40 Comments - Steve - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:43 am: Why doesn’t JB have a right to identify someone for what they are? - FocusedDem - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:45 am: #Bissplease - Mann Horace - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:45 am: If JB is worried about Tweets from volunteers for his opponents it makes me wonder if he’d be a complete micromanager as governor. - Techie - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:48 am: The question is valid regardless of who asked it. What I’d like to know is Pritzker’s response to the substance of the question. Also a fair point by the Biss campaign that Lindquist is a volunteer, not a paid staffer, though Pritzker’s use of the word “work” was sufficiently vague to include someone who works for the campaign but is unpaid. - Hamlet's Ghost - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:48 am: If Biss is worried that JB is worried about Tweets from volunteers for his opponents it makes me wonder if he’d be a complete micromanager as governor. It’s turtles, all the way down. - Seats - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:48 am: I don’t see why this is out of bounds. He didn’t insult her, just pointed out that the individual is coming with very biased lens. It isn’t JB’S fault the interviewer associated the wrong name to the question. If anything it isnkind of inpressive - Flapdoodle - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:49 am: All’s fair, etc., etc. If a candidate gets a hostile question and recognizes the source, why shouldn’t the candidate say so? However, it was a pretty good question and Pritzker should have been able to flip it to his advantage. - Seats - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:49 am: *kind of impressive to have that name recognition. Didn’t mean to bump the submit key earlier. - Northsider - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:49 am: Ah, Silly Season. I can’t wait for March 20 and the 8- to 12-hour break we’ll enjoy before it starts up all over again. - DuPage - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:50 am: Compared to the outright lies that many politicians are doing, this was very benign. - Retired Educator - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:50 am: The questioner identified her, Pritzker acknowledge that he knew who she was, and worked on the Biss campaign. How is this an issue? He did not select the question, it was provided to him. As we get closer to the Primary, this kind of umbrage is going to be taken for some really silly things. If you gave some of these people a thousand dollars, they would complain because you didn’t give them a thousand and one. Arguments just to argue. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:51 am: It makes a man worth 3+ billion dollars look small and petty. You can acknowledge paid Staff and Crew, but this response to a volunteer, about a question asked, and the candidate tries to diminish the person asking, as it might help in the moment… … looks small and petty. Why punch down, it’s a question, answer it, move on. It makes a man worth those billions nervous about a volunteer for another campaign, let alone the question. Yikes. - anon - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:55 am: == I don’t see why this is out of bounds. He didn’t insult her, just pointed out that the individual is coming with very biased lens. = Agree - One hand //ing - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:55 am: I don’t see an issue here, except that Biss seems desperate and a better Pritzker answer would have been “unlike my opponents, I’m not going to do Bruce Rauner’s work for him and try to turn Democrats against each other.” - Langhorne - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:56 am: Improper? No, just dumb. Answer the question, which is entirely appropriate, and shoulda been in the top 5 in prep. Let a staffer bring up her background. Chalk it up to campaign fatigue/testiness. - PJ - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 11:56 am: Right, because there’s no way he’d ever get a question about his lack of experience and Madigan ties from someone who doesn’t work for an opponent. No one else in Illinois is curious about those things; doesn’t seem like a question he should ever be prepared to answer. - Perrid - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:02 pm: If he had answered the question, which granted was framed in a way that there wasn’t a really good way to respond, very hostile, then I would have no problems with it. Calling out questions that are clear attacks, while answering them as best you are able, is fine. - Back to the Future - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:02 pm: Agree that it does look small and petty. Just answer the question. - Anonymous - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:12 pm: If JB is looking at Twitters of volunteers, he’s GOT to be glued to CapFax - say your piece, people. - Big Chief - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:17 pm: I am also a Biss volunteer. Elizabeth is my friend. Don’t understand how either has anything to do with answering the question. I, and a lot of voters, know how much Trump’s lack of experience is hurting his performance. Will it be different with JB? - You could say that, I couldn't - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:21 pm: I think it should take more than just support/volunteering for an opponent before a regular person gets called out for it. This is especially true in a primary. The problem here is that whoever wins the primary, and JB Pritzker has a really good shot, is going to need the support of volunteers like Lindquist in the general. Why call her out? I mean, if there was something more to it, sure. But just because she’s an outspoken Biss supporter? Not only is it petty, it’s unnecessary — it’s pretty clear the question came from someone who supports one of his opponents without even pointing that fact out. On the other hand, on a scale of 1-10 of how significant this kerfuffle is, it’s below a 1. Certainly not worth the amount of time Biss’s campaign put into it. Advice to all candidates: regular voters get to decide who they like. Persuade them to change their minds, but don’t attack them for their decision. - Seats - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:25 pm: “The problem here is that whoever wins the primary, and JB Pritzker has a really good shot, is going to need the support of volunteers like Lindquist in the general. Why call her out?” He should have attempted to answer the question afterwords but again I don’t understand the issue. For me “calling someone out” is pointing out a fact that you don’t want others to know. I would think it would be a bit flattering if anything to know that my voice is being heard but that is just my opinion. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:27 pm: ===Improper? No, just dumb. Answer the question, which is entirely appropriate, and shoulda been in the top 5 in prep. Let a staffer bring up her background. Chalk it up to campaign fatigue/testiness.=== This is probably 98.9% of it, well said - Langhorne - We talked about Ives and her auto-pilot talking points yesterday. “Same” Fatigue. Not improper, just “ugh”. And that “ugh” I’d less than “less” - Biss volunteer - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:27 pm: She’s a voter, and if JB wins she’ll be one of his constituents. Have some respect, JB. - Progressive Dude - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:27 pm: I know Elizabeth and she is not paid by the Biss campaign. We need more people like Elizabeth involved in politics. She is smart, passionate and knows why this election is so important for Progressives in Illinois. #BissPlease - Responsa - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:36 pm: Looks so petty and too inside baseball that JB seems to be focusing on this. It’s a commonly heard question about his credentials to lead and his lack of political experience. Would he be complaining and tweeting about it the same way if Carol Marin was the person whose question it was? Would the question have more legitimacy if someone like Carol Marin asked it on Twitter? - One from Chicago - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 12:53 pm: It’s a question people ask in the age of Trump and Rauner. He should have a good answer to it. Picking on the person asking the question, no matter how hostilely the question is framed, looks weak - especially when you do that to avoid answering the question. - Precinct Captain - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:03 pm: Is this the new version of a candidate getting spooked by an opponent’s yard signs? - Bisstake - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:07 pm: It is totally appropriate. This question was a plant by the biss campaign. That should be disclosed. - ILDemVoter - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:23 pm: I’m confused- he was asked a (valid) question and then called out the wrong person– from 1 to Donald Trump on the petty scale…that’s a Donald Trump level petty move. Its one thing to call out other politicians and “insiders” but random volunteers is odd. - Three Dimensional Checkers - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:24 pm: It is kind of creepy. First, Pritzker needs all the Democratic support if he wins. Calling out volunteers doesn’t support unity. Second, it is creepy that someone so rich has that good of a clout list in his head. Maybe I am wrong, but Pritzker comes off a little frustrated in person. He should learn to let thing go more. - Rich Miller - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:29 pm: ===I’m confused- he was asked a (valid) question and then called out the wrong person=== You’re confused because you apparently have serious reading comprehension problems. He was told the question was from Lindquist. The interviewer made a mistake. - Dana - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:39 pm: Hi Bisstake, It was my sincere question that was read on the air. I am an informed voter, not a “plant by the biss campaign” as you suggest. JB did not answer the question, by the way. - Arthur Andersen - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:44 pm: I think Langhorne, as he often does, nailed the best way to handle the question/questioner, so I won’t restate his comments. I just want to point out that JB, if he does watch his Twitter closely, could be mighty frustrated by Team Biss’ Tweeters. They are unrelenting, let me tell ya. JB needs to follow Colin Powell’s timeless advice if that’s the case; “Never let ‘em see you sweat.” - JB is racist - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:47 pm: Wow. He needs to drop out. - Dan Johnson - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 1:55 pm: Whatever spokesperson for JB gave the line “Yeah, he goes on Twitter. He’s a human.” should get a medal. And at least be referenced by name. Very funny. - Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 2:19 pm: As an apolitical observer who follows CapFax mostly for its fascinating social and cultural anthropology, this is inside baseball stuff. JB’s ID’ing the question from a campaign worker is mildly amusing, and demonstrates either one of those guys who never forgets a detail however small, or one who is obsessed with his opposition. Would appreciate his answering the question though; if he followed through with a good answer it would soften the rub with some of those who were taken aback. - Anon0091 - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 2:26 pm: “Whatever spokesperson for JB gave the line “Yeah, he goes on Twitter. He’s a human.” should get a medal. And at least be referenced by name. Very funny.” Dan Johnson is right. I’m on Twitter and I see her tweets on Biss and JB all the time. I assumed she worked for Biss but never gave it more than a second’s worth of thought. And yea, he did answer the question. Talk about silly season. - James R. Anderson - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 2:48 pm: If the question is who has political experience, the answer is Bob Daiber. (And Rich knows I work for Bob Daiber) - ILDemVoter - Friday, Mar 2, 18 @ 3:30 pm: Rich: To clarify, I read carefully (again) and saw the radio host made the mistake. I’m confused about *where* he pulled Elizabeth’s name from. Does WBEZ read Twitter too?? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.