Martwick betrays his rhetoric regarding the middle class in other, subtler ways," Ives said.

 

In addition, Martwick lobbied for a 2014 law that could have limited ridesharing activity in Chicago and possibly denied Andrade that much-needed income, had it passed — a bill ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Pat Quinn.