In this week’s episode of “Elections Have Consequences,” we learn that electing right wing extremists means your district doesn’t get any financial support via community project funding (aka “earmarks”). Tom Kacich gave a rundown of the funding that will be coming to downstate Illinois projects in The News-Gazette.
The city of Champaign stands to get $850,000 for capital improvements in the Garden Hills neighborhood. Danville is likely to get $850,000 to help revitalize the Madison neighborhood west of downtown. Rantoul is looking at receiving $540,000 for upgrades to its youth center on the old Chanute Air Force Base. And Bloomington is in line for a $2 million grant to improve a road and spur development on its southeast side.
Danville and Rantoul are getting funding for projects this time around because they were redistricted out of Miller’s (R-Oakland) IL-15 and into Robin Kelly (D-Matteson) IL-2 district. Heck, even Hot Rod secured funding for IL-13 projects before he was primaried, though then he made this bizarre comment to remind us that he is also an unserious person.
I think members of Congress are able to address their constituents’ needs better than a bureaucrat sitting over at U.S. [Department of Transportation] who probably cares more about the gender identity of a piece of gravel than they do getting a project and a new road built in central Illinois.
I digress.
This is a good reminder, as the 2024 election looms, that yes the presidential election is important, but so are the ones that have more of a local impact.