* Background is here if you need it. From Mark Maxwell…
A Chicago man charged Wednesday for storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6th is also heavily involved in the campaign to elect state Senator Darren Bailey governor. […]
Gary Rabine, who is running against Bailey in the Republican primary contest, reacted to the news of Ligas’ arrest in an emailed statement.
“What happened on January 6th is not acceptable. Anyone convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime on January 6th should be prosecuted,” Rabine said through a spokesman. “Standing up for law and order should unify – not divide – Democrats and Republicans.”
The campaigns for Republican primary hopefuls Jesse Sullivan and Paul Schimpf did not respond to requests for comment about Ligas’ involvement in the January 6 riot.
Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who has said he’s considering a potential run for governor, condemned the rioters and suggested Bailey is not fit to lead the state.
“The angry mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6 attacked our democracy and they deserve to be held accountable,” Kinzinger said. “Those who would encourage these perpetrators and continue to embrace the Big Lie are not equipped to serve as serious leaders.”
The morning after the insurrection, Bailey told his Facebook followers in a livestream video that he didn’t know who was behind the raid, despite overwhelming video evidence the rioters were Trump supporters.
…Adding… And yes, Rabine seems a bit unclear on this whole prosecution before conviction concept.
*** UPDATE *** I missed this in the Sun-Times coverage…
Bailey campaign spokesman Joe DeBose said in a statement the campaign is “shocked by this news and we do not condone any illegal activities.”
“[Ligas] has never been a member of our campaign staff,” DeBose said. “We support law and order and trust the court system to ensure anyone breaking the law is held accountable for their actions.”
…Adding… DPI…
Yesterday, news broke that Lawrence Ligas, a Chicago man arrested for his actions at the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection, was also on the campaign team of Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey. New reporting now shows Ligas was also paid by the Illinois Republican Party for campaign work in 2014.
None of the Republican candidates for governor have forcefully condemned the events that took place on January 6 and several of them refused to weigh in on Ligas’ traitorous, anti-democratic actions at all. The Illinois Republican Party, which previously employed Ligas for campaign work, has cowardly decided to not take a stand, calling into question whether they condone Ligas’ dangerous behavior in their party.
“Why is it so difficult for Illinois Republicans to say that the January 6 attack on our democracy was wrong?” said Democratic Party of Illinois Deputy Director Jake Lewis. “Instead of speaking out against those who attacked the U.S. Capitol Police and attempted to overthrow a free and fair election, Illinois Republicans seem to have gone into hiding. Again, we call on the Illinois Republican Party and all Republican candidates for governor to condemn Mr. Ligas’ actions and say that the failed coup on January 6 was wrong. This shouldn’t be that hard.”
…Adding… The ILGOP responded to the DPI release by pointing to its January 6 statement…
ILGOP Chairman Schneider: “Republicans stand for law and order. To support what is happening in DC today is to violate that principle. Supporting violence and rioting is Anti-American. The ILGOP condemns any and all violence towards our government officials and law enforcement.”
- Ducky LaMoore - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 8:55 am:
“Anyone convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime on January 6th should be prosecuted,”
Strike that, reverse it.
- Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 8:56 am:
==Anyone convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime on January 6th should be prosecuted==
What? Rabine may want to have an editor look over his statements before they are emailed to the press. (Or, he needs to have a quick review of how our justice system works.)
- Roadrager - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 8:57 am:
Getting criticized by Adam Kinzinger is primary gold for Bailey.
- CCapilla - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 8:58 am:
“Anyone convicted beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime on January 6th should be prosecuted…”
My goodness, that would be both double jeopardy and incredibly wasteful as, by definition, they’ve already been convicted of said crime. Unless, of course, Rabine’s first policy announcement is to criminalize crime, thus giving rise to a new chargable offense. Good grief. They walk among us.
- Dori - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:10 am:
It’s refreshing to see a couple of Republicans support law and order in this country.
- TheInvisibleMan - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:11 am:
I see Rabine has as firm a grasp of the criminal justice system process, as he does the electoral process. And vaccines.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:12 am:
===support law and order===
Except one got the order wrong. /s
- Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:17 am:
The current front-runner for the GOP nomination has numerous pics of him mugging with an arrested seditionist, two of the three runner-ups have no comment, the other a little confused on the criminal justice system.
Again, congratulations on your re-election Governor Pritzker.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:20 am:
At some point being associated with insurrectionists will haunt.
Winning a primary only to lose the general election isn’t winning anything unless the whole exercise is to grift off people foolish enough to be proud insurrectionists
Plus, losing for the sake to win the grifting is a thing these days
- Club J - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:21 am:
Mrs. Club J and I were discussing this last night and it came up. Just imagine if Governor Pritzker was involved with Ligas. Bailey would be shouting from the roof tops for him to step down. For Bailey it’s just another day in the neighborhood with his friends.
- zatoichi - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:28 am:
Sen Bailey, graduate of the Sgt Schultz school of political awareness.
- Pundent - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:28 am:
I suspect that Bailey will follow Trump’s lead and simply ignore the controversy or turn it into an attack on the mainstream media and “elites” that feel he’s a threat. As someone remarked yesterday, this will only embolden Bailey’s candidacy as it plays directly to his audience. And as OW points out losing to grift is quite the thing these days. Bailey doesn’t care about being governor, he wants to be a hero to his followers. And the ILGOP is willing to go along because frankly they’re out of alternatives.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:31 am:
@Pundent- I think you are exactly right.
- Jocko - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:34 am:
Has someone checked with Betrivers on the odds of any of these four candidates winning the governorship? It has to be in the high triple digits.
- Fixer - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:39 am:
===Except one got the order wrong. /s===
Baby steps, Rich. Baby steps.
- Southern - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 9:45 am:
Linked to the Jan. 6 rioters? Check.
Posed for photo with the St. Louis gun couple? Check.
Aligned with Tom DeVore & The Science-Deniers*? Check.
If he can just pull off some kind of anti-Muslim stunt, he’ll have the GQP nomination sewn up.
*Tom DeVore & The Science-Deniers would be an excellent name for a band.
- Proud Sucker - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 10:06 am:
“*Tom DeVore & The Science-Deniers would be an excellent name for a band.”
They could cover Clapton and Van Morrison tunes.
- Give Me A Break - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 10:10 am:
Southern, today Bailey will announce his administration will stop the thousands of Spanish Speaking Gay Muslims from streaming across state lines to take away guns from the fine folks of Illinois.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 10:28 am:
Kinda interesting that Rabine is trying to come down hard on the insurrectionists, even if got tongue-tied on it.
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 10:57 am:
-Kinda interesting that Rabine is trying to come down hard on the insurrectionists, even if got tongue-tied on it.-
It sounds that way, though a cynic might ask which part of what happened on 1/6 he found unacceptable - the insurrection part or the certification of the election part.
- Annonin' - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:04 am:
How is it possible that someone attacking part of Gomer’s posse comes out looking dumber than Gomer?
Time to revive the CircularFiringSquad
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:05 am:
===“We support law and order and trust the court system to ensure anyone breaking the law is held accountable for their actions.”===
So can I infer that Bailey repudiates the actions of everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection?
- Back to the Future - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:08 am:
Good to see Congressman Kinzinger engage in this discussion and showing by his comments that he is a person of integrity.
Thinking he would be a very strong candidate in the General Election.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:12 am:
Pretty benign statement by DeBose
More of a “speak and hope” kinda thing; speak to it, hope it goes away.
Plus, it’s not like this individual is a leader of any measure, more like a crazy that clings on to things.
Will others keep the story going? Can they? Dunno.
Not a great look forward Bailey, that’s for sure and didn’t help in that part.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:14 am:
Too the update- weak sauce from the Bailey campaign.
=“[Ligas] has never been a member of our campaign staff,” DeBose said. “We support law and order and trust the court system to ensure anyone breaking the law is held accountable for their actions.”=
Parsing words, no one asserted he was on the “campaign staff” but he was definitely, absolutely a part of the organization. No sane person can look at the ample evidence and see otherwise.
And the “law and order” shtick is weak too. They never answered whether or not DB called police the other day.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:31 am:
=== Thinking he would be a very strong candidate in the General Election.===
Very doubtful.
Kinzinger would have to beat all the Trumpkins, which is possible, sure… but then to think they’d all come home to back Kinzinger?
Like all the Ives Folks who came back to help Rauner…
- Back to the Future - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:54 am:
OW makes a good point on problems the Congressman might have in the primary, but thinking downstate Republicans will figure out that a vote for Bailey is actually a vote to insure Pritzker’s victory in the fall and balance their (rightfully or wrongly) contempt for Pritzker to cause them to have second thoughts about Bailey.
As to the comment about Bailey apparently not calling the CPD, this really bugs me too. If a Chicago Police Officer heard about a call about shots being fired or a woman screaming about a person getting shot that Officer is going to do his or her job and show up. That is how CPD officers protect Chicago folks every second of every day. The response time in these cases is about 3 minutes or less to at absolutely worse a maximum of 5 minutes. The fact that this blowhard would use what he heard to spin a tale to promote himself instead of calling 911 is truly pathetic.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 11:58 am:
=== but thinking downstate Republicans will figure out that a vote for Bailey is actually a vote to insure Pritzker’s victory in the fall and balance their (rightfully or wrongly) contempt for Pritzker to cause them to have second thoughts about Bailey.===
They would be against the grain of the cult-like thinking to own the party and ensure the party is still “theirs”
Kinzinger isn’t running so the question is moot, but an interesting exercise to how far this cult-thinking is willing to sink it all.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 12:20 pm:
====but thinking downstate Republicans will figure out that a vote for Bailey is actually a vote to insure Pritzker’s victory in the fall and balance their (rightfully or wrongly) contempt for Pritzker to cause them to have second thoughts about Bailey.====
They are not capable of that kind of metacognition.
- Pundent - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 12:36 pm:
=but thinking downstate Republicans will figure out that a vote for Bailey is actually a vote to insure Pritzker’s victory in the fall and balance their (rightfully or wrongly) contempt for Pritzker to cause them to have second thoughts about Bailey.=
Many of those that comprise the ILGOP base would actually see Kinzinger as a far worse alternative than Pritzker. Essentially, in their eyes, a Democrat masquerading as a Republican. A vote for Bailey meets the purity test of the party. It’s a vote that doesn’t require any apologies or regret.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 12:39 pm:
===thinking downstate Republicans will figure out that a vote for Bailey is actually a vote to insure Pritzker’s victory===
Kinda doubting that. People don’t usually vote strategically. Also, Trump 2016 upended all sorts of conventional wisdom.
- BCOSEC - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 12:53 pm:
The local leaders of the R party in S IL flew Trump flags which spelled out the “BS” word during the 2020 general. Now the same R leaders fly Trump flags which spell out “F” Joe Biden.It is pretty safe there won’t be much “against the grain” thinking or voting going on in the R primary down here.
I cannot figure out how the evangelical folks square these flags, which are flying on major streets, and which young kids can clearly read, with their core religious beliefs. I haven’t heard of one church speaking out against these obscene flags.
- Bailey’s Book of Faces - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:07 pm:
Let’s ask honest question - is there a plausible chance that Bailey is the next Governor?
Illinois is capable of strange political shifts — I didn’t think Rauner stood a chance, follow-up to that, did we expect Priztker to win by so much?
The reality is that despite how bad of a Gov. Rauner was - Bailey would be a colossal hybrid of Bruce & Blago with a pinch of Quinn’s ineptness.
Prepare for that extraordinary reality and fight like you know what to avoid zero-based budgeting and his cast of craziness. Bottomline, Bailey has an organic following, but is it large enough to move 13-14 percent of the Chicago electorate. Are the suburbanites likely to embrace his anti-Spfld big government ideas.
- MTZ - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:10 pm:
===People don’t usually vote strategically.===
I’ve talked with my dad a lot about that lately. If I wasn’t politically homeless like Joe Walsh and quite possibly, soon anyway, Kinzinger, I would vote for who I thought could actually beat Gov. Pritzker. That’s not how the Republican base views it though. They want purity and loyalty to one man. They’re convinced they’ll win and when they don’t they’ll go into a state of shock and probably say JB rigged the election.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:13 pm:
=== Let’s ask honest question - is there a plausible chance that Bailey is the next Governor?===
The plausibility begins with if he can win the primary.
He can.
He can sink the whole GOP boat. That’s what’s at play. The governing isn’t the thought, it’s the politics, the nomination, and the fallout.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:14 pm:
===I didn’t think Rauner stood a chance===
Then you weren’t paying attention. Pro-choice, Sierra Club member, successful business exec, not anti-gay, played well in the suburbs against an inept incumbent in a terrible off-year election for Democrats with depressed Black turnout.
- Bailey’s Book of Faces - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:22 pm:
OW - how do you stop him in the primary. If he gets even one ounce of outside money, with the big IL money sitting out the primary — it’s his primary to lose.
No disagreement on dragging an entire ticket down, except for downstate south of 80.
Rich - paid attention, electoral PTSD kicked in, but did forget about the depressed African American turnout.
- Pundent - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 1:24 pm:
=I didn’t think Rauner stood a chance, follow-up to that, did we expect Priztker to win by so much?=
As incumbents Governor Quinn and Governor Rauner were very unpopular. Neither outcome was particularly shocking. And neither of those outcomes are directional as to Darren Bailey’s chances.
- Arsenal - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 2:07 pm:
==Let’s ask honest question - is there a plausible chance that Bailey is the next Governor? ==
Yes.
If he gets the nomination, he can plausibly win. I think he’d be well behind any other Replacement Level Republican, but you win a major party nomination in all but the hardiest of districts, you can plausibly win.
- MTZ - Thursday, Dec 2, 21 @ 2:51 pm:
===If he gets the nomination, he can plausibly win. I think he’d be well behind any other Replacement Level Republican, but you win a major party nomination in all but the hardiest of districts, you can plausibly win.===
I see what you’re saying but I really don’t think he stands a chance. Even in the hardest districts, assuming you mean Cook and the collar counties, he’d be popular in a primary. Say he wins those in a primary I doubt that would translate into a victory in the GE. I can’t see his anti-Shecawgo, anti-COVID mitigation efforts and other messages resonating well with moderates in Kane, Lake and Will. He’d need those counties to defeat Pritzker.
That said I’m not convinced Bailey even cares about winning those counties. Either he really thinks he can win with the downstate vote alone or it is a grift. His supporters certainly don’t think they need them.