"Independence" Becomes Top Issue in Democratic Comptroller Primary
Democratic Comptroller candidates Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago), Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego), Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim, and Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago).
With under three weeks to go before the March 17 primary, Democratic voters are starting to pay attention to a four-way primary for Illinois State Comptroller, pitting three state lawmakers and a countywide official from the state’s third largest county in a race that is beginning to turn unkind.
State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, a former State Representative and former Chicago City Clerk, who has held the office since 2016, is not seeking re-election. She is expected to launch a run for Chicago Mayor in 2027 later this year.
Rep. Margaret Croke (D-Chicago), has the endorsement of Gov. JB Pritzker and a fundraising advantage on the rest of the field. Rep. Stephanie Kifowit (D-Oswego) is running as a fierce independent form the rest of her party. Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim appears to have the support, though not a formal endorsement, of Mendoza, while Sen. Karina Villa (D-West Chicago) is trying to occupy the progressive lane in the race.
Villa argues for more spending, which she calls “fully funding” line items in a budget that has already grown by $16 billion in the past eight years. And she advocates for giving voters the ability to change the state’s tax structure from a flat tax to a graduated income tax in November.
“I believe that the time is now to put it on the ballot,” Villa said. “In Arizona, they were able to do this. They were able to pass the ballot measure to change the infrastructure of their tax system because they were told that the money was going to go for schools. That was one of the things that was missing last time we attempted to do the constitutional amendment [in 2020.] People didn’t know where the money was going to go.”
Croke also supports a graduated or “progressive” income tax.
“I supported it in 2020. I would support it now, but I would want to have a serious conversation about if we are going to move a graduated income tax, we’ve got to talk about property taxes,” she said. “And not just in the sense of an exemption or some level of like a grant or relief, like a one time paycheck. We need to talk about real property tax reform. We need to talk about the fact that we have the most units of local government in any state, and that comes with taxing bodies. If we are going to talk about a a progressive tax, we need to talk about the regressive nature of property taxes. It is so difficult right now, with everything going on to achieve that American dream. I just want to make sure that I’m doing everything possible to look at this holistically and not just in a silo of one tax policy.”
Kifowit, a more fiscally moderate Democrat in the House, has taken a different approach from her colleagues, arguing against more spending. She has voted against the last two Democrat-passed state budgets.
“I’ve been an independent thinker and I’ve stood up for taxpayers. Property taxes are killing people in our communities. And if more people [in the General Assembly] would have stood up and demanded property tax relief, demanded, help for families, we would have had a much different budget than we did today,” Kifowit, who has served in the House since 2013, said. “I’m independent and I will stand up and demand fiscal responsibility from the administration.”
Kim is also touting her independence as an outsider who does many of the same duties on a county level as the Comptroller does at the state level. She hopes to emulate much of what Mendoza has done in the office.
“I admire what she’s done in that office. With the ten credit upgrades and paying down the bill backlog, her championing transparency, I will continue that great reputation that she has,” Kim said. “But I’m from the tech sector, and my specialty is going to be modernizing, taking out duplication, beefing up cybersecurity. Now is a great time for someone with a tech background to come in with those fresh eyes.”
Independence has become an issue in the race, too. Croke previously worked on Gov. Pritzker’s campaign and in his administration before being elected to the House in 2020.
Kifowit alleges Croke won’t be able to stand up to the administration.
“I believe there’s no independence there. There needs to be [a Comptroller] who’s completely independent,” Kifowit said. “She just entered the General Assembly in 2021. She has hardly has gotten the lay of the land. She has not been on budget working groups. I’ve been on budget working groups. I’ve been on budget committees my whole time in the General Assembly. And I do believe wholeheartedly that you need to be completely independent of special interest groups and the like.”
Croke says she won’t have a problem pushing back on the Pritzker administration.
“The Comptroller’s office is an independent constitutional office, and I will be an independent constitutional officer. I worked for JB. I was also deputy chief of staff at the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for two years. And one of the great things about knowing the governor and having worked for the governor is I know that he does not surround himself with ‘yes’ people, and he is not afraid of when one of his team members challenges him,” Croke said. “I think, sometimes independence gets conflated with being combative or adversarial. The reason that I get so much done in Springfield, the reason that I pass so many bipartisan bills is because I collaborate with my colleagues. I’m really proud of the relationships that I’ve built across government in the General Assembly. I think it’s going to serve me very well if I am lucky enough to be the next Comptroller, because it’s going to help me get things done for the taxpayers and the constituents of Illinois.”
Kim also touts her independence coming from completely outside of state government.
“I’m not going to have any problem, I assure you. If you ask anyone in Lake County, my reputation, my number one goal is protecting my office and doing what’s best for my office,” she said. “I would work well with any county board member. I do not foresee an issue standing up for the office and doing what’s best for the office, which, again, is the independent fiscal watchdog.”
But Villa takes a different track, instead leaning on transparency.
“The job isn’t just about jumping up and down and saying, ‘I paid the bills on time.’ It’s about being fully transparent,” she said. “It means ‘this is how much I paid.’ 'This is the bill that I just paid. This is how much I paid for this line item. This is what the General Assembly allotted for it. And this is how much is missing in order to fully fund that line item.’ So [I will be] very clear and transparent with people about the money and bringing to their attention the different ways that we can bring revenue to the table that’s not on the backs of working people. We need to find ways to hold corporations accountable and hold billionaires accountable here in our state, because those same billionaires and corporations are getting tax vacations by this Trump administration.”
There has been very little public polling in the race, though some Democratic insiders have shown a heavy number of undecided voters in the primary. Croke is set to begin Chicago broadcast TV ads this week. Other candidates are up on streaming platforms.
Benton attorney Bryan Drew is unopposed for the GOP nomination for Comptroller and will face the winner of the Democratic primary this fall.
