Not quite (Updated)
Wednesday, Nov 19, 2025 - Posted by Rich Miller
* A few weeks ago, Republican guberntorial candidate Ted Dabrowski tried to pin the death of two people allegedly caused by an Indiana man on Gov. Pritzker.
* Today, the Tribune published a Dabrowski op-ed responding to an editorial entitled “What’s the point of Illinois Republicans?” An excerpt…
I love Illinois just as all conservatives do, but I am dismayed by what it has become under the tenure of Pritzker and his supermajority.
The point of the Republican Party is to conserve the amazing assets Illinois has developed — e.g., its infrastructure, industry, universities, arts, et al. — while developing new ones. Both require systemic change in Illinois.
When Jimmy John’s founder Jimmy John Liautaud announced that he was moving his company’s headquarters out of Illinois in 2012, he said the thing that really galled him was not the state’s taxes so much as its policies. “What I mind is how they spend the tax. I would stay, but the way they spend the tax is what’s really driving me away,” he said.
Since then, the bait-and-switches with taxpayer money that drove Liautaud away have exploded.
Except, the company’s headquarters is still in Champaign. From a 2019 News-Gazette article after the company had been sold…
Jimmy John’s also recently expanded its Champaign headquarters, which Liautaud told News-Gazette Media in 2017 employs about 100 people.
In 2011, Liautaud threatened to move the Champaign headquarters out of state after Illinois increased its corporate tax rate from 3 to 5 percent.
He eventually kept the corporate office on Fox Drive in Champaign, but moved Jimmy John’s licensing company to Florida, where he has a home.
As of 2021, Liautaud was registered to vote in Florida, but his spouse was registered to vote in Illinois, according to Forbes.
…Adding… It should also be noted that Liautaud was wooed by several other states and still decided to keep his headquarters in Illinois…
The Jimmy John’s sandwich chain founder has been flown to Austin, Texas, on a private jet for a tour of the city, offered a $3.5 million in tax incentives from the state of Michigan and has had Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels give him his cell phone number since Liautaud said he was leaving Illinois because lawmakers raised income taxes last year.
- Archpundit - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 12:39 pm:
The Trib could fact check op-eds. Not doing it is a telling choice at this point.
- Big Dipper - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 12:59 pm:
The Trib recently called Liberty Justice Center libertarian-leaning when it is far right and hired someone from Illinois Policy Institute for its ed board so its credibility is pretty much nonexistent at this point.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:06 pm:
“The Trib could fact check op-eds. Not doing it is a telling choice at this point.”
I’m almost 50 and the Tribune op-ed page has been full of lies and nonsense my entire life. It could not have existed if it were thoroughly fact checked, ever. Fact checking isn’t even a premise in that space.
- DS - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:20 pm:
So you’re saying Dabrowski’s claims don’t cut the mustard?
- Jibba - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:20 pm:
Exactly how was Jimmy John unhappy with state spending? Prisons and roads? No, he was unhappy paying more when he could move and save millions. Simple as that. And unhappy that the GOP could not take power in Illinois. He took his ball and went home.
- Oklahoma - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:21 pm:
The Illinois Republican party has been mostly talking about the same three dudes for the past 10 years (Liautaud, Uihlein, and Griffin). Don’t they have other dudes?
- TheInvisibleMan - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:27 pm:
I’m not going to underestimate Dabrowski. In fact I’m going to say I think he’s fully aware of what he’s saying. He has chosen his words very carefully, and deliberately.
“When Jimmy John’s founder Jimmy John Liautaud announced that he was moving”
That’s a true statement. He did announce that.
He didn’t actually do it. But he did announce it. That’s a big part of the wordsmithing game Ted is playing here.
“is what’s really driving me away”
And it seems he personally moved to Florida, making this also a true but irrelevant statement in the story. He didn’t move the business HQ though, just himself.
But then Ted gets overwhelmed by the emotion of thinking he’s pulling a fast one on people, and gets sloppy in his phrasing.
“Since then, the bait-and-switches”
Ted used the bait of making a two true statements about an announcement and then an irrelevant action taken by an authority figure supportive of his positions, and then tries to switch us into reasons why public policy should be changed merely by association with his first ‘true’ but unabashedly misleading statements.
Two truths and a lie.
I have no patience for this wordsmithing. If I voted republican, I’d be upset with people like Ted who clearly see me as dumb enough to fall for the rhetorical tricks he likes to use.
PointyWires, indeed.
- Think again - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:28 pm:
=Jimmy John Liautaud=
Glad they stayed in IL. For the record, Jimmy has quietly donated millions to local Champaign area causes, and he is currently an advisor to the Jimmy John’s brand, as he cashed out many years ago…
“Thirty-six years after founding his eponymous sandwich chain in a converted garage in Charleston, Illinois, Jimmy John’s founder Jimmy John Liautaud is selling his remaining stake in the company to Inspire Brands for an undisclosed amount.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2019/09/25/inspire-brands-expands-its-restaurant-empire-purchasing-jimmy-johns-at-undisclosed-price/
- City Zen - Wednesday, Nov 19, 25 @ 1:42 pm:
Why set the wayback machine to 2012 for a segway to current events?