After the hour-long debate, Pritzker took a handful of questions from reporters who tried to pin him down on more specifics left unanswered in the back-and-forth between him and Bailey.
Bailey, however, did not choose to meet the press, instead sending a campaign staffer who briefly addressed reporters left waiting in the so-called “spin room.”
“It is clear the senator won the debate tonight,” Bailey spokesman Joe DeBose said before saying his boss wouldn’t be answering questions.
“I’m just here to tell you that we won and winners don’t need spin,” he said, donning a black cowboy hat as he left the room.
Nice touch on the hat.
* The full BlueRoomStream video is here. But here’s a clip…
“I’m just here to tell you that we won and winners don’t need spin,”
I’d feel embarrassed for them if the high school debate captain acted like this, and this is a grown man being paid by a nominally professional campaign.
Bailey is the kind of clown you nominate when you think elections should be ordinations of your party leaders. Next time maybe they’ll run McGruff the Crime Dog for governor.
- Google Is Your Friend - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:14 am:
How did “Mission Accomplished” work out for George W. Bush?
That was the quote that stood out to me, and where he lost any credibility he might have had as an advocate for working people. Saying his song would be “Working Man” doesn’t change a thing.
A reporter should have asked Bailey if the General Assembly controls everything and you don’t believe in executive orders why do you want to be Governor. You can sit down at a table and gab as a private citizen.
- Back to the Future - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:44 am:
Arsenal makes a good point about underfunded candidates needing as much exposure as they can get.
I did think Bailey did “win” the encounter (not sure I would call the event a debate), but skipping the after encounter question and answer option was a missed opportunity.
Also agree that if you are going to put on a cowboy hat on TV it should be a White Hat.
For anyone who believes Bailey’s claims to unite the state, and sit down with people to solve problems, this should be a red flag. If he can’t talk to the press about how he wants to “fire JB” and lead the state, he’s not going to be a uniter.
It seemed like the Governor was going through the motions. He looked like someone who knows he has the election won and realized that all he needed to do was avoid any kind of gaffe that would cause headlines today. He either hasn’t taken the time to do a deep dive on the Safe-T Act, or more likely he has and decided that the best course was to be vague so as not to annoy voters or legislators.
Bailey showed his lack of qualifications to be the Governor. He constantly repeated his “zero-based budgeting” nonsense and at one point said, as I recall, that he would identify $10-15 billion in waste.
Bailey railed against the Safe-T Act and calls for its repeal, even though there is no chance of that happening given the composition of the General Assembly. At the same time, he refuses to say what he would like to do with the abortion issue because there is no chance of that happening given the composition of the General Assembly. Of course, soft-pedaling his position on abortion is an attempt to reassure the folks to whom abortion is an important issue in light of Dobbs. In the case of the Safe-T Act, his position is an attempt to generate fear and obtain votes that way.
== Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats also think Bailey won the debate==
Oh boy the lady who said Pritzker wasn’t campaigning because he was downstate and didn’t let her relationship with they guy in the CPD a comms shop stop her from covering CPD is on your side! Must feel great.
Yesterday I predicted that no matter what, bailey would declare victory. It is right out of the trump play book.
Tough to see a “winner”from last night, but Pritzker kept his cool throughout all of the bailey childishness. I would rate Pritzker a C/C+ for last night and bailey a D/D-.
Bailey choked on abortion, unions, finance,and guns and had a massive whiff on education (threw a bit of a hissy in fact).
Pritzker missed big on crime and missed a chance to crush bailey on education.
=Bailey was visibly angered by questions about his full armor…school?
Don’t ask Bailey any questions that make him mad…ok?=
Bailey made this fair game when he attacked public ed with lies and has brought up his school many times. The moderators should have pressed him on this.
And not speaking after should tell everyone all they need to know. The bailey handlers will not allow him to answer questions.
=Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats…=
You may want to go back and take a look at that. Maryanne A. and Awake were his proponents. MA is legit but the rest of the posts were none too kind and Awake is a weird pervy group of oppressors.
“Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats also think Bailey won the debate”
Mary Ann Ahern is a TV “political reporter,” as such you can’t expect her to be able to conceive of politics as anything other than entertainment, which is the business she is in. She’s looking for gotcha TV moments, that’s the entire basis for her saying Bailey “won.”
In other words the fundamental premise of her reporting on debates, much like the Washington media, is that the public is too stupid for actual substantive analysis to be worthwhile.
In hindsight, I am left with the impression there was no winner last night. Not the press, not the candidates, not the people.
I know the saying is that for the incumbent, the goal is not to fall, not to slip, etc. While I was not impressed with the Governor’s performance, I would suggest is was mediocre, and thus nothing worth noting.
Bailey, the person who needed to either stake a claim or make the other slip, did neither.
All in all, it was just a waste of time, a waste of my viewing time. I should have surfed the web.
=A reporter should have asked Bailey if the General Assembly controls everything and you don’t believe in executive orders why do you want to be Governor. You can sit down at a table and gab as a private citizen.=
This.
Bailey will repeal a bunch of stuff, but can’t change abortion (which is a tactic close to “it is settled law” only then to try and make changes).
Which is it? You are going to make changes or you cannot?
Ah the walk up song really sealed it for me…uh, not really. Come on. Bailey beclowned himself and acted like a petulant child constantly interrupting and audibly signing. And he still has zero ideas. Grow up.
==Bailey was visibly angered by questions about his full armor…school==
I wonder if Darren would be angry if he were asked how they can afford to equip each classroom at FACA with a gun, yet don’t feel proper servicing of the fire extinguishers is necessary. I guess it might have to do with that “zero-based” budgeting. Just no money left after the essentials like firearms are covered to pay for optional things like fire extinguishers.
I thought the hat and the comment were ridiculous and disrespectful and if the governor or his team had done something like that it would have prompted widespread, appropriate outrage.
I realize no one thinks Bailey is going to win so there is this weird thing where reporters are grading him on a curve but I thought this little performance- combined with the interrupting and nonsensical answers on things like abortion and unions during the actual debate - made it a bad night for Bailey.
I feel like I wake up everyday worried our country is falling apart and I’ve got the gate keeping media going on about hats and walk up songs. Do better.
I hope this gets there Rich. Post hurricane nine days still no power and very spotty internet service. So the Bailey rhinestone cowboy got his winner information from the DeVore poll that shows Bailey 55% over Pritzker 45%. The DeVore puppets explain the numbers along with Tom’s posts to Jay Bob on science and Thonleygate. So it’s clear as mud winners don’t need spin.
==I thought the hat and the comment were ridiculous and disrespectful and if the governor or his team had done something like that it would have prompted widespread, appropriate outrage.==
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Bailey continuously thumbs his nose at the idea that he should ever answer questions or explain himself, he constantly insults the state’s largest city, he constantly puts his campaigns in biblical terms, like he’s been anointed by god…
- Blue Bayou - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 8:55 am:
It’s obvious that “withdrawing and declaring victory” is the strategy of winners…..
- FIREDup! - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 8:57 am:
Very professional….
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 8:59 am:
If you’re gonna do a forced mic drop, do it with style.
The lid was a nice touch, while walking away, not at the podium, and he got some buzz for it to boot.
- low level - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:05 am:
Seriously? Thats the best you got? And here I have been reading Bailey’s campaign was full of such young talent? Could have fooled me.
He comes off as just marginally mote mature than his boss but thats not saying much.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:05 am:
“winners don’t need spin”
Aka radicals need to be pressed by the media as little as possible.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:09 am:
DeBose going for Village People cosplay?
- Homebody - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:12 am:
Winners don’t need to tell people they are winners.
- Rabid - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:12 am:
Bailey did win the name that tune before the bell
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:13 am:
“I’m just here to tell you that we won and winners don’t need spin,”
I’d feel embarrassed for them if the high school debate captain acted like this, and this is a grown man being paid by a nominally professional campaign.
Bailey is the kind of clown you nominate when you think elections should be ordinations of your party leaders. Next time maybe they’ll run McGruff the Crime Dog for governor.
- Google Is Your Friend - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:14 am:
How did “Mission Accomplished” work out for George W. Bush?
- 40,000 ft - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:15 am:
The only thing better would have been a white cowboy hat.
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:18 am:
Bailey was visibly angered by questions about his full armor…school?
Don’t ask Bailey any questions that make him mad…ok?
- Jocko - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:18 am:
“He’s coming up…not coming up…”
translation: Ignore the judges scorecards, we got a couple good shots in.
- Anon221 - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:19 am:
And yet… he spun on his heels and basically fled the building. That’s what I would call a “top” notch response /s
- Siualum - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:19 am:
You can hear it now, morning after the election: “It’s clear the senator won the election…”
- Techie - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:20 am:
“Unions, stay in your lane.”
That was the quote that stood out to me, and where he lost any credibility he might have had as an advocate for working people. Saying his song would be “Working Man” doesn’t change a thing.
- Steve Rogers - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:20 am:
I truly believe in the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics especially when I see people like DeBose living in alternate universes.
You know, science.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:22 am:
Let’s be fair — this is probably the best possible spin that Darren Bailey’s campaign can muster.
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:23 am:
===DeBose going for Village People cosplay?===
Only if the final result is litter boxes and Furries …
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:26 am:
For the drama and shock of it, it did it’s purpose.
I can appreciate that.
Appreciating it doesn’t mean it’s how I’d go about or see it as a move…
I’m glad it’s a post today to discuss.
- Suburban Operative - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:33 am:
Such arrogance. I would have fired the staffer right on the spot… however I’m sure this was approved by Bailey and the team. Yikes
- Arsenal - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:33 am:
Winners may not need spin, but underfunded candidates need all the free media they can get.
Another opportunity missed because the people around Bailey are more interested in impressing themselves than winning. Story of Bailey’s campaign.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:34 am:
To Chicago area people who might be wondering where Bailey is from, just say it’s where the cowboy hat people live
- Unionman - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:34 am:
To quote Marshawn Lynch: “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.”
- Kayak - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:34 am:
Is this guy supposed to be Brooks or Dunn? I’m going with Done.
I personally liked the Baileys quote nothing is going to change when I am governor. There’s some serious incentive to go run out and vote.
- Big Dipper - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:39 am:
A reporter should have asked Bailey if the General Assembly controls everything and you don’t believe in executive orders why do you want to be Governor. You can sit down at a table and gab as a private citizen.
- Lucky Pierre - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:40 am:
Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats also think Bailey won the debate
https://mobile.twitter.com/MaryAnnAhernNBC/status/1578188989911400450
- Henry Francis - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:43 am:
Shades of Baghdad Bob and Sean Spicer.
- Back to the Future - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:44 am:
Arsenal makes a good point about underfunded candidates needing as much exposure as they can get.
I did think Bailey did “win” the encounter (not sure I would call the event a debate), but skipping the after encounter question and answer option was a missed opportunity.
Also agree that if you are going to put on a cowboy hat on TV it should be a White Hat.
- AA - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:44 am:
I wish Pritzker would have spoken out more strongly supporting the Worker’s Rights Amendment. And I was disappointed on his answer on the fair tax
- Highland IL - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:45 am:
For anyone who believes Bailey’s claims to unite the state, and sit down with people to solve problems, this should be a red flag. If he can’t talk to the press about how he wants to “fire JB” and lead the state, he’s not going to be a uniter.
- Facts Matter - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:52 am:
It seemed like the Governor was going through the motions. He looked like someone who knows he has the election won and realized that all he needed to do was avoid any kind of gaffe that would cause headlines today. He either hasn’t taken the time to do a deep dive on the Safe-T Act, or more likely he has and decided that the best course was to be vague so as not to annoy voters or legislators.
Bailey showed his lack of qualifications to be the Governor. He constantly repeated his “zero-based budgeting” nonsense and at one point said, as I recall, that he would identify $10-15 billion in waste.
Bailey railed against the Safe-T Act and calls for its repeal, even though there is no chance of that happening given the composition of the General Assembly. At the same time, he refuses to say what he would like to do with the abortion issue because there is no chance of that happening given the composition of the General Assembly. Of course, soft-pedaling his position on abortion is an attempt to reassure the folks to whom abortion is an important issue in light of Dobbs. In the case of the Safe-T Act, his position is an attempt to generate fear and obtain votes that way.
- Arsenal - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:56 am:
== Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats also think Bailey won the debate==
Oh boy the lady who said Pritzker wasn’t campaigning because he was downstate and didn’t let her relationship with they guy in the CPD a comms shop stop her from covering CPD is on your side! Must feel great.
- JS Mill - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:57 am:
Yesterday I predicted that no matter what, bailey would declare victory. It is right out of the trump play book.
Tough to see a “winner”from last night, but Pritzker kept his cool throughout all of the bailey childishness. I would rate Pritzker a C/C+ for last night and bailey a D/D-.
Bailey choked on abortion, unions, finance,and guns and had a massive whiff on education (threw a bit of a hissy in fact).
Pritzker missed big on crime and missed a chance to crush bailey on education.
=Bailey was visibly angered by questions about his full armor…school?
Don’t ask Bailey any questions that make him mad…ok?=
Bailey made this fair game when he attacked public ed with lies and has brought up his school many times. The moderators should have pressed him on this.
And not speaking after should tell everyone all they need to know. The bailey handlers will not allow him to answer questions.
=Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats…=
You may want to go back and take a look at that. Maryanne A. and Awake were his proponents. MA is legit but the rest of the posts were none too kind and Awake is a weird pervy group of oppressors.
- Arsenal - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:59 am:
== Also agree that if you are going to put on a cowboy hat on TV it should be a White Hat.==
I get what you’re saying and I’m not sure you’re wrong, but these guys *want* to be seen as the villains.
Again, getting Bailey into office is at best a secondary goal.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 9:59 am:
“Some city slickers who don’t wear cowboy hats also think Bailey won the debate”
Mary Ann Ahern is a TV “political reporter,” as such you can’t expect her to be able to conceive of politics as anything other than entertainment, which is the business she is in. She’s looking for gotcha TV moments, that’s the entire basis for her saying Bailey “won.”
In other words the fundamental premise of her reporting on debates, much like the Washington media, is that the public is too stupid for actual substantive analysis to be worthwhile.
- H-W - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:05 am:
In hindsight, I am left with the impression there was no winner last night. Not the press, not the candidates, not the people.
I know the saying is that for the incumbent, the goal is not to fall, not to slip, etc. While I was not impressed with the Governor’s performance, I would suggest is was mediocre, and thus nothing worth noting.
Bailey, the person who needed to either stake a claim or make the other slip, did neither.
All in all, it was just a waste of time, a waste of my viewing time. I should have surfed the web.
- Techie - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:14 am:
@Larry Bowa Jr.
Well said. Bailey may have been more on his game as far as delivering his message, but what’s the substance of both candidates’ positions?
That’s where Ahern’s analysis doesn’t go, and why it’s mostly meaningless.
- JS Mill - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:19 am:
=A reporter should have asked Bailey if the General Assembly controls everything and you don’t believe in executive orders why do you want to be Governor. You can sit down at a table and gab as a private citizen.=
This.
Bailey will repeal a bunch of stuff, but can’t change abortion (which is a tactic close to “it is settled law” only then to try and make changes).
Which is it? You are going to make changes or you cannot?
- workingfromhome - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:27 am:
Ah the walk up song really sealed it for me…uh, not really. Come on. Bailey beclowned himself and acted like a petulant child constantly interrupting and audibly signing. And he still has zero ideas. Grow up.
- MoralMinority - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:35 am:
==Bailey was visibly angered by questions about his full armor…school==
I wonder if Darren would be angry if he were asked how they can afford to equip each classroom at FACA with a gun, yet don’t feel proper servicing of the fire extinguishers is necessary. I guess it might have to do with that “zero-based” budgeting. Just no money left after the essentials like firearms are covered to pay for optional things like fire extinguishers.
- DuPaul Alum - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:37 am:
I thought the hat and the comment were ridiculous and disrespectful and if the governor or his team had done something like that it would have prompted widespread, appropriate outrage.
I realize no one thinks Bailey is going to win so there is this weird thing where reporters are grading him on a curve but I thought this little performance- combined with the interrupting and nonsensical answers on things like abortion and unions during the actual debate - made it a bad night for Bailey.
I feel like I wake up everyday worried our country is falling apart and I’ve got the gate keeping media going on about hats and walk up songs. Do better.
- Chris - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 10:59 am:
“ audibly sig[h]ing”
Worked great for Al Gore.
Oh, wait…
- Dotnonymous - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 11:18 am:
As a former six year old, I understand Bailey’s debate behavior…completely.
- Michelle Flaherty - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 12:02 pm:
Bailey: “Unions, stay in your lane.”
Local 150: “We built all of the lanes”
- Dunwich Snorer - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 12:04 pm:
All hat and no cattle.
- MisterJayEm - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 12:05 pm:
“I’m just here to tell you that we won and winners don’t need spin.” — Vladimir V. Putin, February 24, 2022
– MrJM
- Club J - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 1:01 pm:
I hope this gets there Rich. Post hurricane nine days still no power and very spotty internet service. So the Bailey rhinestone cowboy got his winner information from the DeVore poll that shows Bailey 55% over Pritzker 45%. The DeVore puppets explain the numbers along with Tom’s posts to Jay Bob on science and Thonleygate. So it’s clear as mud winners don’t need spin.
- Pundent - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 2:16 pm:
So Bailey’s take is that he’s winning so convincingly that he doesn’t need earned media? Good luck with that.
- Anonymous - Friday, Oct 7, 22 @ 2:32 pm:
==I thought the hat and the comment were ridiculous and disrespectful and if the governor or his team had done something like that it would have prompted widespread, appropriate outrage.==
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Bailey continuously thumbs his nose at the idea that he should ever answer questions or explain himself, he constantly insults the state’s largest city, he constantly puts his campaigns in biblical terms, like he’s been anointed by god…
…but it’s somehow. *JB* that’s arrogant. Weird.
…but it’s somehow