I’VE NEVER KNOWN A POLITICIAN WHO DIDN’T THINK HE OR SHE BELONGED IN A higher office. Alderpersons look in the mirror and see a mayor. Comptrollers and treasurers see a governor. A host of other politicians have their eyes on the U.S. Senate seat of Dick Durbin.
The senator will be 82 when his fifth term expires in 2027. He will have tied Shelby Moore Cullom’s record of 30 years as Illinois’s longest-serving senator. Durbin’s seatmate, Tammy Duckworth, is just 55, so his retirement would create a once-in-a-generation opportunity for an ambitious politician to move up. Durbin has not yet announced whether he will run again
