Rodney Davis has taken more than $4 million from pharmaceutical companies, Wall Street companies, payday lenders and other corporate special interests and voted time and time again to line their pockets at our expense. Just last year, he voted for a corporate tax giveaway that will blow a $1.9 trillion hole in our budget and force future generations and the middle class to pay it with massive cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

According To Center For Responsive Politics, Rodney Davis Accepted $4,499,138 From Business PACs. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 8/6/18]

 According To Center For Responsive Politics, Rodney Davis Accepted $135,950 From The Pharmaceutical/ Health Products Sector. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 8/6/18]

 According To Center For Responsive Politics, Rodney Davis Accepted $3,000 From Payday Lenders. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 8/6/18]

 According To Center For Responsive Politics, Rodney Davis Accepted $1,224,607 From Wall Street. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 8/6/18]

Davis Voted For Final Passage Of The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act By Concurring With A Senate Amendment. In December 2017, Davis voted for “Brady, R-Texas, motion to concur in the Senate amendment to the tax overhaul that would revise the federal income tax system by: lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent; lowering individual tax rates through 2025; limiting state and local deductions to $10,000 through 2025; decreasing the limit on deductible mortgage debt through 2025; and creating a new system of taxing U.S. corporations with foreign subsidiaries. Specifically, it would repeal personal exemptions and would roughly double the standard deduction through 2025. It would raise the child tax credit to $2,000 through 2025, would repeal the alternative minimum tax for corporations and provide for broader exemptions to the tax for individuals through 2025. It would double individual exemptions to the estate tax and gift tax through 2025, and would establish a new top tax rate for “pass-through” business income through 2025. It would effectively eliminate the penalty for not purchasing health insurance under the 2010 health care overhaul law in 2019. It would also open portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling.” The motion was passed 224-201. [HR 1, Vote #699, 12/20/17; CQ Floor Votes, 12/20/17]

Washington Post: Final Tax Bill Included A “Significant Tax Break For The Very Wealthy” And “A Massive Tax Cut For Corporations.” “A new tax cut for the rich: The final plan lowers the top tax rate for top earners. Under current law, the highest rate is 39.6 percent for married couples earning over $470,700. The GOP bill would drop that to 37 percent and raise the threshold at which that top rate kicks in, to $500,000 for individuals and $600,000 for married couples. This amounts to a significant tax break for the very wealthy, a departure from repeated claims by Trump and his top officials that the bill would not benefit the rich. […] A massive tax cut for corporations: Starting on Jan. 1, 2018, big businesses’ tax rate would fall from 35 percent to just 21 percent, the largest one-time rate cut in U.S. history for the nation's largest companies.” [Washington Post, 12/15/17]

HEADLINE: GOP Tax Law Will Add $1.9 Trillion To Debt: CBO. [The Hill, 4/9/18]

HEADLINE: “Party Now, Pay Later: New Tax Bill Steals From Future Generations.” [The Hill, Goldburn P. Maynard Jr. Op-Ed, 12/27/17]

HEADLINE: After Tax Overhaul, GOP Sets Sights on Medicare, Social Security. [US News, 12/7/17]

HEADLINE: Ryan Says Republicans To Target Welfare, Medicare, Medicaid Spending In 2018. [Washington Post, 12/6/17]

After Passing A Tax Bill That Added Trillions To The Deficit, Speaker Ryan Said Medicare And Medicaid Would Need To Be “Reformed” In Order To Decrease The Deficit. “With his dream of tax reform now realized, Ryan is hoping to make progress on two other issues he’s targeted during his two-decade career in Washington: entitlement and welfare reform. ‘We’re going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit,’ Ryan, a former Budget Committee chairman, said in a recent interview this month on the Ross Kaminsky radio talk show. Medicare and Medicaid are the ‘big drivers of debt,’ Ryan said, suggesting Republicans could once again use the budget reconciliation process to avoid a Democratic filibuster. Medicare is the ‘biggest entitlement that’s got to have reform,’ Ryan added.” [The Hill, 12/27/17]

Ryan: “We Have To Address Entitlements. Otherwise, We Can’t Really Get Our Handle On Our Future Debt.” “NORAH O`DONNELL: --will Congress take up entitlement spending next year? REPRESENTATIVE PAUL RYAN: Yes. We will. And Bob and I actually see a lot of these things very similarly. We have to address entitlements. Otherwise, we can`t really get our handle on our future debt. There`s two things you need to do to get the debt under control so that our kids and grandkids get a debt-free nation. Number one, grow the economy. This tax cut bill will help do that. Number two, reform entitlement programs. We`re-- it`s unfortunate that our health care bill which passed the House last May didn`t get through the Senate, but we need to revisit that issue because that`s key entitlement reform. And then back to the welfare issue.” [CBS This Morning, 12/20/17]

Rodney Davis has spent his entire adult life in politics and doesn’t understand what our lives are like. For the past 26 years, Davis has either been working on Capitol Hill in Washington or as a party insider in Springfield, dividing people for political gain and taking us down the wrong path. It’s no wonder that he cares more about helping out the special interests who keep him in power with millions of dollars in donations than the regular people in who he is supposed to represent.

1992: Davis Worked On John Shimkus’ Campaign. “A week after I graduated college in 1992, I met John Shimkus, who was running for Congress against . I worked his race and at the same time took an internship with the state of Illinois and John lost so I kept in contact with him.” [Roll Call, 2/16/18]

1994: Davis Worked As George Ryan’s County Coordinators In The 1994 Election. “Davis is campaigning while on leave from his job as a managerial assistant in the office of Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan. Davis was one of Ryan's county coordinators in the 1994 election. He says he has knocked on just about every door in the district to get to know the residents' concerns and to get out his message.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/31/96] Article #1

1995: Davis Worked in George Ryan’s Personnel Office. “Pondering a run A Taylorville resident who works in the personnel office for the secretary of state is considering a run for the 98th House District seat against incumbent Democrat GARY HANNIG. ‘I'm thinking of doing it,’ said RODNEY DAVIS, 25. ‘We're in the planning phase to see if it's feasible.” [State Journal-Register, 7/27/95] Article #2

1996: Davis Served As Managerial Assistant In The Office Of Illinois Secretary Of State George Ryan. “Davis is campaigning while on leave from his job as a managerial assistant in the office of Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan. Davis was one of Ryan's county coordinators in the 1994 election. He says he has knocked on just about every door in the district to get to know the residents' concerns and to get out his message.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/31/96] Article #1

1996: Davis Ran For Illinois State House. “In 1996, he ran for the open seat when Durbin ran for Senate, I ran for the state House at the same time. I lost, John won and John asked me to come work for him.” [Roll Call, 2/16/18]

In 1997, Davis Was Hired As The Personnel Director For Shimkus’ Springfield Office. “Soon-to-be U.S. Rep. JOHN SHIMKUS’ office staff is getting much of its manpower from a couple of sources -- Secretary of State GEORGE RYAN’s office and the recent legislative campaign of RODNEY DAVIS. […] Davis himself will become the Springfield-based personnel director for Shimkus. His job will also include handling the office budget and doing constituent work, Roberts said. […] Davis, Johnson and Tomaszewski will all make salaries in the mid-$ 30,000s, Roberts said.” [State Journal-Register, 1/2/97] Article #3

2012: Davis Left John Shimkus’ Official Office. “The same position I had on Day One is the position I left with when I became a candidate for Congress in 2012. I was projects director out of the district office.” [Roll Call, 2/16/18]

2012-2018: Davis Served In The U.S. House Of Representatives. [CQ, accessed 8/6/18]

According To Center For Responsive Politics, Rodney Davis Accepted $4,499,138 From Business PACs. [Center for Responsive Politics, accessed 8/6/18]

Rodney Davis is a typical politician who wants to have his cake and eat it too. He tells Republicans that he supports President Trump’s right wing agenda now so they will support him, but he refuses to even acknowledge who he voted for in the 2016 election, hoping that Democrats and Independents will think he is a moderate and vote for him too. We deserve a leader who will be straight with us no matter what, not a career politician who will talk out of both sides of his mouth and hope no one notices.

March 2017: Davis Said That He Was “Very Impressed” With Trump. “Both say that as they have begun to appreciate what Trump, the author of ‘Art of the Deal,’ brings to the table. ‘My job is to legislate on behalf of my constituents, and frankly I much rather preferred to be president than Hillary Clinton,’ said Davis. ‘And I have a record of working with whoever the president is. Working together out here is not a bad thing, and I was very impressed with President Trump at our meeting. He is a very gregarious leader. I can see why those who work with him are respectful and like him. He was very generous with us, and he is very committed to making our country and especially in this case, our health care system work for every American.’” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/13/17]

Davis Said He Had “Grown More Supportive Of The President Over My Time Serving With Him.” “I’ve been at this White House in meetings with this president more in nine months than I was in four years serving under the president from my home state. And it really made an impression on me because it showed that this administration wants to work with us to get things done, to pass major pieces of legislation that are their priorities, too. I actually have grown even more supportive of the president over my time serving with him because — [aside from the] Twitter wars and the constant headlines in the news media — let’s just talk about a willingness to sit down and engage with us. It’s something that I wasn’t used to.” [The Hill, 11/9/17]

July 2018: Davis Would Not Say If He Voted For Trump. “Davis, who spoke with reporters during a visit to Roland Machinery in Springfield, also did not say if he voted for Trump, though in a statement a month before the 2016 election, the congressman said he couldn’t vote for anyone in the race, and asked Trump to step aside so now- Vice President Mike Pence could be elected president. […] When asked Friday who he voted for in the presidential race, given the statement that he couldn’t vote for Trump, Davis said, ‘The American people chose President Trump, and I’m going to continue to work with Donald Trump, who I’ve had a chance to get to know across the table.’ […] Asked again if he voted for Trump, Davis said, ‘There’s one thing I’ve learned in this business. I can tell you, I will never tell anybody who I voted for. ... I will continue to respect the same process and privacy that you ask for.” [State Journal Register, 7/6/18]

Exhibits

Article 1

House Candidates Stress Experience And New Ideas St. Louis Post-Dispatch By Margaret Gillerman October 31, 1996

Democrat Gary Hannig says his position as Assistant Democratic Leader in the Illinois House gives his constituents a good reason to re-elect him.

“I have a bigger say in the process than any freshman would ever have,” says Hannig, 44, of Litchfield.

He's also the only downstate Democrat on the House Rules committee and is a Democratic negotiator on the budget. He was first elected in 1978.

His Republican challenger in the 98th district, Rodney Davis, 26, of Taylorville, says he has a good reason for people to vote for him.

“I run to represent all the people of this area, not simply the special interests that control far too much of our political system already,” Davis says. “I represent the future for our families and communities.”

The 98th district covers all of Montgomery County, most of Christian County, part of Macoupin County and a township each in Madison and Shelby counties.

Davis says he's running on his new ideas, including one to use the Internet as part of an overall plan to market the district for new industry and jobs.

Davis has lived in Taylorville most of his life. He attended Taylorville public schools, graduated with a political science degree from Millikin University in Decatur and “returned home to marry my high school sweetheart, Shannon. We plan to raise our family in Taylorville beginning with the arrival of our first child next February.”

Davis is campaigning while on leave from his job as a managerial assistant in the office of Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan. Davis was one of Ryan's county coordinators in the 1994 election. He says he has knocked on just about every door in the district to get to know the residents' concerns and to get out his message.

“People in the beginning didn't give me much of a chance,” he said. “Now, some of the same people are calling to volunteer and display bumper stickers and signs and give financial support.”

To cut the state budget, Davis would seek a 2 percent across-the-board cut for everything but school funding, health programs for the elderly and children and prisons. “We simply have to hire more guards for our understaffed prisoms,” Davis says.

Hannig says the state “could significantly reduce the bureaucracy without hurting state services.”

He lists among his accomplishments a planned coal gasification plant near Girard. The plant will use high-sulfur Illinois coal to make agricultural fertilizer. Hannig says the plant will create thousands of construction jobs and more than 100 permanent jobs.

Hannig said he helped the project by supporting legislation that allows public utilities to invest in non-utility business ventures. Hannig asked Commonwealth Edison to consider investing in the project in his district. The utility subsequently agreed.

Hannig says he also has played a role in:

The Route 29 project, which will bring a four-lane highway from Springfield to the Taylorville area and beyond. Preliminary engineering is underway. Hannig says his experience will help get the necessary funding for future phases.

The Land of Lincoln Community College learning centers. One has opened in Litchfield and another is due to open in Hillsboro.

The new Vatterott College in Gillespie. Hannig gives the mayor of Gillespie and others most of the credit but says he helped them “get through the hoops” of the state bureaucracy for various permits.

Hannig grew up in Mount Olive. He and his wife, Betsy Helen, live in Litchfield.

Hannig graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in accounting; he also passed the CPA exam.

Article 2

Veteran lawmaker Dunn could join Topinka's staff The State Journal-Register By Bernard Schoenburg, Editorial July 27, 1995

Veteran state Sen. RALPH DUNN, R-DuQuoin, could step down from his Senate seat to take a job with state Treasurer JUDY BAAR TOPINKA this year.

Dunn, 81, has served in the House for 12 years and in the Senate for 11. He's in the second half of a four-year term, is definitely not running for re-election, and hopes to give another Republican a chance to gain the advantage of incumbency.

“If I get it worked out right, I'm going to do that,” Dunn said. He said he may make the announcement during the DuQuoin State Fair in late August.

“If this were a four-year term, I'd run for it,” said Dunn. But he doesn't want to go through a campaign in 1996 for a two-year term, because he'd have to run again so soon. “I hate to leave,” he added. “If I were 10 years younger or so, I wouldn't do it.”

Dunn, who is well-liked by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, said he is trying to do the best thing for the GOP, and giving his replacement a year or more in office should make the district, which is 53 percent to 54 percent Democratic, easier for Republicans to retain.

“That's what the Senate staff people want me to do,” he said about stepping down early.

The hangup has been for candidates and party leaders to get together on who the likely replacement would be.

“I'm willing to take whoever the (GOP) county chairmen want,” Dunn said.

If Dunn does step down, he'd be great for Topinka's office, said MARK RANDAL, a spokesman for the treasurer. Dunn has a bipartisan base of contacts in southern Illinois and could help identify banks in which the state should invest funds to help with local projects, Randal said.

Dunn served in the House and Senate with Topinka and sounds interested in working for her.

Dunn said Secretary of State GEORGE RYAN also offered help with employment, if needed.

Dunn said being out of the Senate will give him more time with his wife, ELLEN, who has been paralyzed on her left side since a stroke 19 years ago, but he also wants to keep working for a couple years.

Everybody tells him, he said, that if “you just retire and quit, you don't last long.”

He said he's enjoyed working with the “great bunch of people” in the legislature.

Okawville High School basketball coach DAVID LUECHTEFELD; JIM OSBERG, an aide to former Gov. JIM THOMPSON and now a director of the small business incubator at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; and former state Rep. WAYNE GOFORTH are among Republicans who could take Dunn's Senate seat.

TONY MAYVILLE, 40, a coal miner and the Washington County Democratic chairman, is in the running on the Democratic side. He is likely to end up in a primary race with BARBARA BROWN, who teaches political science at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and is a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.

Pondering a run A Taylorville resident who works in the personnel office for the secretary of state is considering a run for the 98th House District seat against incumbent Democrat GARY HANNIG.

“I'm thinking of doing it,” said RODNEY DAVIS, 25. “We're in the planning phase to see if it's feasible.”

A political science graduate of Millikin University, Davis was the Christian County coordinator for the 1992 congressional campaign of Republican JOHN SHIMKUS, and he served a similar role in Secretary of State Ryan's 1994 re-election campaign.

Hannig was unopposed when he won his ninth 2-year term in 1994. He said he didn't expect two passes in a row.

Moving up BECKY ENRIETTO, a former Statehouse radio reporter and now a spokeswoman for Gov. JIM EDGAR in Chicago, begins Aug. 15 as the top public information officer for the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs.

MIKE LAWRENCE, Edgar's press secretary, said the promotion includes a raise to $ 58,000 annually. She now makes $ 51,000.

Enrietto, 37, is an Auburn native. She was in radio for a dozen years before she left what is now the Illinois Radio Network to join the governor's campaign staff in August. She called the coming change “a great chance to do something different.”

She replaces MARSHALL ROSENTHAL, 55, who is leaving his $ 68,450 job Aug. 15 by “mutual agreement,” Lawrence said. New DCCA Director DENNIS WHETSTONE “determined he wanted to have his own person, and Marshall agreed he ought to. “

Rosenthal was aligned with former DCCA Director JAN GRAYSON, now an independent financial consultant who teaches at DePaul University. Grayson, 53, was recently appointed by the governor to an expenses-only position on the Illinois Development Finance Authority.

Also at DCCA, LYNN MORFORD, 42, of Sherman, the agency's press office chief, will be focusing more on publications and will probably become communications manager, Lawrence said. The move will make her eligible for a raise, he said. With nearly nine years at the agency, Morford, who makes about $ 50,500, also has a decade of radio experience and a public affairs reporting master's degree in her background.

Article 3

Shimkus makes appointments to round out staff By Bernard Schoenburg, Editorial The State Journal-Register January 2, 1997

Soon-to-be U.S. Rep. JOHN SHIMKUS' office staff is getting much of its manpower from a couple of sources -- Secretary of State GEORGE RYAN's office and the recent legislative campaign of RODNEY DAVIS. Shimkus, R-Collinsville, who will be sworn in Tuesday to a two-year term representing the 20th Congressional District, earlier named two ex-Ryan staffers -- CRAIG ROBERTS and BRAD CARLSON -- to be his Washington, D.C.-based chief of staff and Springfield-based deputy chief of staff, respectively.

Roberts was campaign chairman for DAVIS, a Taylorville resident who lost to Democrat GARY HANNIG, D- Litchfield, in the 98th House District in November.

Davis himself will become the Springfield-based personnel director for Shimkus. His job will also include handling the office budget and doing constituent work, Roberts said.

Davis' campaign manager was MATT JOHNSON, 24, of Springfield, who is leaving his job on Ryan's program staff to become a junior legislative assistant in Shimkus' Washington office. He's also the son of BARRY JOHNSON, lobbyist for the Illinois Lumber & Material Dealers Association. Shimkus' Illinois press aide will be STEVE TOMASZEWSKI of Nashville, the Washington County GOP chairman, who has been working as an auditor for Ryan. Tomaszewski generally oversaw Shimkus campaign operations in Washington, Marion, Jefferson and Clinton counties, Roberts said, and his family owns the Nashville Times newspaper.

Davis, Johnson and Tomaszewski will all make salaries in the mid-$ 30,000s, Roberts said.

The Springfield office should be open within days at Sixth and Madison streets, Roberts said.

Also working there will be MARY ELLEN MADONIA, 26, who was finance director for the Shimkus campaign. She'll become as a $ 33,000 district aide.

“I took a big risk in working for John, but I believed in him,” said Madonia, who left a Sangamon County job to join the campaign. “I'm just fortunate that the voters felt the same way.” Madonia is daughter of Springfield City Treasurer JUDY MADONIA.

Among other Shimkus employees: DORA ROHAN of Collinsville, who has been Shimkus' secretary in his six years as Madison County treasurer, will run his Collinsville office; STEVE MADDEN, a recent law school graduate from Springfield who volunteered on the Shimkus campaign, will be a junior legislative assistant in Washington; MARY BALLARD, formerly with Modern Mailing Systems Inc. of Springfield, who handled Shimkus mailings, will be constituent coordinator for offices in Springfield and Collinsville and a part-time office in Centralia; CHERYL CRATE, who has worked in Washington for U.S. Rep. TOM COBURN, R-Okla., will be Shimkus' legislative director, bringing with her experience on the staff of the Commerce Committee, where Shimkus will serve; and DAN BLANKENBURG, who has been a junior legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. TOM EWING, R-Pontiac, will be a senior legislative assistant for Shimkus.

Shimkus, meanwhile, will no longer be Madison County treasurer after today, and he's feeling a bit nostalgic about his six years in county office. He said he was “pretty depressed” working in an almost empty office, and noted that six years was the longest he's ever stayed at the same job.

“I'm excited about the opportunities ahead of me, but I've fought some good battles here,” he said.

He's hoping that Democratic Madison County Board Chairman RUDY PAPA, a Democrat, will appoint the chief deputy in the treasurer's office, WES TUCKER, to the post.

New job After a bit of intrigue with her job situation, KIM CLARKE MAISCH, 28, of Springfield has landed a position as director of communications for state Comptroller LOLETA DIDRICKSON. She starts this week.

Maisch left a job with U.S. Rep. , R-Morris, to begin Oct. 1 as director of legislative relations for the Management Association of Illinois. But less than two months later, the association decided to shut down its lobbying arm.

In her new job, Maisch will oversee publications and work with the Statehouse press corps. It will be somewhat of a homecoming for her. A Quincy native, Maisch has a master's in public affairs reporting from what is now the University of Illinois at Springfield. She did her Statehouse internship with Copley News Service and was an assistant press secretary for the Illinois House GOP before joining Weller.

Maisch said she's excited about her new job, which will pay $ 50,000. “I think she certainly is an up-and-comer,” she said of Didrickson.

Condolences Condolences to friends and family of ROBERT C. SCHRIMPLE, a long-time lobbyist for the Illinois Bankers Association, who died Sunday in Chicago of pneumonia and lung cancer. He was 79.

Schrimple, a Chicago resident, was executive vice president of the IBA from 1957 to 1977 and lobbied for the group until 1991. He was elected speaker of the Illinois Third House, an organization of lobbyists, in 1976.

“Bob was a real powerhouse in the Illinois General Assembly,” said IBA executive vice president WILLIAM J. HOCTER.

Visitation is from 4-9 p.m. tonight at Blake and Lamb Funeral Home, 1035 N. Dearborn, Chicago. The funeral Mass is at 10 a.m. Friday at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, 690 W. Belmont, Chicago. The family requests donations be made to the McDermott Fund, 932 W. Washington St., Chicago, 60607.