North Cook News

District 211 school board member Mark Cramer views the calls from U.S. Reps. Sean Casten (D-Downers Grove) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) for an impeachment inquiry targeting President Donald Trump as sheer politics.

“It’s a misplaced partisan tactic to maybe take the public's attention away from the real issues going on,” Cramer told North Cook News. “Democrats have no agenda. So, this becomes their Trojan Horse to fool people because they have nothing else.”

After knocking off incumbent Peter Roskam in a 6th Congressional District stunner in last November's General Election with nearly 54 percent of the vote, Casten figures to have an even harder road in the 2020 elections, according to Cramer.

District 211 school board member Mark Cramer

“If there had not been anti-Trump sentiment [in late 2018], he would not have won,” he said. “He beat Roskam because of the Trump backlash. In my opinion, he’s playing that card to keep his seat. It’s going to be a completely different environment in a presidential year where a lot of strong Trump supporters will want to come out. I think that he is finding out that the progressive platform he ran on is not playing very well in 6th Congressional District."

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee forecasts that Casten faces one of the toughest reelection campaigns in the country for House Democrats in 2020. As for Schakowsky, Cramer said the veteran legislator also seems driven by the lure of personal political gain.

“Schakowsky’s in a pretty safe district politically, what she has to gain [from pushing for an impeachment inquiry] is playing to her constituents,” he said.

Casten's 6th Congressional District includes parts of Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane and McHenry counties.