In fight for Illinois Senate seat, divisions among Democrats on display

Newly minted Illinois state Sen. Natalie Toro was posing proudly for photos with Senate President Don Harmon earlier this week in a sweltering gym on Chicago’s North Side when a woman approached her and shouted a prediction: “You’re gonna lose in March!”

The challenge came minutes after Toro secured the Senate appointment over several candidates, including Graciela Guzmán, who was backed by many of the same progressive groups and officials who helped elect Mayor Brandon Johnson. After the vote that gave Toro the win, dozens of Guzmán’s supporters vowed they’d defeat her next year when the Senate seat is up for election in the Democratic primary.

“We want the ballot box!” they chanted.

Most Chicagoans probably can’t name their state senator, whose Springfield lawmaking duties are far removed from the essential potholes-and-permits power wielded by aldermen.

But the high emotions and big crowd that jammed into the Hamlin Park field house Monday to see Democratic Party insiders name a 20th District replacement for Cristina Pacione-Zayas prove the importance the posts have for some residents, and for a party that’s continuing to separate along ideological lines, with various factions looking to exert their power.

The fight will certainly be joined again in March’s Democratic primary election, when Toro will try to leverage the incumbent’s advantage to win a full term, and Guzmán and others will undoubtedly try to unseat her.

The battle for the 20th District is playing out as Chicago is at the vanguard of America’s urban Democratic move to the left. Johnson swept into City Hall this year on an unabashedly progressive platform before naming Pacione-Zayas as his deputy chief of staff, and traditionally moderate and conservative parts of the Northwest Side, for instance, have begun electing increasingly progressive aldermen in recent elections.

In picking a successor to finish Pacione-Zayas’ term, Democratic committeepersons that have precincts in the Senate district heard from six candidates who made presentations about why they’d be the best choice.

But the 11 committeepersons making the final decision weren’t equal in the Byzantine process. Their shares were weighted based on votes cast within the district.

So the 32nd Ward committeeperson, Ald. Scott Waguespack, had the equivalent of 11,069 votes toward the appointment, while 47th Ward committeeperson Paul Rosenfeld had the equivalent of just 217 votes, with the other nine committeepersons falling in between.

Toro knew she was going to have to run the political gauntlet at the Democratic committeepersons’ meeting, joking at one point that she wished she had brought as many friends as Guzmán. And her fight to hold the seat next year is shaping up to be a tough one.

She came in Monday having run unsuccessfully in 2022 for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

In that race, Toro received the endorsement of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the city’s largest police union, a controversial group whose president, John Catanzara, downplayed the role Jan. 6 protesters played in the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection and compared Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate to the Holocaust.

Catanzara resigned from the Police Department in 2021 while facing a disciplinary hearing related in part to allegedly homophobic remarks he made on social media.

35th Ward committeeperson Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa joined many progressive ward organizations in the district in backing Guzmán. He hammered Toro on Monday for her association with the police union, and for mailers sent in support of her campaign for the County Board by a political action committee funded in large part by the FOP.

“This district is a safe district for the LGTBQ community. This district is a majority-migrant district,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “So I want to know how you reconcile your statement of being in support of the LGBTQ community, in support of the migrant community, while at the same time your campaign (is) materially benefiting from tens of thousands of dollars from the right-wing FOP.”

Toro said she was glad Ramirez-Rosa asked her about the FOP connection, then promptly distanced herself as much as she could from Catanzara.

“I think, maybe naively as a first-time candidate, I was under the impression that any candidate should go to a labor union to earn the support of the rank-and-file members of the union,” she said. “I in no way agree with any of the views of their homophobic, racist leader.”

She also told the panel of committeepersons it was “insulting that I have to defend myself against this, but I will if that’s what’s going to gain me more trust.”

In the end, five committeepersons backed Guzmán, who was the Senate district director for Pacione-Zayas. But their combined weighted vote paled in comparison with that of the six who supported Toro, among them Waguespack and Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Iris Martinez, the Democratic Party leader for the 33rd Ward who also supported Toro’s County Board run.

Between them, Waguespack and Martinez controlled 22,086 of the 22,487 weighted votes needed for victory. No candidates other than Toro and Guzmán received votes from the Democratic officials.

Waguespack voting for Toro rather than Guzmán was notable.

He has long been a progressive leader in the City Council, but he’s recently found himself more on the outs of the council’s progressive wing as it has moved further left. Waguespack chaired the powerful Finance Committee under Lightfoot, but Johnson unseated him shortly after becoming mayor, part of a council reorganization Ramirez-Rosa helped orchestrate.

Waguespack said he backed Toro because he liked that she’s a Chicago Public Schools kindergarten teacher and has done a good job lining up support from community organizations in his ward. In doing so, he opted not to back Guzmán, who has a close connection to a top Johnson administration official.

After she won, Toro said she wasn’t surprised Ramirez-Rosa came at her about the FOP connection.

“I was expecting it. It was the narrative I knew he was going to spin, because I haven’t made any mistakes,” she said. “I don’t have a machine behind me. I’m new to this, and I’m doing it because I want to improve the lives of the children in my community.”

If the appointment process had been a popularity contest in the Hamlin Park field house gym, Guzmán and her cheering, sign-waving backers would have walked away with it. Guzmán said she will definitely run for the seat against Toro in 2024.

Speaking to the committeepersons before the vote, Guzmán laid out the stakes as she saw them, which are certain to carry over into the 2024 race.

“I come to you firmly grounded, supported by community today with a clear progressive vision for the 20th District, to continue my work as a principled public servant,” she said.

Dr. Dave Nayak, a physician who worked to pass legislation in Springfield to allow the state to pay for funerals of gun violence victims under 17, said he also will be on the Democratic primary ballot after taking part in the committeepersons’ selection process.

“Make no mistake, we will be outsiders,” he said. “We will not have the support that an incumbent receives from senate leadership. But we feel very strongly that when the community understands our work that we have done for many years in the 20th, they will know that Dr. Dave puts people first.”

All three touted their progressive bona fides, a near requirement in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in which the aldermen elected to new terms this year were more liberal as a group than the Democratic ward committeepersons who won their seats in 2020.

Guzmán said she already has a track record getting legislation passed in Springfield, and that the grassroots support on display Monday will carry her further with district voters next year.

“I believe that in our democracy, the voters are the strongest decision makers,” Guzmán said in a statement after she lost. “I am excited to speak with my neighbors over the next few months and collaborate on a progressive and principled vision for the 20th district.”

jebyrne@chicagotribune.com