* Press release…

Kwame Raoul, Democratic candidate for Attorney General, issued the following response to news of a federal indictment charging Russian officials for conspiring to interfere with the 2016 election in Illinois:

“With foreign adversaries interfering in Illinois elections, there must be full disclosure and consequences. I fought to get us out of Crosscheck to protect voter privacy. We can’t trust Trump and Rauner to safeguard our elections; as Attorney General, I will investigate any attempts to infiltrate our electoral systems or steal voter data. Our data must be secure, and we must be safe from attack.”

Earlier today, when asked by Crain’s Chicago Business about whether she would sue the Trump administration if elected Attorney General, Republican Erika Harold said she would not enter into lawsuits like those regarding family separation at the border, access to affordable healthcare, or a woman’s right to choose, dismissing efforts to protect our rights as “purely political.”

* From that Greg Hinz Crain’s piece…

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today took a step that has become almost routine in the past year and a half. She sued President Donald Trump’s administration, this time over its decision to withhold $6.5 million in law enforcement funds amid a dispute over how the state deals with illegal immigration.

The action was only the latest in a string of 28 lawsuits Madigan has filed over deportation of DACA recipients, provisions of Obamacare and a lot more. And with the Chicago Democrat retiring this fall after 16 years in office, the question of whether or not to continue such policies has become the sleeper issue in the contest to succeed her between the Democratic nominee, state Sen. Kwame Raoul, and the Republican candidate, attorney and Harvard Law School graduate Erika Harold.

The question shows signs of sparking a sharp debate between Raoul and Harold. […]

“I believe the attorney general’s office should not be using their scarce resources to enter into lawsuits for purely political purposes,” she said in a statement. “As attorney general, I would only sue the federal government if Illinois law has been implicated or the federal government has acted in violation of the Constitution.” she said, adding that she does happen to agree with Madigan on the $6.5 million. […]

Madigan, in her own statement, says she has no second thoughts. She says she’s “sued the federal government over executive orders, rule rollbacks and policy reversals because they pose a threat to our civil liberties, our environment and public safety efforts throughout Illinois.” And she’s also sued over new rules eliminating so-called “net neutrality” charges by telecom and internet providers.