Statewide stuff
Friday, Feb 27, 2026 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The crypto-backed PAC Fairshake has begun airing this anti-Stratton ad…
* Stratton held an “emergency Press conference” this afternoon to address the crypto-backed ad. From the media advisory…
Today, February 27, 2026 at 12 PM, Juliana Stratton and supporters will gather in Daley Plaza for an emergency press conference in response to the recent news that a MAGA-funded, crypto industry super PAC is spending millions of dollars against Juliana in support of Raja Krishnamoorthi’s campaign for Senate.
Juliana will call on Raja to reject the MAGA money and make sure everyone knows that Raja is for sale, and Illinois isn’t buying it.
From Stratton’s remarks…
We deserve better than the MAGA-backed special interest trying to put their thumb on the scale of this race, and I hope my opponent would agree with that, so I am calling on Congressman Krishnamoorthi to immediately call for the ads to be taken down and reject this MAGA support. And if he’s not willing to do that, well that tells you exactly where he stands.
* New Raja digital ad…
Today, Raja for Illinois released a new digital ad, “The Interview,” exposing Juliana Stratton’s hypocrisy and the truth about her decision to accept corporate PAC money after promising voters she wouldn’t.
When confronted in a WCPT radio interview earlier this month, Stratton was asked a straightforward question about where the PAC money backing her campaign was coming from. Instead of answering, she unraveled — stumbling over her words, contradicting herself, and failing to defend her broken promise.
“Where’s the super PAC money coming from?” asked the radio host in the new spot. “It seems to me most of it is coming from corporations and wealthy individuals.”
“All of the corporate money is from public donors. Excuse me… the… uh, PAC money is from corporate donors… excuse me… all of the PAC money is from public donors,” said Stratton, struggling to keep her story straight to WCPT.
For six months, Stratton has attempted to distract from her own record by running a near-exclusively negative campaign targeting Raja, hypocritically attacking him in ads, on debate stages, in interviews, on social media, in desperate fundraising pleas, and more. Now, Illinois voters can see the truth for themselves — in her own words
I’m pretty sure I posted about that awkward exchange at the time. Click here to watch the ad.
* Rep. Kelly makes a good point about the amount of outside money being dumped into this US Senate campaign. But she won her first congressional primary in 2013 (a special election to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr.) mainly because Mike Bloomberg dumped $2.3 million via his Independence USA super PAC into the race…
* As we’ve already discussed, Sen. Karina Villa’s first TV ad takes a quick swipe at two of her opponents, Rep. Margaret Croke and Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim.
Anyway, a subscriber was polled last night. From the looks of things, Croke or somebody backing her may be gearing up to thwack Villa. This question was about Democratic comptroller candidate Rep. Margaret Croke…
* But then the “concerns” questions switched to Sen. Villa…
* Politico…
Congresswoman Lauren Underwood’s Farm Team PAC is endorsing Karina Villa for state comptroller and Saba Haider the state House seat in the 84th District now held by state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit. […]
Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi has been endorsed by Alexander County Dem Chair Phillip Matthews and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
- Tom - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:24 pm:
That crypto Super PAC ad is brutal. I guess you have to do something, and a press conference is one way to do it. But it will never reach the masses the way paid TV will. Unless, of course, she filmed the press conference for part of a response ad. It’s becoming a fun race to watch.
- Dan Johnson - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:24 pm:
This is the Judiciary Committee Democratic Report from a few months ago on the Trump family personally taking a billion plus from their crypto currency.
https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2025-11-24.hjc-dem-staff-report-trump-crypto-corruption-small_0.pdf
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:30 pm:
- That crypto Super PAC ad is brutal. -
In a close general election I would agree, in a Democratic primary in 2026 I’m not so sure. If Juliana can get the message out that Raja is backed by MAGA, these crypto bros might have just hoisted themselves by their own petard.
- Tom - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:38 pm:
= in a Democratic primary in 2026 I’m not so sure.= Good point, E.B. The problem I see is that the vast, vast majority of people will never understand that crypto bros are behind that ad.
- Alton Sinkhole - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:40 pm:
Not even being snarky, I do genuinely forget Robin is running sometimes.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:53 pm:
- The problem I see is that the vast, vast majority of people will never understand that crypto bros are behind that ad. -
It’s on Stratton or I guess her PAC to fix that, we’ll see if they can.
- short memory - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 1:58 pm:
Trying to claim that “experience” is relevant for this position shows how little people know about the position or the history of officeholders. Many have been former legislators or who could be criticized as having no experience. I would argue the most successful comptrollers were Judy Baar Topinka and Dan Hynes and neither had significant experience in anything but politics. Judy was a self-described lifelong politician who knew how to work with people to get things done and she hired the right people to oversee the office. Hynes was elected at 30 (the youngest exec branch officer) with little experience and proved himself relatively quickly and also hired the right people to do the jobs.
Ironically, the comptroller doesn’t need any experience balancing books or determining which payment systems to use - that’s something for the experts. They have to be able to work with PEOPLE to resolve problems and hire the right people to do the day-to-day work.
- Norseman - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 2:07 pm:
OMG - MADIGAN. Now wait for Pavlovian response.
- Annonin' - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 2:07 pm:
What’s the “emergency”?
Did JB cut the allowance this week?
- hisgirlfriday - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 2:07 pm:
Still haven’t pulled the trigger on my Dem primary ballot but the crypto bros deciding to target her may have just locked my Senate vote for Stratton
- GreenThumb - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 2:13 pm:
As a newcomer to Illinois politics, I was leaning Stratton since I am more aligned as a progressive. I did not know she backed Madigan and will now have to see who earns my vote. Yikes!
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 27, 26 @ 2:20 pm:
=== I did not know she backed Madigan===
He got her elected in the first place.