Rock Island Today

In the 72nd House District, Rep. Michael Halpin (D-Rock Island) is being challenged in the Nov. 6 election by Glen Evans, a Rock Island Republican and a political newcomer focused on addressing the district’s economic growth.

“I am concerned about jobs leaving our community,” Evans said on his campaign’s Facebook page. “I am concerned that many area residents and especially young people are not able to find jobs to support their families. We need more jobs in the 72nd District.”

In vying for the House seat, Evans, a minister, also is banking on his background in pursuing social justice causes to sway voters. His Facebook page lists a number of causes he has supported through membership, including in the Laborers International Union of North America Local 309 and the Rock Island County NAACP.

However, it may be his unusual blend of traditionally liberal causes (i.e., support for labor unions) with conservative values (eliminating voter fraud and growing jobs) that might be effective in drawing voters to his side of the ballot.

While Halpin’s website sounds a call for more jobs and higher wages, it fails to directly address the problem of the state’s tax burden, ranked by the website IllinoisPolicy.org as being the nation’s highest.

Instead, the incumbent blames Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner for “destroying the middle class,” as one press release on Halpin’s website states.

Evans, however, lists out-migration as one of the state’s key problems, and he links it to higher taxes. This tactic may be appealing to voters in the wake of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly’s passage of a 32 percent income tax hike last year over Rauner’s vetoes.

“More than a third of Illinois cities with a population of more than 50,000 have been declining in population since 2010,” Evans said on Facebook. “The largest drops were in Decatur, which lost 4.5 percent of its population from 2010-2016, and Rockford, which lost more than 3 percent.”

Evans links the population exodus to higher taxes.

“With one of the highest tax burdens in the country and politicians refusing to make necessary economic reforms, it is tough to blame residents (for) looking for greener pastures,” Evans said. “If the growing exodus of Illinoisans actually troubles Springfield, they should work on easing the state’s high tax burden … and enact pro-growth reforms that will convince people to come to and stay in Illinois – not leave.”

Bill Bloom, Rock Island Republican chair, told WQAD in 2015 that District 72 is a Democratic stronghold.

"It's going to be a challenge for a Republican to take that district," Bloom was quoted as saying. "There's just no two ways about it.”

But if it turns out that November’s election is a referendum on the General Assembly’s income tax increase, then Halpin may be facing more backlash than expected.