* Anti-Pritzker signs are being planted on public ways on Chicago’s South Side…

Here's the other. They currently run from the Dan Ryanish to Ashland. Every 20 feet. That graphic is sort of tire tracks? Tractor tracks? Can't begin to think who they're pitching this to. Same with the Devore signs every 10 feet lining 55th through Jackson Park pic.twitter.com/14SS0fSxjV

— Julie Vassilatos (@JulieVassilatos) October 20, 2022

* DGA…

Illinois GOP nominee for governor Darren Bailey is desperately trying to get voters to forget that he groveled for an endorsement from Donald Trump for months.

At this week’s debate, when asked about endorsing a candidate for president in 2024, Bailey dodged saying whether or not he would support Trump.

This completely contradicts his Trump loyalist primary campaign, where he unapologetically embraced the MAGA platform and said Illinois would “roll the red carpet out” for Trump in 2024.

“Darren Bailey is trying to mislead voters and hide that he’s been completely loyal to Trump and the far-right all along,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Illinois voters deserve a leader with a track record they can trust, not someone who changes positions to whatever gets them further ahead.”

* MLL…

Today, the Lightfoot for Chicago campaign published a microsite highlighting quotes from Paul Vallas and Darren Bailey, quizzing Chicagoans on who said which MAGA-like comment.

The website is formatted as a guessing game where users are given direct quotes and are asked if each quote is attributed to Vallas or Bailey. Similarities run rampant between the two men, and many times, it’s hard to tell the difference and who is more extreme and wrong for Chicago.

“Paul Vallas for years now has been an extreme, conservative Republican masquerading as a Democrat,” said Lightfoot campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich. “When compared to a far-right candidate who walks and talks like Donald Trump, Vallas’s disguise completely falls away. Vallas proves to be indistinguishable from MAGA role model Darren Bailey, and neither leader is right for Chicago.”

Click here.

* Budzinski…

Last week, IL13 Republican congressional candidate Regan Deering decided to fully embrace Kevin McCarthy’s radical policy agenda for if Republicans win back the House this November, including expanding school vouchers and gutting Illinois’ public school system.

This is already in line with Deering’s position, who earlier this summer outlined her plan to effectively end public education in Illinois, even saying that “One of my prime issues is going to be advocating for universal school choice [vouchers].”

Nikki Budzinski, Democratic congressional candidate for IL-13, released the following statement: “As the granddaughter of a public-school teacher and someone that comes from a family of educators, this attack on our public schools is especially offensive.

“It’s not surprising that Regan would be so excited to end public education as we know it now. She has proved time and again that she is completely out of touch with working people in Central and Southern Illinois, and this is another example of that.”

* Deering…

Illinois Candidate for Congress Regan Deering released the following statement on the recent Better Government Association investigation into Nikki Budzinski’s special interest payments:

“Nikki has spent millions of dollars calling me an out-of-touch heiress and yet, she made her own millions working for politicians and special interest groups where she always seems to be just outside the line of corruption.

“Her hypocrisy is on full display as she talks about good government and eliminating dark money from politics, but acts as just another part of the Madigan Machine that has held the people of Illinois down for far too long.

“I am running to help end this vicious cycle of corrupt, pay-to-play politics by removing political insiders profiting off the state like Nikki Budzinski from the process. The people of Illinois deserve a representative who will help improve working people’s economic opportunities - not her own.”

* No relation…

A national grassroots Christian organization has named Rep. Mary Miller to its list of 20 “False Prophets” as part of a new initiative to counter Christian nationalism’s distortion of the Gospel and its threat to democracy and equal rights during the 2022 midterm season and beyond.

“There’s nothing Christian about far-right nationalism. Although faith in Jesus has no boundaries, Rep. Mary Miller consistently contorts Christianity to justify her extremist and hateful agenda,” said the Rev. Dr. Dwain DePew, Illinois resident and Faithful America member. “The words and actions of Christian nationalists like Rep. Miller stand for power and hatred, ignoring Jesus’s counter-cultural teachings of love and peace.”

A secondary list of False Prophet “Dishonorable Mentions” also includes gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey.

Leaders of Faithful America, the Christian organization behind the “False Prophets Don’t Speak for Me” campaign against this heretical ideology, note that the list includes both lawmakers who hijack faith to attack democracy and demonize equal rights (such as Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, Senator Josh Hawley, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene) as well as pastors and religious-right strategists (including Franklin Graham, Steve Bannon, and Tony Perkins) who build the Christian nationalist organizing infrastructure of the religious right.

Researchers define Christian nationalism as a political ideology that merges American and Christian identities with the goal of seizing power for conservative Christians and destroying the separation of church and state.

The name “False Prophets Don’t Speak for Me” is a reference to Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

“Christian nationalism is a grave threat to both American democracy and the church,” said the Rev. Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America. “Christian nationalist leaders like Mary Miller come to us in sheep’s clothing, claiming to speak for Christ, but prove themselves to be ravenous wolves by distorting Scripture, spreading misinformation, and inciting political violence. The good news is that these false prophets don’t speak for the vast majority of American Christians, many of whom are speaking out to finally deflate the claims of a right-wing monopoly on faith, reclaiming our religion and its prophetic voice for the Gospel’s true values of love, truth, peace, equality, and social justice.”

* Chicago early vote totals…

The most up-to-date Early Vote and Vote By Mail totals in Chicago, night of Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

The Early Vote total stands at 3,087 ballots cast.

Additionally, 20,120 Vote By Mail ballots have been returned to the Board – total VBM applications stands at 187,516.

The grand total is 23,207 ballots cast so far in Chicago for the November 8th General Election.

* Isabel’s roundup…

* Rep. Casten calls for federal decriminalization of possessing small amounts of cannabis: “We should not be putting people in jail for low-level drug offenses,” Casten told the Daily Herald in a recent online interview. Casten’s Republican challenger in the mostly suburban 6th Congressional District, Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, refused to participate in the interview or answer questions about the nation’s drug laws and other subjects.

* Underwood has big financial lead over Gryder in 14th Congressional District race: Underwood’s campaign raked in about $1.2 million between July 1 and Sept. 30 — more than three times Gryder’s $348,041 quarterly fundraising haul. Likewise, Underwood has raised about $6.4 million since the campaign began — more than 14 times Gryder’s $439,720 total for the cycle. Neither has gotten much financial help from their respective political parties — indicating party leaders expect an Underwood victory, said Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield.

* Election day is around the corner, how is Candidate Jack Vrett feeling?: Arlington Heights veteran and attorney Jack Vrett is challenging Mark Walker for State Rep. in IL District 53. He and the Steve Cochran Show talk about how the mood of the country has shifted towards the “middle”, how he’s going to fight corruption, and he weighs in on recalling State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

* New grant targets political violence prevention in southern Illinois: “I don’t think the right or the left has a full monopoly on violence,” Weerarante said. “So whether you are on the right or the left you can have violent elements with your group.”[…] “The first part of the grant is we are going to do a survey of people in southern Illinois and the second part is based on the data that we get from the survey where we do training sets,” Weeraratne said.

* Regan Deering takes on Nikki Budzinski: In a congressional district drawn to favor Democrats, Republicans believe they have reason for optimism. But just how much optimism is justified remains a bit of an open question for the Illinois 13th Congressional District, which pits Republican Regan Deering against Democrat Nikki Budzinski.

* Endorsements…

* Chicago Tribune Endorsement: For the U.S. House: Jackson, Kelly, Ramirez, Garcia, Quigley

* Gov. Pritzker, Lt. Gov. Stratton Endorsed by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

* Daily Herald endorsement: Pettorini for House Dist. 61

* Daily Herald endorsement: Mussman for state rep in 56th District