Do Illinois breakaway counties want to become Hoosiers? Annexation bill nears finish line

MARSHALL, Ill. – Driving west from Central Indiana into Illinois, the farmhouses and crops seamlessly and namelessly blend into one with the occasional whiff of rotting manure, a sign of good things to come. There is no tourist station at the state line and the small “Welcome to Illinois” sign is easy to miss if one is glancing at their GPS.

About the only differences, people just over the border here in the capital city of Clark County will tell you, are the roads, especially the one leading into the state, I-70, a few miles from Terre Haute

“For whatever reason, they are terrible in Indiana,” said Tim Bloodworth, a local business owner. “Otherwise you’d hardly notice.”

High speed potholes aside, the likenesses are a major reason some Indiana legislators are so eager to explore whether Illinois border counties that voted to separate from the state want to become part of Indiana through annexation.

House Bill 1008, which the Senate could vote on as early as Monday, would create an Indiana-Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission charged with studying secession and transfer of counties from Illinois to Indiana.

“We want to open the doors if they want to come here,” Sen. Scott Baldwin, the Noblesville Republican who sponsored the bill, said at a recent legislative committee meeting.

Whether disgruntled Illinoisans are willing to join is just one question. The larger question is whether it can be accomplished legislatively.

Some lawmakers, in Clark County, which voted by a 3-1 margin to separate, are skeptical annexation or any other break-away dreams can succeed.

“Indiana cannot be as bad as Illinois, that is for sure, but it’s a dead-end idea that will never be approved by the (Democratic-controlled Illinois) legislature,” said Mike Parsons, a Republican member of the board of commissioners of Clark County.

Authored by House Speaker Todd Huston, the legislation could provide an alternative for those rural Republicans feeling disenfranchised in a state dominated by he Democratic Party. The bill already passed the House by a 69-25 vote in February and is up for a Senate vote on Monday.

But redrawing this state boundary would be a monumental task that hasn’t been accomplished since the Civil War era. It would require the approval of both state legislatures, governors and the U.S. Congress. Even lawmakers in the Illinois counties that voted by large majorities to separate say it has a slim chance of happening. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called the proposal “a stunt,” and even leaders of the two groups pushing for the split from Illinois insist they don’t want to become part of Indiana, at least not now.

“The people did not vote to have their boards look into the possibility of joining Indiana, therefore the people have not given their consent to become Indiana,” said Loret Newlon, director of Illinois Separation Referendum.

“I think it is a non-starter,” said Doug Cochran, the Republican chairman of the Edgar County board, just north of Clark County, where 83% of people voted for the resolution. ”I would think our legislature has better things to do. Illinois has so many problems.”

Edgar and Clark County are two of 33 in Illinois where voters approved the non-binding referendum for “separating from the city of Chicago to form a new state and seek admission as such subject to the approval of the people,” according to the resolution.

Disgruntled in Land of Lincoln

Downstate Illinois Republicans for years have been disgruntled with Democratic rule in the Illinois statehouse and top statewide offices, as well as Chicago’s dominance of the political agenda.

They blame what they consider high taxes, strict gun laws, excessive business regulation and a liberal approach to cultural issues on Chicago’s influence. In that regard, it is the opposite of Indiana, which is ruled by Republicans who have neutered the impact of the state’s biggest controlled cities, including Indianapolis, in which Democrats have majorities.

In Marshall, with a population 3,800, it’s the Democrats who say they are disenfranchised. Registered Republicans greatly outnumber Democrats, and the voters have elected a Republican for president every election except one since 1968.

Todd Kuhn, the only Democrat on the Clark County Board, said there is enough political division and petty cultural trolling without Indiana piling on.

The separation referendum, is “a bunch of bull—-.” Kuhn said.

“They (Republicans) do that kind of crap all the time. It’s stupid as all get out,” Kuhn said. “If they want to be part of Indiana they can jiggle their way across the border and move there.”

Outside Kuhn’s board chambers, Courthouse Square immediately evokes the country’s history of separatism, or unity, depending on one’s point of view, with a statue of President Abe Lincoln on the front lawn, stove top hat in hand. Lincoln made frequent stops in the county and tried cases there as an attorney, according to the city, and Marshall was the site of an extended dispute during the Civil War involving Union Army deserters.

Most residents in Clark County are quite familiar with Indiana. Some work there or have gone to school there and regularly trek across the Wabash River to visit Terre Haute for shopping and meals. They said adjusting to the life-style in a new “Illiana,” territory wouldn’t be difficult, and many set their clocks to eastern standard time, in concert with Indiana, already. Even their sports allegiances are divided, with plenty of Indiana State University basketball fans and backers of the Colts and Pacers among them.

“One thing I wouldn’t mind is being on eastern time because my company does so much work there,” said Bloodworth, the roads critic, who owns a house painting company and is a Democratic Party official “I’m tired of getting out to a job and everyone has an hour head start on me.”

Otherwise, he said, the idea of annexation was “absolutely asinine.”

“Property taxes are probably lower in Indiana but so are wages, so any financial advantages is a wash,” Bloodworth, 65, said.

Kuhn added that his son, a heavy equipment operator and union member, would make $8 less per hour if he worked in Indiana

“And if he goes on unemployment he gets twice as much here,” Kuhn said.

But the rural lifestyle match is also tempting for some residents across the border, who say they could easily be spiritual, cultural and political BFF’s with Hoosiers. The world’s biggest gavel, rocking chair and teeter-totter in Clark County is a better fit with Southern Indiana’s grain silos than the world’s tallest buildings in Chicago.

“The way I look at it is that Illinois has the highest taxes in the nation, and people are leaving this state in droves already,” said Lori Antrim, 56, who has owned an antique restoration business, Ovie’s Attic, at the end of a dead-end dirt road in Marshall for 10 years. “I am not a fan of Chicago. When I tell people I’m from Illinois the first thing I say is ‘not Chicago.’ But that is where all our taxes are going. We are country folks here. Why not be part of a state in which the people share our values?”

Mike Murphy, 71, of Marshall, said people outside of Chicago feel forgotten by the governor

“He is just looking for ways to give our money away,” he said. “Our vote doesn’t matter.”

Bev Murphy, 68, Mike’s wife, said they share “morals” with the rural residents of Indiana, including a rejection of “woke” ideology and even legalized marijuana — forbidden in Indiana — which she said creates more societal problems while solving few.

At the Silo restaurant in Marshall, owner Hannah Spittler, 44, said she would likely support annexation because business regulation is so onerous in Illinois. She already takes regular trips to Indiana for supplies and other business, as well as entertainment.

“Absolutely, there are so many issues here, especially for small business growth,” she said. “If it doesn’t concern Chicago there is no consideration of us.”

The Silo started out as a food truck called Roosters and, ironically, might still be operating if not for regulation, she said.

“I had to get permits for every county. They were taxing us to death,” Spittler said while giving a final look-over to a row of thick hamburgers for an early lunch rush.

Now, she says, the restaurant on Michigan Avenue featuring ribeye sandwiches, brisket and steaks, is a destination restaurant for people from several states, including regulars from as far away as Lafayette.

“We are already supported by Indiana so it could be a perfect fit,” Spittler said.

A movement’s beginnings

Colin Cliburn, then of Athens, Illinois, started the separation movement in 2018, as kind-of a lark, he said. He said he was looking to get into politics and searching for something that would make a splash but knew his pet issue, husband’s rights, wouldn’t get much traction.

“That’s something I never told anyone,”  he told IndyStar.

The name Illinois Separation was snappy, drew attention and was a good way to send a message to Chicago about just how angry down-states were.

Cliburn said he faced skepticism but that faded as his organizing on Facebook blossomed and he created a “spiderweb” of 24,000 followers.

“When I first started, they said I was a radical loose cannon,” he said. “My first meeting 10 people showed up. But a lot of people felt the same way, and I knew I had something people would be fired up and support. I always said I would do whatever it takes to save Illinois.”

Downstate residents were upset with how their taxes were being spent by Chicago politicians during perennial budget crises while pension plans were severely underfunded, not to mention their penchant for landing in prison, he said.

“There is just a lot of frustration in Southern Illinois. Our hands are tied,” Cliburn said.

In 2020, the first 26 county referenda passed, Cliburn said.

Cliburn no longer has any connection with the movement, which continues and placed seven successful referenda on county ballots last Fall that garnered media attention, including notice by the Indiana legislators.

Cliburn still supports the cause but said a separate state or annexation “is never going to happen.” Part of the problem, he said, is “our Republicans are dogs–t.”

“We’ll probably never have a Republican governor again,” he said.

Loret Newlin, a massage therapist from Newton Ill., not far from Clark County, was with Cliburn in the early days and continued pushing the referenda to the 2024 election.  The group is now called Illinois Separation Referendum and has gathered interest from a total of 68 of the state’s 102 counties, Newlin said. The ballot measures that have passed have done so with an average of 74% of the vote, she said.

Another group, led by G.H. Meritt, of northwest Illinois, is called New Illinois, whose goal is forming an entirely new state.

While the two groups don’t work together, they work in concert and complement each other.

Merritt was contacted by Huston’s office last month and testified at a committee meeting about the group’s work, where she told them that it doesn’t want the state to be annexed by Indiana.

“We’re glad they (Indiana) see us and recognize us, but we don’t want to join Indiana, we want to split from Illinois and form our own state,” she told IndyStar.

Newlin said her group voted to form a separate state and would entertain becoming part of Indiana if every county agrees to it in another vote.

She said there is some support for being annexed.

“They might (vote yes), if given the opportunity through a different referendum, should the Indiana proposal be presented to the others,” she said.

Indiana legislators say they will press forward, regardless.

“Things are better in Indiana than they are in Illinois,” Baldwin said. ”Rural Illinois counties align more with Indiana’s policies as far as political and cultural issues.”

Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418. Email at john.tuohy@indystar.com and follow on X/Twitter and Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Do Illinois separatist counties even want to become Hoosiers?