Margaret Croke: WCPT 820 Candidate Interview

0:00Richard Jew, weekday mornings at 6 on WCPT 820. Someone that's not playing around right here in the good old state of Illinois, making sure that we are gonna be moving in a good direction when it comes to our money is representative Margaret Croke, who is the Democratic nominee for our, what we call, Comptroller or Comptroller, Democratic candidate for Illinois Controller. Good morning, representative Croke, welcome to choose views. Good morning, I'm really happy to be here. Me too, both of us got big smiles on our faces this morning. So how about that? Right, we woke up today. That's a good start, I would say. Let's start right there. The blessing is that we woke up and we were able to get about our day. So I don't, I'm like you, we don't take that for granted. So it's good to hear your voice again. I'm glad you're doing well. And I'm unapologetic in terms of people that I support when it comes to doing good stuff. And you're one of those folks. So kudos to you. Thank you. And we're, I think you're, you're trying to take us.

1:02This is, this is one of those, you know, basic boring questions, but I gotta ask it because I know people are gonna want to know this. And it's one that, that, that comes to my mind. When you look at the, that the folks that you competed against and then now we still have got, you know, they have the quote, general election in a few weeks, what sets you apart? What do, what do you think I should say? Set you apart from the other folks that have run that you ran against and those that you still may be, you know, having to chop it up with a little bit between now and the Brian Drew comes to mind because he's a Republican in the race. I'm impressed that you know his name. Um, thank you. But, you know, I would say with separates me from my opponents in the primary and also in the subclaiming general is that I believe you can be fiscally responsible at the same time you can be protecting our most vulnerable communities. Like I think those two things go hand in hand. And I'm a big believer that having a state with who,

2:05that is on the right financial footing, that is fiscally responsible, that has, it's books in order means we can achieve so many of those things that I know I personally and deeply care about as a Democrat. But a lot of, you know, my colleagues and so many of us in the state right now who are looking at some of the things that the federal level and the state kind of being under a cap, the way that we are able to protect ourselves is by being fiscally responsible so we can make those investments so we can weather this storm. Um, I think, you know, having those two things at the front and center at the same time is very important in this office. Without a doubt, we, we take care of the budget, we take care of the money, but we also have to put ourselves in a position where we take, we're taking care of people and the thing that, if we don't have it, we don't have the compassion and the, and the passion to do it. That's important. But also if we have the, if we have the books in order to your, to your point, we're able to do so much for so many more people who are,

3:08we hate to use a phrase sometimes with the least of Manga's because that's, that's part of our job is, as good citizens like you said, they got to wake up this morning, get out here and do this thing again. So. Oh, 100%. I mean, I think about, it's not just writing checks at the end of the day. I mean, these are, this is money that supports our most vulnerable communities, that support the services that our communities rely on. Without those, without that piece of paper, without that deposit, people will suffer. And I take that really, really seriously. There is, there is, every, every single check that goes out to, from our office is, is someone's livelihood is a, a nonprofit check that's going to provide a service is someone's pension. I, you know, I, I take that responsibility. And I, I think about it very seriously. What are you hearing? So we've asked you what you think separates you from those that you ran against in the primary and now going up against the Republican,

4:11Brian Drew. What do you think people are saying about you? Because you are a state representative. You're part of the General Assembly. But what are you hearing from people? What are they telling you that they think separates you from the others? I've always been someone who has focused on making sure that we have transparency within government and not obviously like the technical side of what we do is implemented in a way that works for government. I always believe government is separate from like the, the private industry. We can't just go in and blow it up. But I know that I'm always to be focusing on efficiencies and making sure this office has been incredibly effective. What, what people come to me and talk to me about the office specifically about is they just want to know how the money is spent. It's not about necessarily disagreeing with how the money is spent, but it's about arming our constituents with the information because knowledge is power and being able to take that information,

5:13even if I can't set the policy of how the money is ultimately distributed, making sure that they can go to their state reps, that they can go to the governor's office and they can advocate. And people know I'm a government geek. I love the technical nature of things. I really do. I'm really, I get into the weeds on so many things. And this is an office that allows me to do that. So I hope people are excited about that. So with your, excuse me, your background with the, with the General Assembly is obviously a great sort of tool to have in your toolkit, but also your legal background and your, you know, time is as a litigator and time is a small business owner. How does that affect or how do you think it will affect or impact you in that role of state controller? So I think you may be getting my background confused with my husband, who is amazing as well. And I love him very much.

6:13He owns a law firm, cropped fair trial and also started a business about 50 years ago that's, that's grown from two attorneys to 125, right? So it's someone who's watched him achieve that and also have seen him navigate the trial and tribulations of being as a small business owner. It's definitely impacted the way that I look at legislation. I've sent my entire career in government. I've worked on the county side, the city side, state side, and then campaigns. But I was deputy Chief Staff at Department of Commerce during COVID, which was incredibly, incredibly turbulent time. It's an office that's larger than the controllers. And we were responsible for distributing hundreds of millions of dollars. And without that money, without that ARPA funding, we would have seen our small businesses completely collapse. So I've seen how important it is when you have the state making sure that

7:14being stay afloat during a time of crisis, I worry that we are in somewhat of a time of crisis right now with the Trump administration and always a little bit concerned about what they need you to our state as retribution for being a lose state and being prepared for that. And I feel like my experience has prepared me for something like that. You know, one of the other things too that's unique in terms of your, your experience is being a chair of, or I should say former chair of financial institutions in the Illinois House. That's also been, you know, a big box check for you in terms of understanding the importance of financial technology and how that's going to be. It is already here, but it's definitely going to be a significant part of our future when we manage our budget. How do you look at that? Yeah. Being the chair of FI financial institutions has kind of made me the expert in paying across the thing to positories, financial technology,

8:16things that people usually thoughtlessly, the students I started talking about it. But what I'm seeing and what's really interesting about that industry on the private side and the regulation of that is you can see where there are crossover into government where you could take some of the tech or you could take some of the processes that are in the private industry and bring them over to government. But at the same time, you see what's happening sometimes from the private side and go, we should definitely never implement that into like our government infrastructure. I think about like cryptocurrency. I did a bunch of regulation around cryptocurrency with the industry as well as with the division of banking and our regulators. And that's crypto doesn't really have a place in my opinion in like government function. I don't want to be a depository for crypto. So that's a good example of like how it can be something that we see crossover and sometimes things that are kind of big red flags.

9:18Yeah, good point. Wow. Let's take a quick break, representative. The number of 777-37639-278. I am talking with representative Margaret Croak, who is a Democratic nominee for controller here in the state of Illinois. Keep it locked in. We'll be right back with more of Choose Views. All right. Welcome back to Choose Views, guys. Of course, the number of 777-37639-278. I'm talking with Margaret Croak, who is the Illinois representative, but also Democratic candidate for state controller. Representative, this is probably a question that might be looming in a lot of people's minds at a listening certainly here in Illinois, is the integration of the state's biggest city being Chicago and the biggest county being cook. How your office will navigate and work with helping the city and the state's largest county do the job of the people making sure that the budget is in alignment, making sure that pensions

10:19are squared away. You know that that's that elephant that's lurking in the corner of the room, waiting for the next controller to step to the center of the room. How do you see at least yourself navigating those troubled waters? Yeah, I mean, it's a partnership, right? So with any type of unit of government constitutional office that works with a municipality, a township, we are going to be distributing a good amount of funds to the city of Chicago. That's just how the budget works as we've seen. And I think it'll be important to have conversations with the city about how quickly that funding will be going out, the prioritization of funding, because we can't just get our entire budget out or entire revenues for a year out at the same time, right? That wouldn't be financially smart. So it's just conversations on that end, making sure that the city

11:20knows to what the state is funding within the county and the city limits. So is there a competitive grant for $50 million for violence intervention and who's receiving those dollars within Crow County and the city of Chicago, so we're not duplicating efforts? I think that will be incredibly important. I'm also hoping if I am successful in November and come January to bring on individuals who have worked at the city and who know the city finances and are trusted sources for the city within the office so that we can really build on that relationship. Yeah, that last part there, I think it's going to be so integral into having that partnership be even stronger is having people that have a little bit of inside knowledge. And I know that you do, given that you represent a district that's integral to the city and the state, but having some people that are part of your team that can help you cut through certain things as always in advantage. And that's that's just a brilliant strategy on your part. And I'm hoping that people

12:25are open-minded to being a part of your team in that way, not to name any names, but just in terms of where you want to see. And that seems to be also part of your vision, correct? Yeah, I'm a big believer in relationships building just in general and any aspect. I get a lot of hits because I'm someone who has been in campaigns and government, but it's allowed me to build these relationships, which have made me such a better legislator. I've been able to get too much more done in my district and for my districts because of these relationships. And I think you can be independent, but also be someone that people respect and want to work with. And ultimately, isn't that what we want to do? We want to achieve the most we possibly can for our constituents. And I'm excited that there's this potential for me to not only just represent the 12th district, which I've been very proud to do over the last six years, but represent the entire state. And getting done for the entire state and everyone in this state, regardless if they voted for me,

13:27I'm serving them. And I'm excited for that. Yeah, let's fast forward two years from now, or let me say two years, a year from now, our wonderful governor, Pritzker, decides that he is going to run for president. And now that means that we have an open seat, if you will, potentially depending on what we have a lieutenant and all the rest of the pieces of the machine that move. And so now we have a new governor in the next cycle. How will that, or do you think that that will impact how you go about doing your work and still being able to maintain the independence that the office requires? Yeah, I mean, because this is the beauty of the comptroller's office, right? We are an independent constitutional office for kind of that fiscal watchdog. So we operate independently of the governor's office, but it doesn't mean we don't work with the governor's office, because if there's no conversations between the two, then we're going to have a lot of problems in the state

14:28of Illinois. So I hope that the relationship would be the same that we were continuing to collaborate, we're trying to figure out whether it's the best path for the state, physically. Like, should we make sure that our surplus goes to our pension debt? Are we having conversations about our rural health care and our rural hospitals and making sure that they stay open? Should they be prioritized on the list of bills being paid? I think those conversations will happen no matter what, and their important conversation. So I hope that nothing would change there. And you know, I'm a little, I think the governor is incredible. It would be incredible for him to represent the same way going from Illinois to the entire country if he were decided to make that big leaf, but I also am a little sad at the idea of a selfishly, you know, losing him in the state of Illinois. Yeah. I appreciate so much of what he's done. I agree with you, Representative Croc, I would love to see him in that national office. And I know that he would get a lot of things done. And I think

15:30it largely do the fact that something and you just said about yourself and how you want to lead. And that is, you know, working with people, remaining independent, but still making sure that you build a team of people around you that can help you get the work done. And he is done a phenomenal job of that. I mean, obviously we can be selfish about that and very homerished, if you will, because he's our governor. But we'd be, I'd be remiss to not ask you that kind of a question, because it could be a reality that comes your way. Well, we've seen it. We've seen it play out where we've had an adversarial relationship between the comptroller and the governor's office. I mean, that was what Susanna walked into in 2016 with Bruce Rarner. And we've seen how important it is that this office does remain independent. But that's also an, probably an extreme example. Yeah, probably so, but you're right about that in terms of how you see the vision going forward. So, um, people are always important. You clearly have been a representative that understands that.

16:32Do you see yourself as being someone that would do something like, you know, maybe hold tall town halls, maybe sit down with folks and, and, and bring people into the conversation about what they want to see our budget look like and see our finances look like in the state? Is that something that ever crosses your mind? Because as someone that's been a representative, I know that's part of the work that you do. But have you ever thought about that from the perspective of maybe that's something I'll add to my repertoire as I'm going along in this role? Yeah, my big thing is how do people interact with the office now and how can we make it better? And that's not to say that the office, it hasn't been incredibly well run under Susanna and Joseph. But one of the things I am working on currently is how local governments and like our neighbors and our township officials interact with the counselor's office and how difficult sometimes that can be or confusing, frankly. And what I would like to see is that collaboration to make those processes better. I come from a constituent services background. When I started Cook County,

17:34I was just answering phones and helping people with property taxes. So you can imagine that sometimes those phones didn't always go so low. But I really did love. I loved when I made someone happy or I was able to solve a problem. Like there is nothing that is better in government when you know you have made someone's day or their life like adjusted tiny, tiny bit better. And that is what I, I'm going to bring that same mentality to the counselor's office. Whether it's about local government audits or the way that you receive your check in your payroll or whether it's the way you go on our website and you look at how the budget is moving through the state and where those funds are going. That's my mission. I want to, I want everyone to see this office as a amazing example of how government can work well. And anytime anyone has any type of concerns, criticisms, compliments, send them our way. Yeah. I mean, that's a, that's a good way to lead. It's a good way to, also to have the team that you're leading. Understand that we represent the people of state and

18:37Illinois. And that will probably be a good sort of spread of good energy through the rest of the office. So we wish you well. How can folks find you get involved? It's an elected office. So people got a vote for it. So talk to it. Yeah. So voting is open right now. Isn't that, I know, it's kind of crazy how quickly this has come up on us. But voting is open. So please go vote and then tell your community next for neighbor and ask them if they voted too. No, no, no, you know if that person next door is a convention and that it never, you never know. I'm a Chicagoan, you know, right? We know how we are having a lot of neighbors and like we're a little nosy sometimes. But no, I mean, just please go vote if you're interested in the office and finding out more information about our campaign, you can go to crowpurlinoid.com. All of our social media handles are also under that same crowpurlinoid and we're happy to engage with you if you want to volunteer.

19:40You have questions, please, please reach out. But truly, I have that feeling that like every election, they're so incredibly important. But I don't know, the lineal is someone who's raising a gen alpha. I've got three of them, three kids right now. They woke me up at 545. See, you were ready. It's yeah, they know they have the alarm books. They have the alarm like said, representative Margaret Croke, who is also nominee Democratic candidate for Illinois controller. Thanks for being with us this morning. We appreciate you're all your hard work and we look forward to talking to you again soon. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. All right. Bye now.