SPRINGFIELD — As he closed his address before gathered members of the Illinois General Assembly and Gov. JB Pritzker in the Illinois Capitol on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin invoked the words of another favorite son of Springfield.
“Abraham Lincoln, in the House Divided speech that he gave here in Springfield, gave a grim warning that the divisions in America over the issue slavery could destroy our nation,” Durbin, 81, said, from the dais of the Illinois House chamber. “We see similar divisions today.”
“The challenge we face in the days ahead could be just as serious,” Durbin said, referring to efforts to undermine democratic norms like accepting the outcomes of elections. “I hope that those of us blessed to live in this Land of Lincoln will remember his warnings in 1858 and his counsel to those who lead this nation in our time.”
Durbin delivered what was billed as a farewell address, reflecting on his record in office while urging state lawmakers gathered to pick up the torch for the causes he championed.
The East St. Louis native will retire next year after 30 years in the Senate — most of it spent as the chamber’s influential No. 2 Democrat. He has been a fixture in Illinois politics for more than a half-century, from interning for U.S. Sen. Paul Douglas while attending Georgetown University to serving in the U.S. House before his election in 1996 to the Senate seat Douglas once held.
Durbin never served in state elected office, losing a bid for Illinois Senate by less than 2 percentage points in 1976 and for lieutenant governor in a landslide in 1978. But he did work in the Illinois Capitol, serving as parliamentarian of the Illinois Senate in the 1970s.
‘A bridge across generations’
And his influence extends further than that. More than 3,000 worked in Durbin’s office, including Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, and Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago.
Several women in the legislature are alumnus of the Illinois Women in Leadership Training Academy, a group cofounded by Durbin’s wife, Loretta, for which he provided seed money.
“Think about the arc of history this man has lived and helped lead,” Buckner said. “He interned for Paul Douglas in the 1960s. He worked for Paul Simon. He served with Carol Moseley Braun. He later helped guide and mentor Barack Obama. This is not just a resume; this is a bridge across generations of Illinois leadership.”
Reflecting the infinite game of public policymaking, Durbin highlighted some of his top legislative accomplishments while acknowledging the work that remains.
He recalled his challenge to Big Tobacco in the 1980s, referring to it as “the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill.”
He remembered catching a last-minute flight that required him to sit in the plane’s smoking section. “I said, ‘Isn’t there something you can do?’” he recalled asking a gate agent. “She said, ‘No, but Congressman, there’s something you can do.’ So I got on the plane, sat in that center seat between two chain-smoking sumo wrestlers. What did I say? There’s got to be a better way.”
Durbin subsequently introduced legislation that banned smoking on commercial airline flights, eventually getting it passed in 1988.
He also touted legislation banning the marketing of tobacco products to children, which he credited with a massive drop in the number of high school students smoking.
“Before I rest on my laurels, I will tell you that unfortunately cigarettes have been replaced by vaping,” Durbin said, urging lawmakers to “do something about it at the state level.”
‘Proud to be the son of an immigrant’
Durbin, whose mom was an immigrant from Lithuania, kept her naturalization certification for decades, and he displayed it in the credenza behind his desk in his Capitol office. He said he wanted people to know that he’s “proud to be the son of an immigrant.”
Throughout his tenure, Durbin has been the chief champion of proposed legislation that would grant legal status to undocumented people who were brought to the United States as children. Known as the DREAM Act, the legislation has been introduced several times but has never passed both houses of Congress.
“I’m still committed to the DREAM Act, and I hope that you’ll join me and recommit,” Durbin said, noting that “it was” once a bipartisan idea and arguing that “it should be” once more.
Durbin was also known for bringing federal dollars back to Illinois. Sen. Doris Turner, D-Springfield, credited him with securing the funds for the Springfield Rail Improvements Project, which aims to consolidate all rail traffic through the city’s downtown corridor.
Durbin joked that one of the most interesting issues he faced was “to stop one damn fish from getting to Lake Michigan,” a reference to the effort to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.
“I can’t tell you how many millions of dollars we’ve spent for poison, for electroshock, for disco bubble machines. We’ve tried everything, and we’ve done it,” Durbin said, then crediting Pritzker for advocating for the ongoing Brandon Road Interbasin Project.
The reception for Durbin was generally warm, with Pritzker, Auditor General Chris Meister and three of the seven justices of the Illinois Supreme Court joining legislators in the House chamber.
Freedom Caucus boycott
Members of the archconservative Illinois Freedom Caucus, however, boycotted Durbin’s speech.
“The only good news is that this career politician is finally retiring,” said Sen. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport. “It is long overdue. Every legislator who actually cares about fixing this state should skip today’s political theater and get back to work.”
Pritzker’s campaign called the caucus’ boycott “disrespectful and an embarrassment to our state.”
Democratic Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy are their party’s nominees to succeed Durbin. Tracy watched Durbin’s speech from the gallery, while Stratton didn’t attend.
“I want to thank Senator Dick Durbin for his long service to Illinois. We have real policy differences, but I respect his years of dedication to our state,” Tracy said in a statement. “This seat has been held for a long time. The question now is what comes next for Illinois. You can respect someone’s service and still believe it’s time for a new direction.”
Reflecting on his upcoming retirement, Durbin said the thing he’ll miss the most is having the opportunity “to help so many people.”
“In closing, my life has been genuinely enriched by helping people from our great state and nation, I hope that yours will be as well,” Durbin said.