37 Comments - Dirksen - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 9:42 am: Interesting. Bailey goes up on central and downstate markets and 48 hours later dga prob goes up in Chicago. - ;) - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 9:46 am: They’re spending in IL race with a billionaire gov who has unlimited resources at his disposal. If that doesn’t tell you that they’re - rightfully -worried about JB then I don’t know what will. It doesn’t matter whether it is directly in support of JB or if it is meddling in the GOP primary, the point is still the same either way, they’re worried about JB and so they want to be involved and spend. And they should be, he lost democratic votes like mine a long time ago. No amount of money spent will get that vote or any of the votes from our family back. The damage is done. - Give Me A Break - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:16 am: “No amount of money spent will get that vote or any of the votes from our family back. The damage is done” So I suppose you will enjoy Rauner II or Mini Trump? - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:19 am: ===they’re worried about JB and so they want to be involved and spend.=== Doubtful to that. What is not doubtful is the easier path Pritzker has with a GOP nominee that can stave off a Red Wave, that helps Underwood, Casten, and Foster, and the bigger picture nationally. - politicks - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:21 am: Look everyone. Sopmeone who clearly understands nothing about politics made a post saying they know nothing except that Dems are “worried.” (Even though Rich clearly said the DGA did the same thing back in 2018) This should give us every reason to believe this sly genius truly did vote for JB and by gosh, now he’s going to make JB pay by losing the family votes. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:22 am: ===No amount of money spent will get that vote or any of the votes from our family back. The damage is done.=== I can understand this. I do. What’s great about each one of us and our franchise is the opportunity to express through elections our own feelings towards incumbents and/or vote for a necessary change. The options offered outside Pritzker for one who identifies as a Dem are precarious, at best. - Thoughts Of A Moderate - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:31 am: ==helps Underwood, Casten and Foster== I don’t think the DGA is particularly worried about Illinois. They have much bigger worries and see this as a way to spend early and save money long term.. BUT the DGA does not care about helping the contested congressional races here. It is not their mission or within their scope. Please find a better argument. - TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:34 am: == The damage is done. == I’m curious on what policies of his made you vote for him the first time around, and how his governing has been different enough from those policies that you are now changing your mind. Did you think he was lying during his campaign and was secretly going to be another Bruce Rauner simply because he was wealthy? I’m genuinely curious. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:42 am: === and see this as a way to spend early and save money long term=== Yeah, Pritzker is a billionaire, that’s with a B. Pritzker is $50 million in already. Spending to help a billionaire, and only that charge seems more like taking $100 bills and burning them in a fireplace because Pritzker already has the *means* to accomplish any goal he wants. ===BUT the DGA does not care about helping the contested congressional races here. It is not their mission or within their scope. Please find a better argument.=== I’m sure Pritzker cares about a bigger picture and likely sees things easier at home come November for Congressional races, the better it is for him. I thought all Dems are concerned about the congressional seats, and holding the chamber. News to me, for sure. - Joe Bidenopolous - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:58 am: =BUT the DGA does not care about helping the contested congressional races here= Stipulated, BUT, it’s also entirely possible for someone - Pritzker? DCCC? - to wash money through DGA for that purpose. Either way, your first point was the right one - they’re spending now to save later. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 10:59 am: What’s happening in GOP-led states: “don’t say gay” law, banning the teaching of racism in schools, attacking women’s rights and voting rights. DeSantis is Griffin’s guy. Hopefully the DGA ad addresses this. - Hahaha - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 11:36 am: ““don’t say gay” law, banning the teaching of racism in schools, attacking women’s rights and voting rights” Everything in that sentence is either a giant misrepresentation or straight up didn’t/isn’t happening. What’s it like so soundly defeating those strawmen? Make you feel tough? - 47th Ward Friend - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 11:41 am: You mean the abortion bounty hunter laws, the bills attacking trans kids, and the CRT nonsense isn’t real? Must be nice to live in an alternate reality - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 11:46 am: Hopefully it’s an ad to tout one like Bailey; Staunchly pro-life, evangelically packaged, “divisionary”, one who sees two Illinois and tries to attract old, angry, white voters with racial and social divisions at the core. That plays exceptionally well in a primary and sinks the whole ticket if Bailey wins. ‘Nember that picture of Pritzker “sizing up” Bailey on Filimg Day? If this is a “help” or “assist” to Bailey, how much more is that picture funny? Lots. - Ace - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 11:49 am: People cmon. This is Pritzker money to DGA to do this meddling in the primary to prop up Bailey. Just won’t have his paid for on it. Use common sense please. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 11:53 am: ===This is Pritzker money to DGA to do this meddling in the primary to prop up Bailey. Just won’t have his paid for on it.=== Where exactly are you seeing anyone disagreeing? It’s like a geometry theorem. It’s the “Given” The picture to it and what it can/does mean is the parlor game. And unless you “know”, what if it’s an “anti-Irvin” ad? The romantic in me would like it to be very staunchly pro-Bailey, to help Bailey keep up with Irvin… but taking Irvin to task here makes sense, but not as much “fun” to a meddling, more academic than ironically comical. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:05 pm: “Everything in that sentence is either a giant misrepresentation or straight up didn’t/isn’t happening.” Sorry, forgot to include one: they’re trying to ban liberal indoctrination. This is today’s GOP, all about the culture war: CRT, LGBT, woke, criminal thugs. Even George Wallace would disown it. - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:08 pm: ===DGA, let Republicans pick our own nominee. Too scared to play fair?”=== In this update, Is the ILGOP saying Pritzker *can* influence enough to impact the primary? Don’t they have Griffin? It’s interesting to wholly admit, out loud, that Pritzker/DGA can have that much influence… especially if the DGA/Pritzker aid one like Bailey with the base… and it seems like that is bad. A pretty big tell right there. - Give Me A Break - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:13 pm: For a party that gets their lunch handed to them election after election, Don sure does like to talk smack. The Illinois GOP reminds me of the saying, “Alabama Attitude, Vanderbilt Trophy Case”. - Joe Bidenopolous - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:13 pm: ===DGA, let Republicans pick our own nominee. Too scared to play fair?”=== This is pretty GD offensive coming from a political party that tried to overturn a free and fair election - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:21 pm: ===Don sure does like to talk smack=== I dunno. “Too scared to play fair” doesn’t seem like smack talk to me. Like this is supposed to be fair. Right. - Perrid - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:26 pm: Uh if his wealth is bad, the GOP is going to turn away Griffin’s donations, right? Or if it’s just the “inherited” part they don’t like, they’re going to increase inheritance taxes, right? They’re going to be logically consistent, right? - Big Dipper - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:26 pm: So Pritzker is laundering money through the DGA sorta like Tracy laundered illegal campaign contributions through his wife? - Pundent - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:28 pm: =DGA, let Republicans pick our own nominee. Too scared to play fair?= As attempts influence election outcomes go, past present and future, this one seems pretty tame. - OneMan - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:30 pm: == You mean the abortion bounty hunter laws, the bills attacking trans kids, and the CRT nonsense isn’t real? Must be nice to live in an alternate reality == For any of that to happen here, you would need to elect a Republican Governor and have a majority in both houses in Springfield. I am an AARP member and I think that has been the case during 2 of my years on earth. If the GOP manages to do all three in Illinois, win the mansion, and both houses, the Democratic party is having a reallllly bad election. It was a Republican Governor, the much-beloved here Rauner who signed the bill making abortion ‘legal by Illinois law’. I wouldn’t assume that all of the Republicans running for Governor wouldn’t make the same call as he did. From a DGA viewpoint, besides that JB has the money to do it himself, this kind of makes sense. Illinois has been a fan of oppositional government (you could argue that the relationship both Rod and Pat had with Madigan was in some ways oppositional government with Madigan being much more conservative than either of the previous 2 Democratic governors). So Illinois voters have managed in the past to elect GOP governors and Democratic supermajorities in the legislature. Why not encourage a ‘better for JB’ choice? There are candidates that the ‘we will turn into Florida’ argument works better against than others. - The Captain - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:33 pm: When you accuse Pritker’s plan to contribute to the DGA as “to launder Pritzker’s inherited wealth through the DGA” … but then you remember that Rauner also funded his own IE. - PublicServant - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 12:39 pm: DGA, owning the wing nuts. - Siriously - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 1:01 pm: PublicServant makes a great point. The GOP has come to rely on the fringe, ignorant and the hateful wing. The problem for the Republican party is that fire changes direction very quickly. - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 1:08 pm: Personally do not support attacking the opposition from its own flank, but we experienced massive damage thanks to Griffin and Rauner. There is understandable fear it can happen again. Even Bailey should disown Raunerism and run against it—if Irvin is going to go to right wing central casting and remake himself. - Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 1:56 pm: Both frontrunners in the GOP race for governor have openly admitted to voting in Democratic primaries to try and influence the outcome of the other party’s election. Jason Irvin went even further, donating directly to members of Madigan’s caucus. We lost track of how much money Republican Ken Griffin has given to Democrats, but $1 million to Bill Daley in the Chicago mayor’s race comes to mind. I don’t think Don Tracy has a moral leg to stand on here. - Arsenal - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 2:00 pm: == If that doesn’t tell you that they’re - rightfully -worried about JB then I don’t know what will. == Do you think Eloy Jiminez is “worried” about the Royals when he hits a homer, too? Honestly, ya’ll gotta stop assuming that whenever someone makes a clever political move (And this one may, in fact, be too clever by half) that it’s a sign of fear instead of just basic campaign competence. - cover - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 2:29 pm: = “Alabama Attitude, Vanderbilt Trophy Case” = I’m glad I had put my drink down before I read that, otherwise I would be cleaning my monitor right now - Anchors Away - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 3:07 pm: I don’t think the Pritzker people are scared - I think they have enough resources though to not sit on their laurels and let things happen to them as opposed to influencing the field on which they play. That’s just smart politics. And frankly, if they didn’t do that and Pritzker lost in November, everyone here would be chiding them for being too complacent. I’d rather a campaign be aggressive every day than complacent every time. - Pundent - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 4:10 pm: =I don’t think the Pritzker people are scared= I personally think that Pritzker will beat any of his GOP opponents. However, the top of the ticket, assuming its Irvin, could help some of the down ballot candidates. I’m thinking specifically SOS and Treasurer. But Darren Bailey at the top would be disastrous for the party. Don Tracy knows that and Pritzker seems willing to do what he can to help make it happen. - Bruce( no not him) - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 4:23 pm: == considerable weight of his own failures and extreme agenda.=== Is that a subtle fat guy slam? - Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 5:16 pm: @Bruce - It was not subtle at all. - low level - Wednesday, Mar 30, 22 @ 7:01 pm: == DGA, let Republicans pick our own nominee. Too scared to play fair?”== This from the party that wanted to overturn a Presidential election. 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