A new WGN-TV/The Hill/Emerson College Polling survey of likely GOP primary voters shows Irvin leading the field with 24.1% support, followed by Bailey with 19.8%. […]
The gubernatorial primary also has an education divide: Irvin leads Bailey among those polled with college or postgraduate degrees 30% to 17%. Bailey leads Irvin among those without a college degree 23% to 18%. […]
Forty percent of Republican primary voters say abortion should be legal only in cases of rape, incest and when the woman’s life is endangered. Eighteen percent say it should be illegal in all cases and 15% say it should be legal up to 20 weeks. Another 15% say legal in all cases and 13% say legal up to six weeks of pregnancy.
Spend that kind of money and only leading in a reputable poll by 4 points? Not great.
The Emerson College Polling Illinois poll of Republican primary voters was conducted May 6-8, 2022. The Republican primary sample consisted of somewhat and very likely voters, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, education, race, and region based on 2022 turnout modeling. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity, and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. Data was collected using a cellphone sample of SMS-to-web, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines, and an online panel provided by Amazon MTurk.
…Adding… Bailey campaign…
This polling confirms what most Illinoisans have known for months; this primary election is a two-person race for the heart and soul of our Republican Party. The choice is clear between a conservative Republican like Darren Bailey and a career Democrat like Irvin. Darren Bailey has stood up for working families and taxpayers from the beginning, and Richard Irvin is a Pritzker-hugging, basement hiding puppet of the political elites who is afraid to debate Darren Bailey. Our grassroots movement will continue to roll as our campaign begins to punch back and set the record straight. We’re ready for the fight. Darren Bailey will win this primary and defeat Pritzker in November.
…Adding… Irvin campaign…
JB Pritzker and his allies are funding Darren Bailey’s campaign because they know that Richard Irvin is Pritzker’s greatest threat in November.
State Senator Patrick Joyce joined discussions on the impact of rising input costs and food supply issues – a problem that has drawn attention from President Joe Biden, who stood alongside Joyce and others at a Kankakee farm Wednesday.
“When you have the unique opportunity to advocate for our local communities to the President of the United States, you take it,” said Joyce (D-Essex). “You know that Ag inputs and food shortages are an important issue when it has gotten the attention of our nation’s top leader.”
Prices of crop nutrients such as potash have skyrocketed as sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have disrupted already tight supplies. Russia and Belarus last year accounted for more than 40% of global potash exports, one of three critical nutrients used to boost crop yields.
Russia also exported 11% of the world’s urea, and 48% of the ammonium nitrate. Russia and Ukraine together export 28% of fertilizers made from nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as potassium.
Fertilizer costs across the board have skyrocketed, leaving Illinois farmers to cope with these input costs.
“There’s no doubt the issue abroad is devastating,” Joyce said. “This is a global issue that needs our nation’s full attention. The state needs to take a hard look at increasing local production of these vital resources for the Ag community.”
Former U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, R-Urbana, who represented swaths of east-central Illinois for more than a decade, died Monday evening. He was 75. […]
Johnson served in Congress from 2001 to 2013, representing a mostly-rural east-central Illinois district centered around Champaign-Urbana that also took in portions of Bloomington-Normal and the outskirts of Decatur.
A Champaign native and graduate of the University of Illinois, Johnson did not wait long to enter politics, first winning election to the Urbana City Council in 1971. He later served as a member of the Illinois House from 1977 until his election to Congress in 2001.
During his time in Washington, Johnson became known for his quirky quest to call all 300,000 households in his district, an effort that led him to call as many as 100 constituents per day.
He was constantly on the phone calling constituents when he was in the Illinois House.
“He was the best retail campaigner that I’ve ever seen or ever heard of,” said Jerry Clarke, who was Mr. Johnson’s chief of staff for 10 of his 12 years in Congress. “Over the years, Tim would talk to these other members of Congress about his constituent calls. And I cannot tell you how many other congressmen came to me and sat in my office and said, ‘Explain this whole system to me.’ I would tell them right upfront that ‘You will never do this. I don’t know anyone else who would do this.’” […]
“I remember we did a poll before one of our races and we asked a question like, ‘Have you ever personally talked to Congressman Johnson?’ And 72 percent of the people we polled said yes,” Clarke recounted. “Everybody that called his office stated with, ‘Hey, I’m a friend of Tim’s …’ That meant nothing to the staff because everyone who called in said they were his friend.”
“People didn’t call him Congressman Johnson. They called him Tim,” recalled Joan Dykstra, who worked in his congressional office and later was the mayor of Savoy. “If you ask anyone who worked for him, they’d tell you he created a lot of work for the staff because he would go into McDonald’s or a bar and ask people how he could help them. Then he would write those famous notes to the staff and we had to follow up with solutions.” […]
Mark Shelden, a former elected official in Champaign and Champaign County, was Mr. Johnson’s last chief of staff.
“As a Republican, he was idiosyncratic,” said Shelden. “He was a trial lawyer and he probably voted for more environmental issues than some moderates or liberals. He didn’t have any signature pieces of legislation that you could point to. He just had votes that were representative of the people he served.”
He was often underestimated. I remember the first time I ever saw him. I was outside the House floor and this skinny man walked by with messed up hair and wrinkled clothes and I asked somebody who the heck that guy was and was floored when I heard the answer (and I’ve never been a snob when it comes to appearances). He was a bit of an odd duck, but hugely successful in politics.
Back in 1980, when he was one of the newer members of the Illinois House, State Representative Timothy V. Johnson, a Republican from the Champaign-Urbana area, rigged a paper clip so that it held the ‘’Yes'’ voting button on his desk in the down position. When a picture of the clip hit the newspapers, he first denied installing it but later backtracked, saying such rigs were ‘’accepted practice'’ in the legislature and enabled members to vote on legislation even when absent from the House chamber, especially at times when votes were called while members were meeting with constituents or working on other pressing matters.
That explanation apparently satisfied voters in Mr. Johnson’s district. He still represents it 20 years later.
But now he has his eye on a larger district, the 15th Congressional, which has an open seat this year, and the photo of the paper clip has come back to haunt him.
His Democratic rival, Mike Kelleher, has dredged up the shot and contends it says much about Mr. Johnson’s worthiness to serve. He has posted newspaper articles about it on the Web — timspaperclip.com — and is running ads about it.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker held a press conference at a Planned Parenthood recovery center on Wednesday to urge federal lawmakers to protect Roe v Wade. […]
“More than 75% of this clinic’s patients are from out-of-state – coming from places like Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, and Kentucky, sometimes traveling eight-plus hours and hundreds of miles to get basic reproductive care,” Pritzker continued. “Often these patients have struggled to get the necessary childcare, lodging, and time off work. They’re patients who’ve struggled to find enough money to travel this far. Patients who’ve had to answer personal questions to their employers or had to invent a reason to be gone for days. Patients who’ve faced hurdles at every turn in the pursuit of basic healthcare. And let’s be crystal clear about this point: abortion is healthcare.”
* From today’s press conference…
Q: Are you doing anything that will protect abortion providers from being criminalized by other states?
A: We are looking at, I have actually engaged the Attorney General’s office as well as my own general counsel’s office in the legislation that we might be able to put together to protect people from being sued or being held criminally liable for performing reproductive rights procedures in the state of Illinois. It seems to me that that is something that it also is going to be litigated through the courts because it it is ridiculous to me that you could have this kind of cross border attack on people in the state of Illinois. So we’re going to do everything, everything within our power to protect our providers, and to protect people who are seeking to get the services they deserve.
Connecticut lawmakers approved a bill late Friday night that takes direct aim at states that have passed aggressive anti-abortion laws as the country prepares for a Supreme Court ruling this summer that could weaken or overturn the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade.
The Connecticut bill, which Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, has said he intends to sign, would expand the field of people who can perform certain types of abortions beyond doctors, to include nurse-midwives, physician assistants and other medical professionals.
And in what lawmakers said could be a model for other states seeking to safeguard abortion rights, the law would also shield abortion providers and patients from lawsuits initiated by states that have banned or plan to ban abortion, even outside their own borders.
The law would protect a provider in Connecticut who administers an abortion that is legal in the state to a resident of a different state where the procedure is illegal, by prohibiting Connecticut authorities from cooperating with investigative requests or extradition orders from the patient’s home state. The law would also allow people who are sued over their role in providing an abortion to countersue in Connecticut court, and to recoup legal fees and other costs if they win.
* Pritzker was asked about the new Connecticut law today…
We’re trying to make sure that we’re looking at the Connecticut law, as well as making adjustments that we think might be even better to protect the providers.
He also said he is also looking at allowing advanced practice nurses to perform abortions and provide scholarships to bring more people into the profession.
At least 23 states are likely to ban or severely limit access to abortions should Roe be overturned, including states with pre-Roe bans still on the books or so-called trigger laws that would take effect quickly, if not automatically. Should those all come to pass, it would jeopardize abortion access for some 36 million women of reproductive age, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
And the medical migration has already begun. Planned Parenthood health centers in states bordering Texas saw a nearly 800 percent increase in abortion patients from September, when the state’s six-week abortion ban took effect, through the end of December 2021, as compared with a year prior. More than 500 out-of-state patients per month sought care from Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California during that time.
If Roe is overturned, Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which is surrounded by states that would restrict access to the procedure, expects abortions in its clinics to triple from what was 10,000 to 12,000 a year to as many as 30,000 a year.
“We have definitely seen an increase in the number of patients from out of state — from Texas, and now Oklahoma and Florida,” said Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, in an interview. “Before Texas, we would see about 4 to 6 percent of abortion patients from out of state. And now it’s about 8 percent of our abortion patients from out of state. We’re preparing for 20,000 to 30,000 abortion patients from out of state annually.” […]
In Illinois, philanthropic organizations are stepping in to help pay for transportation, lodging and child care for patients coming from out of state, and the city of Chicago is allotting $500,000 to help pay for those costs as well. […]
Medication abortions are only a viable option in the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy. Several states already ban or restrict abortions via telemedicine, and more could follow if Roe is overturned, raising legal questions for both patients and providers.
It’s no secret this year’s budget is filled with election year gimmicks, including some blatant attempts to buy votes with tax rebates featuring the names of statewide elected officials. Today, Treasurer candidate Tom Demmer and Comptroller candidate Shannon Teresi are calling on Michael Frerichs and Susana Mendoza to display they are opposed to the corrupt practice of campaigning on taxpayer dollars by keeping their names off of these checks and any other communications or promotional materials associated with this election-year gimmick.
State checks are signed by the comptroller and treasurer. Not sure how they could keep their names off of them.
* CD6 GOP primary candidate brings the (un)usual suspects together…
— Scott Kaspar for Congress (@Kaspar4Congress) May 11, 2022
* Meanwhile, Gary Rabine finally issued a statement today (Wednesday) about Richard Irvin’s Monday press conference…
This is what a train wreck looks like. $45 million can’t paper over a bad candidate who would be a horrible Governor. Republicans – don’t be fooled by Fake-Republican-Governor-Candidate, Richard Irvin. I’m the only candidate in this race with the experience to turn this state around. I am the common sense candidate who can’t be bought.”
During an unrelated bill signing event at the Peoria Civic Center on Tuesday, the governor said Irvin should be able to answer questions directly.
“It’s very important to answer questions, especially if you’re going to put yourself forward to the public and ask them to trust you and believe in you,” he said. “They’ve gotta know where you stand on the issues.” […]
Pritzker didn’t directly answer Irvin’s allegations about his management of the veterans home crisis, but the governor claimed it’s hypocritical for Republicans to criticize him for his handling of the crisis, even as they pushed back against the COVID mitigations his administration imposed.
“We were trying to keep people healthy and safe in the worst moments of this worldwide pandemic, deadly pandemic. And it was necessary for us to ask people to do the right thing. The people at that press conference, all of the people fought the mitigations, including the gentleman you’re talking about,” he said, referring to the Aurora mayor.
A suburban Republican congressional candidate has distanced herself from a pro-Christian, conservative political group with which she’d been aligned, saying she disagrees with many of its tenets — especially strict limits on divorce and eliminating court-ordered child support.
Jaime Milton, a Fox River Grove resident running in Illinois’ 14th District, said she reevaluated her association with the Kingdom Conservative Party. […]
She said she strongly disagrees with the Kingdom Conservative Party’s stance that divorce should only be allowed in cases involving adultery or when “an unbelieving spouse” no longer wants to be married. […]
Milton also disagrees with the group’s objection to court-mandated child support, which it calls an “unconstitutional practice” that’s allowed socialism “to permeate our nation.” […]
Milton said she isn’t fond of the party’s disdain for government aid for the poor, either. While the group called it “a pathway to communism,” Milton said she supports “giving people financial assistance to get them on their feet.”
Samantha Steele’s team jumped the gun in telling Playbook that she was endorsed by Iris Martinez, the clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Martinez has not endorsed Steele, who is competing against incumbent Michael Cabonargi. In fact, Martinez hasn’t made a decision in the Board of Review race.
Republican candidate for Illinois governor Darren Bailey made a campaign stop in Rockford Monday, telling a crowd of about 300 supporters that he’s the man to unseat JB Pritzker in November. […]
“The polling and our grassroots (efforts) are proving to us that we are going to win,” Bailey said. “By this fall, when people understand inflation that’s coming our way, when businesses unemployment insurance fees are almost double, when people are being let off of work and they are earning 20% less benefits, when the gas price continues to go up and doesn’t go down, people are going to be waking up and realizing that something’s not right.” […]
Area Republicans in attendance Monday included Winnebago County Sheriff Gary Caruana, County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli, and state Sen. Dave Syverson. The fundraiser was sponsored by Elevate & Inspire, Awake Illinois, Freedom Illinois, and Freedom Now Initiative.
…Adding… I checked with the reporter who wrote that story and Sen. Bailey did not take news media questions at his Rockford event.
* More…
* State rep candidates square off at forum - Zalewski defends record on abortion rights, Rashid slams ties to Madigan: Rashid mentioned that Zalewski’s father, who he didn’t name, is one of those mentioned in the charges against Madigan as getting a contract with ComEd for little or no work. Rashid described Zalewski’s father as a ghost payroller for ComEd. Zalewski responded by saying that he will not criticize his father. “You’re never going to get me to say a cross word about my dad,” Zalewski said. “I love him dearly. I’ve known the man my entire life.” Zalewski described how his father rose from humble beginnings. “I’m the son of a garbageman,” Zalewski said. “My dad was on the back of a garbage truck. He worked his way up.”
* Billionaire Ken Griffin is Illinois’s biggest political benefactor. But what are his donations doing to democracy?: Beyond that, an examination of Griffin’s political spending shows that he has consistently funded campaigns that distort issues and ignore facts, sometimes appallingly so, playing to voters’ worst instincts and contributing to the growing toxicity of our political life. … But it may be Griffin’s support of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC backed by House Republican leadership, that has done the most to promote a toxic political culture. Griffin donated $10 million to CLF in the 2020 election cycle, up from $4.5 million in the previous two-year cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records. And he gave $11.5 million last year alone, with the current cycle just getting underway. According to the Guardian, CLF “[uses] inflammatory tactics to paint political opponents as unsafe or untrustworthy” and “has a particular reputation for running what critics see as sometimes race-baiting attack ads.” In 2018 the Guardian included three CLF ads among the five “most bigoted and divisive political ads” of the year. Reviewing a selection of three years of CLF ads, Politifact determined that more than half were “false” or “mostly false.” Just 13 percent were “mostly true” and zero were completely accurate.
Gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded in the United States in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, as gun-related homicides surged by 35 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Tuesday.
“This is a historic increase, with the rate having reached the highest level in over 25 years,” Dr. Debra E. Houry, acting principal deputy director of the C.D.C. and the director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said at a news briefing.
More than 45,000 Americans died in gun-related incidents as the pandemic spread in the United States, the highest number on record, federal data show. The gun homicide rate was the highest reported since 1994.
That represents the largest one-year increase in gun homicides in modern history, according to Ari Davis, a policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, which recently released its own analysis of C.D.C. data.
From 2019 to 2020, the overall firearm homicide rate increased 34.6%, from 4.6 to 6.1 per 100,000 persons. The largest increases occurred among non-Hispanic Black or African American males aged 10–44 years and non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) males aged 25–44 years. Rates of firearm homicide were lowest and increased least at the lowest poverty level and were higher and showed larger increases at higher poverty levels. […]
The findings of this study underscore the importance of comprehensive strategies that can stop violence now and in the future by addressing factors that contribute to homicide and suicide, including the underlying economic, physical, and social inequities that drive racial and ethnic disparities in multiple health outcomes. For example, policies that enhance economic and household stability (e.g., temporary assistance to families, child care subsidies, tax credits, housing assistance, and livable wages) can reduce family poverty and other risk factors for homicide and suicide (e.g., family stress and substance use) (3,4,12–14). Communities can also implement locally driven approaches that address physical and social environments that contribute to violence and other inequities, with the potential for immediate benefits. Approaches such as enhancing and maintaining green spaces and the remediation of vacant buildings can reduce opportunities for violence and promote positive social interactions. These approaches have been associated with significant reductions in risk for firearm violence (13,15). For example, a study in a major U.S. city found that restoration of vacant lots (e.g., cleaning up debris or adding vegetation) was associated with significant reductions in firearm assaults, with the largest reduction (29%) in areas with the highest poverty
Following Chicago’s deadliest year in decades, the number of people shot and killed in the 15 communities targeted in Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s signature anti-violence plan has fallen by 26% ahead of the historically brutal summer months — a pivotal stretch in what she has described as a “make-or-break year” for lowering crime. […]
Through May 8, the targeted communities on the South and West sides saw a 19% decline in homicides and a 28% drop in non-fatal shooting victims from the same time last year, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis. Across the city, those numbers have fallen 7% and 17% respectively, accounting for a 15% overall drop over the same period. […]
But despite trending in the right direction, the toll is still far higher than in both 2019 and 2020. At least 901 people have been wounded by gun violence through May 8, 173 of them fatally. Seventeen more people have been killed by other means. […]
A more simple explanation for the downtrend, according to Wesley Skogan, a Northwestern University professor who specializes in crime issues: The weather has been unseasonably crummy this year.
The warming weather produced some ominous results this week…
On the first “summer-like” week of the year, two mass shootings in less than 24 hours in Chicago
* Meanwhile, here’s Ashna Arora and Jens Ludwig writing in the Tribune…
To figure out what’s going on with [electronic monitoring], we obtained data from the Cook County sheriff’s office, which as best we can tell is responsible for about 60% of all monitoring cases in the county. We haven’t been able to get data on the rest of the county’s EM cases, run by the chief judge’s office. Using the data we have, we focus mostly on what’s happening in Chicago to start to get a better picture of EM. […]
Nonetheless, as best we can tell from the available data, crimes committed by people on EM don’t seem to be driving the current wave of gun violence.
First, the timing doesn’t seem to be quite right. While the EM population rose in 2020, the jail population was largely flat during this period. Taken at face value, this would seem to imply that the increase in EM cases is coming from people who would have otherwise been released on bond, not people who would have gone to jail.
Another way to see that the timing is not right is to look at the likelihood someone arrested in a gun violence case goes to jail. We can’t measure that perfectly, but we can look at the ratio of people jailed on homicide or nonfatal shooting charges to the number of people arrested for those crimes. If EM were driving gun violence, we might have expected a big drop around 2020 in the chances those arrested in shootings wound up in jail, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.
Finally, the total numbers just don’t seem to add up. In 2020, there were 274 more homicide victims in Chicago than in 2019. By comparison, the number of people arrested for a homicide they allegedly committed while out on EM increased from 2019 to 2020 by only four — from four to eight arrests. Even accounting for Chicago’s historically (and notoriously) low rate of making arrests in homicide cases, the so-called clearance rate, it seems very unlikely people on EM are driving our massive rise in gun violence.
Looking at data for nonfatal shootings tells a similar story.
Among pieces of legislation Pritzker signed at the Peoria Civic Center Tuesday, was one crafted by State Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth allowing for mental health responders on police calls related to victims of violent crime. […]
Money for hiring and retaining police officers, funding to help witness protection programs and making it safer for victims to report crimes, and paying for the funerals of children who die due to violent crime were the other initiatives signed into law by Pritzker. […]
[Peoria Police Chief Eric Echevarria] says more than 1,200 police calls last year alone were related to a person who was feeling suicidal, or who had committed suicide, among other statistics on calls.
The bill also requires homicide detectives to undergo “trauma-involved training,” according to the Pritzker administration and created a grant program to create tip hotlines and various victim and witness resources.
The bill also reauthorizes a witness protection program with $30 million set aside for it in the upcoming state budget. The program had been neglected for years by state legislators and past governors who failed to earmark funding for it. […]
He also signed a bill to aid in the recruitment and retention of police officers across the state.
“There are those that would like for us to believe that you have to choose between police or community, and I believe that is a failed notion,” said state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth of Peoria, whose stepson was fatally shot in 2014. “Police are community. The community needs the police, and it is our jobs as leaders to identify the paths to create a better opportunity for community and police to work together better, to work together stronger.”
Adequately funding police departments is the intention of another bill signed by Pritzker on Tuesday. HB 3863, which was approved unanimously by both chambers of the legislature, creates the Law Enforcement Recruitment and Retention Fund. The fund will be used to award grants to local governments, colleges and nonprofit entities “for the purpose of hiring and retraining law enforcement officers,” according to the new law.
* More…
* Billionaire Ken Griffin laments Chicago violence, donates $25M to train police leaders: Griffin is contributing $25 million to launch two academies at the University of Chicago that will provide six months of training to police leaders here and across the country and to people who run violence interruption groups. “It is time to bring the data-driven revolution to public safety,” said Griffin, the founder of the Citadel investment company, during a ceremony announcing the two Community Safety Leadership Academies.
* This buy is “cable with some broadcast included”…
Today, Alderman Gilbert Villegas released the first television advertisement for his congressional campaign in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. In the 30-second ad, six-figure buy, Villegas shares his personal story and why the struggle of working families is so personal to him.
VO: “Bien vestido, Bien recibido”
(Translation: Well dressed, Well received)
GV: I was raised by strong Latina women. After my father’s sudden death, it was my abuela, food stamps, and public housing that helped my mom make ends meet.
It wasn’t easy, but I found my place in service. As a Marine, a union truck driver, an Alderman I have fought the fights for everyday working people and won.
We need representatives in Washington who can get real results for our community.
Today, Rodney Davis’ campaign for Congress in the 15th District released a new ad titled “Bill,” which features Lt. Col. Bill Buechsenschuetz, Army, Retired, who served in the Vietnam War. Bill talks about how Mary Miller betrayed our troops by voting with the Squad to defund our military. Bill also talks about Rodney’s work to strengthen our military and support our veterans.
“As long as I am in Congress, I will never allow our military to be defunded. Unfortunately Mary Miller can’t say the same. She needs to stop hiding from her record of voting with the Socialist Squad to defund our military and come clean to voters. I will always stand with our troops and veterans. America’s safety is my top priority.” - Congressman Rodney Davis, Republican candidate for Congress in IL-15
Mary Miller twice voted in September and December against defense funding legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides the Department of Defense (DOD) with the legal authority to spend taxpayer dollars in support of our military. Miller teamed up with AOC and other far-left members of the Squad in opposing the NDAA.
In December, Miller bragged about being the only Republican from Illinois to vote against the NDAA and called Republicans who voted for it RINOs. Mark Maxwell previously reported on Miller’s vote against the NDAA in December.
Rodney Davis proudly voted in support of the NDAA and has worked in Congress to support our troops and veterans.
Bill: I served in Vietnam, and I’ll never forget the way politicians betrayed me and my fellow soldiers, and that’s why I cannot support Mary Miller.
In Congress, Miller voted with the Squad to defund our military. Voting against our troops in these dangerous times is indefensible.
Rodney Davis is fighting to strengthen our military, and he has the backs of veterans.
Rodney: I’m Rodney Davis, and I approved this message.
“Voted with the Squad” is a nice touch, and accurate. There’s an old saying about how ideology is a circle and eventually the right and left meet. It’s not completely true, of course, but it seems to apply in this instance.
* Meanwhile, from US Rep. Miller…
Congresswoman Mary Miller released the following statement congratulating Trump-endorsed Congressman Alex Mooney for winning the Republican Primary in West Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District:
“With President Trump’s endorsement and the backing of grassroots conservatives, Alex Mooney was able to defeat the DC establishment in a stunning victory that all of the “experts” said would be impossible,” said Miller.
“I look forward to continuing to serve in the House Freedom Caucus with Alex to advance President Trump’s policies including securing the border, returning America to energy independence, and defending the Second Amendment. Alex Mooney’s victory is an important reminder that Republican Primary voters want to support pro-Trump, pro-Second Amendment conservatives, and they will not be fooled by Swamp-funded RINOs who voted for the January 6th Commission like Rodney Davis.”
Miller serves in the conservative House Freedom Caucus with Rep. Alex Mooney, and both were endorsed by President Trump in competitive Republican primaries caused by Congressional redistricting. Like Mooney, Miller is running an America First campaign against an establishment Republican funded by the DC Swamp.
With 95 percent reporting, Rep. Alex Mooney has secured 54.3 percent of the vote to Rep. David McKinley’s 35.5 percent.
The annual Paul Simon-Jim Edgar Statesmanship Award is presented to a former or current state or local government official in Illinois who has demonstrated a pattern of public service characterized by vision, courage, compassion, effectiveness, civility, and bipartisanship.
Former Governor Jim Edgar and the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute invite you to nominate an Illinois elected official who has displayed this kind of exceptional leadership.
We created the Simon-Edgar Statesmanship Award to shine a spotlight on remarkable public service that is taking place in our state and local communities. Please join us as we celebrate the Prairie State’s best traditions. Nominate an Illinois statesperson by June 1.
A new poll of Illinois’ 17th Congressional District Democratic voters conducted last week shows former state Rep. Litesa Wallace leading a crowded field of deep-pocketed rivals.
According to the poll by Triton Polling & Research of 522 registered voters and paid for by the Wallace campaign, she leads with 22.1 percent of the vote, trailed by former regional weatherman Eric Sorenson with 18.6 percent and nobody else in the field garnering more than 9 percent.
Rockford alderman Jonathan Logemann, preferred by many establishment figures, netted only 4.9 percent in a poll with a 4.3 percent margin of error.
Wallace’s name identification showed room to grow at 43.6 percent, compared to Sorenson at 51.4. Logemann was at 31.1 percent.
Wallace was trusted to “get things done for working families” by 20.9 percent of the respondents, leading the field.
“Voters know Litesa’s an advocate who gets things done for women, children and working families,” said Dulana Reese, Wallace campaign manager.
The polling began on May 2nd, the day Politico published the leaked U.S. Supreme Court opinion showing the vote to eliminate Roe vs. Wade abortion protections. It concluded May 5th.
“Once voters realize that abortion rights are on the ballot in November and that Rep. Wallace has a proven track record of making Illinois a haven state and standing up for reproductive freedom, we expect Litesa’s advantage to grow,” Reese said.
“The Republican frontrunner in this race is Esther Joy King, an extremist on abortion who believes in no exceptions for girls and women, even in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother. Rep. Wallace will bring the biggest contrast in our efforts to retain the seat currently held by Rep. Cheri Bustos,” Reese said.
Rep. Wallace previously served three terms in Springfield as the State Representative from Rockford’s 67th District. She gained national attention in 2018 when she ran for Lt. Governor alongside Daniel Biss in the Democratic primary for Governor.
She has been endorsed by SEIU Illinois, Winnebago County Citizens for Choice, the Collective PAC, Democracy for America, and a long list of elected officials in the 17th District and across Illinois.
Rep. Wallace is running to represent the newly drawn 17th District, which includes most of Peoria, Rockford, Freeport, the Quad Cities, Bloomington-Normal, Macomb, and Galesburg.
The poll was taken May 2-5. Click here for the toplines, which show that 60 percent of respondents said they always vote and another 35 percent said they were very likely to vote in the primary.
* There was also this mild push question asked after the favorability and head-to-head questions (with initial head to head results in parentheses)…
Of the candidates for Representative of U.S. House Illinois District 17, who do you trust to get things done for working families?
Alderman Jonathan Logemann 5.8 (4.9)
Cannabis lobbyist Jacqueline McGowan 4.5 (2.3)
County Board Member Angie Normoyle 8.0 (7.7)
TV Weatherman Eric Sorensen 16.8 (18.6)
Counselor & Experienced Legislator Litesa Wallace 20.9 (22.1)
Admissions advisor Marsha Williams 0.9 (2.9)
Not Sure / Don’t Know 43.1 (41.5)
Kinda interesting that her numbers went down a tiny bit when “experienced legislator” was mentioned.
* The city for years relied on its interpretation of a state legislative “drafting error” to impose hundreds of millions in fines? Brilliant. What could possibly go wrong?…
An Illinois appellate court ruled Friday that the city of Chicago unlawfully overcharged some residents who were ticketed for failing to have a vehicle sticker, which one car owner said led him to declare bankruptcy after he racked up thousands of dollars in fines.
Attorney Jacie Zolna, who represents three residents in a lawsuit that led to the ruling, said the decision sets the stage for a possible class-action lawsuit that could see hundreds of millions of dollars in ticket debt come under scrutiny. […]
Vehicle stickers are at the heart of the case. The city charges $95 annually for a passenger car sticker, with the money going toward road maintenance. Failing to display a sticker can mean a ticket.
State law sets the maximum penalty for such an offense at $250, but city attorneys argued that was “a drafting error” in the vehicle code, according to the appellate court ruling. They said the legislature intended the true ceiling to be $500 and the city charged accordingly, with a $200 ticket bringing an additional $200 fine if not paid within 25 days.
Although we rest our interpretation of this statute on its plain language and our resistance to any assumption that there has been a legislative error, we note that the history of the $500 cap in section 11-208.3(a) also supports this understanding. For most of section 11-208.3’s history, the caps in subsections (a) and (b)(10) were both set at $250. Then, in 2010, the statute was amended to allow for the administrative adjudication of violations of section 11-1201.1 of the Vehicle Code, a provision that deals with automated railroad crossing enforcement systems. See Pub. Act 96- 478, § 5 (eff. Jan. 1, 2010) (amending 625 ILCS 5/11-208.3(a)). As part of this same amendment, in addition to new language on section 11-1201.1, the cap in section 11-208.3(a) was raised to $500 for the first time, presumably to accommodate the higher fines now permitted by the new railroad crossing statute. See id. Meanwhile, in that same 2010 amendment, the $250 cap in section 11-208.3(b)(10) was left unchanged. See id. Plaintiffs argue convincingly that the decision not to raise the $250 figure in section 11-208.3(b)(10), either in 2010 or in any subsequent amendments, reflects a legislative intent “to leave in place the $250 limitation for the ordinance violations that were already in existence prior to the passage of the railroad safety law.”
Seems reasonable.
Also, if the city truly believed this was an error, the brain trust shoulda passed a trailer bill to clean it up.
The Illinois State Police (ISP) is donating more than 3,000 pieces of protective equipment, including body armor, ballistic face shields, and ballistic helmets to help the Ukrainian citizens enduring the Russian invasion. By U.S. standards, this equipment can no longer be used by ISP or any other law enforcement agency within Illinois. Most body armor in the U.S. has a standard five-year life span. However, it will still offer some protection to civilians, humanitarian aid workers, and others in the Ukraine. This surplus equipment must be disposed of if it is not donated to the Ukraine.
ISP coordinated the donation with the Illinois National Guard, the United States Department of Homeland Security, the United States Department of Commerce, and the United States Department of State to transport the equipment as well as ensure compliance with all Federal and State laws and regulations.
I’ve asked which entity is receiving the equipment.
* Darren Bailey spoke to his Facebook followers this morning about Richard Irvin’s press conference…
The man has been hiding in his basement for over two months. And just like they were doing with Biden, they’re trying to prep him, they’re trying to make him and help him say the right things. It was an absolute disaster. And what made it even better is he had his RINO club with him. He had his head his tax hiking, tax hiking club with him. Avery Bourne was with him and a senator and another representative were with him. It was supposed to be a LaSalle Veterans Home press conference, like I did, actually very timely, last Thursday, when the news broke. But unfortunately, you know, he doesn’t know anything about this stuff. So he’s got to be prepped, and it took him almost a week to try to memorize a statement. And, wow, four minutes into it and the press started asking him where he stood at on life. He would not answer the question. They asked him where he stood at on Trump. He would not answer the question. Please watch this video, the man began to break out in a sweat he stuttered, he tried to get it back to why he was supposedly there. Anyway, we’ve got some interesting days on our hands ahead of us and only if we unite and activate and get this message out. That’s how we win. So that’s why I need your help.
* But here’s what Bailey told Mary Ann Ahern when asked whether he thinks about a federal law banning abortion…
I believe that it is the life within the womb that must be protected. That is a life. However, with that being said, just an all outright ban on abortion, that’s not gonna solve anything, because people are still going to go you know, JB Pritzker is wanting to open the floodgates.
* I think Krishnamoorthi does a good job, but he put too much emphasis on raising money and that can lead to trouble…
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) has been investigating the Washington Commanders from his perch as chair of a House oversight subcommittee. He’s also raising money for his reelection.
Those two facts collided on Monday.
Krishnamoorthi abruptly canceled a fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday night after POLITICO approached his office with questions about the event. The issue: whether it was inappropriate for a pair of lobbyists, Mike Manatos and Tom Manatos, to explicitly invite donors to the event to discuss with the congressman the probe of the football team and its owner, Dan Snyder.
Linking pleas for campaign dollars to specific legislative actions is a no-no, and Krishnamoorthi’s camp quickly acknowledged as much.
“The Congressman is grateful that his efforts to stand up to some of the most powerful interests in Washington, from Big Tobacco to organizations like the Commanders, has generated enthusiasm from the public and some of his supporters,” a spokesperson for his campaign said in a statement. “However, we did not authorize any correspondence or outreach conducted for this general meet and greet event for Raja’s re-election campaign.”
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the statement added, “this event has been canceled.”
* Press release…
In a recent event hosted by former State Representative Roger Eddy in Robinson, Illinois, Paul Schimpf, GOP Candidate for Illinois Governor focused his remarks around the need for the Illinois Republican Party to offer solutions in order to unify the people of Illinois and defeat JB Pritzker. Schimpf expressed concern regarding the destructive nature of primary elections and stated there must be an end to the internal party bickering that divides the party and keeps voters at bay. Schimpf went on to highlight his campaign focus on parents’ rights, safe families, and restoring trust in government, all of which he described as American values.
Schimpf concluded his remarks by stating, “Illinois needs a Governor who will listen, learn, and lead us in a way that unites and recognizes that the strength of Illinois is its people, not its government.”
Rep. Mike Quigley is opting out of the Chicago mayor’s race, but that’s not stopping him from weighing in on the heated contest to succeed retiring Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.
The Northwest Side congressman is endorsing former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, campaign officials told the Chicago Sun-Times. In a video announcement, Quigley said Giannoulias, like himself, “is committed to restoring the public’s trust in government.”
“That’s why when he was state treasurer, he put in tough ethics laws and ended pay-to-play right out of the gate,” Quigley said. “I know Alexi will be a great secretary of state, and I hope you’ll join me in supporting him.”
Quigley’s endorsement is the ninth that Giannoulias has received from a current or former Democratic member of the U.S. House or Senate, including Representatives Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Bobby Rush, Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider.Former House members Luis Gutierrez and Jerry Costello Sr. and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun are also backing his candidacy.
* All but three are Black legislators…
Today 16 members of the Illinois State Legislature endorsed Kari K. Steele for Cook County Assessor on the heels of endorsements from organized labor.
Majority Caucus Whip Omar Aquino, D-Chicago
Majority Caucus Chair Mattie Hunter, D-Chicago
Deputy Majority Leader Emil Jones, Jr., D-Chicago
Senator Tony Munoz, D-Chicago
Senator Patricia Van Pelt, D-Chicago
Representative Kam Buckner, Chair of the Illinois House Black Caucus, D-Chicago
Representative Lakesia Collins, D-Chicago
Assistant Majority Leader Marcus Evans, D-Chicago
Deputy Majority Leader/Speaker Pro Tempore Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria
Representative Sonya Harper, Illinois Legislative Black Caucus Chair, D-Chicago
Representative Cyril Nichols, D-Chicago
Representative Bob Rita, D-Blue Island
Representative Lamont J. Robinson, D-Chicago
Representative Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago
Representative Nick Smith, D-Chicago
Representative Jawaharial Williams, D-Chicago
“After four disastrous years of Kaegi’s mismanagement, we need a competent manager in the Assessor’s office,” said State Representative Marcus C. Evans, Jr. “Kari Steele has been a dedicated Commissioner at the Water Reclamation District for over 10 years and President for over three years, managing a billion-dollar budget and a AAA bond rating. Unlike Kaegi, Kari understands how late property tax bills will hurt seniors in my district and others on a limited income. Kari is the person we need right now to lift the Assessor’s office out of chaos.”
“Small businesses across the County are struggling under high assessments,” said State Representative Lamont J. Robinson. “Our communities need more economic development, not less, and when small businesses are forced to close, we lose jobs, our economic anchors and communities become less safe. We need an Assessor who understands the needs of our communities.”
“I’m proud of the support I have from our legislators,” said Kari Steele. “As Assessor, I will work with state and local governments to find real solutions to problems that require all of us to come together and solve. Problems like delayed tax bills due to mismanagement, ineffective incentives for economic development and mounting tax pressure on communities that are already struggling.”
* ABC is generally thought of as the non-union contractors group…
The Irvin for Illinois campaign announced the endorsement from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Illinois, a national construction industry trade association that represents more than 21,000 members and prides itself on their merit shop philosophy of helping members develop people, win work, and deliver work safely, ethically, and profitably for the betterment of communities.
In their endorsement, ABC Illinois President Alicia Martin noted that Richard Irvin is the best candidate to take back the state of Illinois from crime, corruption, taxes and burdensome regulation that have crippled businesses and communities under J.B. Pritzker’s leadership. Irvin’s running mate, State Representative Avery Bourne, has also been a longtime advocate of ABC, supporting ABC’s Illinois issues in the legislature throughout her tenure.
Enough Chicago aldermen are in agreement on a new map of the city’s 50 wards that they will avoid a ballot referendum next month that would have let voters choose from between competing maps, sources said Monday.
The proposed map will create 16 wards with Black majorities and 14 with Latino majorities, sources said. That’s one fewer Latino ward than the City Council Latino Caucus spent months fighting to secure.
The reformers are bitter.
* Press release…
This evening at 5 pm, Winnebago County Republican Chairman and candidate for the 35th Illinois Senate District, Eli Nicolosi, will be holding a press conference in response to the increasing calls for him to step down.
Nicolosi has been under scrutiny since it was revealed that there was an emergency order of protection filed against him by his wife of 15 years. The order of protection has since been dropped by Nicolosi’s wife, however, some local Republicans have questioned whether or not Mr. Nicolosi is fit to serve as chairman of the party. Nicolosi has stated that he plans on addressing these concerns during tonight’s press conference.
“It’s despicable that someone would put out private information for political gain in what should be a private family matter,” Nicolosi said. “The allegations are 100% untrue, and because I am running against a 30-year establishment incumbent, Springfield sadly drags my wife and 4 children into the public eye. My family is going through a tough time, and while we as adults can handle this, my children simply cannot defend themselves.”
Nicolosi is running against 30-year incumbent Dave Syverson in the Republican Primary election on June 28th. The press and the public are welcome to attend, and Chairman Nicolosi will be available for questions.
I’m guessing he won’t be withdrawing.
…Adding… I thought I posted this, but apparently I didn’t, so my apologies to Leader Brady…
The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) State Lodge, representing more than 34,000 active duty and retired law enforcement officers, has endorsed Dan Brady, a Bloomington Republican, in his bid for Illinois Secretary of State in the June 28 primary election.
“We back Dan Brady because of his unwavering lifetime support for law enforcement,” said FOP State Lodge President Chris Southwood. “This support spans from the time he was a county official working closely with local police agencies, through his current tenure in the Illinois General Assembly where he stood by the men and women of law enforcement regardless of the way the political winds were blowing.”
“In addition, Brady passed legislation that has helped to make Illinois’ roads safer and to save lives,” Southwood said. “This is exactly the kind of philosophy-in-action that we need in our next Secretary of State.”
Brady has been a member of the Illinois House of Representatives since 2001.
“I am very honored to have the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge. I have always supported the men and women of law enforcement and will continue to do so as Illinois Secretary of State,” Brady said. “I thank the FOP for their vote of confidence in me.”
Illinois Supreme Court Justice Rita Garman, a Republican who two decades ago became only the second woman to sit on the state’s highest court and later was the second woman to serve as chief justice, will retire in July, the court announced Monday.
Garman, who was appointed to the seven-member court in 2001 to replace retiring Justice Benjamin Miller and then was elected the following year, would have been up a for a once-a-decade retention vote in November. Instead, with Garman’s retirement effective July 7, a little more than a week after the primary election, the court will appoint a replacement to fill the seat until the 2024 election.
Her departure comes at a moment of upheaval for the court, which in 2020 saw a sitting justice, Democrat Thomas Kilbride, rejected for retention by voters — the first time that’s happened since retention elections were adopted in 1964.
The Democratic-controlled legislature, in an effort to protect the party’s 4-3 majority on the high court, subsequently redrew the boundaries of the state’s judicial districts and instituted new campaign finance restrictions for those running for the bench.
Rarely is the game played straight when it comes to the Supreme Court. Appointments are the norm, and the redistricting, while long overdue, was obviously political.
* Release from Justice Garman…
Trailblazing Justice Rita B. Garman has announced her retirement from the Illinois Supreme Court effective July 7, 2022. Justice Garman, 78, has served on the Supreme Court since 2001 and retires as the longest serving judge in Illinois. She served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2016. Justice Garman’s full statement on her retirement is available here.
“There is no doubt that I have had the role of a lifetime, a privilege to serve the people of the state of Illinois as a member of the court system at every level,” Justice Garman said. “But this is the right time for me to step back from my public role and allow someone else to assume this all- important position. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the citizens of Illinois.”
The Supreme Court has constitutional authority to fill interim judicial vacancies and has appointed another trailblazing justice, Fourth District Appellate Justice Lisa Holder White, to fill Justice Garman’s seat.
“Rita has been my close friend, mentor, and role model since I joined the bench in 2006. I have so much gratitude for her service to the Illinois judiciary,” Chief Justice Anne M. Burke said. “No words can describe her loss. However, she has provided hope for the future by nominating for her replacement a wonderful woman who will be able to step right into her shoes. It is a pleasure to welcome Justice Holder White to the Court.”
Justice Holder White, whose term is effective July 8, 2022, through December 2, 2024, will be the first Black woman to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court.
“Being appointed to the Illinois Supreme Court is the honor of a lifetime. I am humbled by the confidence Justice Rita B. Garman and the entire Court have placed in me,” Justice Holder White said. “My service to the judiciary for the past 21 years has helped prepare me for this historic moment. I look forward to the privilege of resolving matters my fellow citizens bring before the Court.”
Interesting times. It’s possible that Illinois could elect its first Black governor this year, who is also running as a Republican.
* Meanwhile, in other Supreme Court news, here’s a press release excerpt…
Judge Elizabeth Rochford announced today that the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) rates her as ‘Highly Recommended’ for the office of Justice of the Supreme Court. As the premier legal association in the state, the ISBA represents approximately 30,000 Illinois lawyers.
“I am honored to receive the highest recommendation possible from the Illinois State Bar Association, which includes the most respected lawyers in Illinois. It means so much that my colleagues have faith that I am the right person for this seat on the bench. As a member of the Illinois Supreme Court, I will carry forward the ISBA’s commitment to legal excellence for the people of Illinois,” said Judge Elizabeth Rochford.
The ISBA ranks candidates using a comprehensive Judicial Evaluation process. These evaluations are initiated by the candidate’s submission of a thorough written application, and then followed by a detailed background investigation by members of the ISBA Judicial Evaluations Committee (JEC) and an in-person interview of the candidate. The JEC then rates the candidate or judge: Recommended, Highly Recommended or Not Recommended. Judge Elizabeth Rochford received the highest recommendation possible in receiving ‘Highly Recommended.’
Fellow Democratic candidate René Cruz was given a “Recommended” rating. Republican Daniel B. Shanes was also given a “Highly Recommended” rating, but fellow Republican John Noverini was given a “Not Recommended” score.
The three candidates who were removed from the ballot (Rotering, Curran and Hurchinson) were not rated, but will be if their names are restored. They’re appealing.
In the 3rd District, Supreme Court Justice Michael Burke was given a “Highly Recommended” rating and Democratic appellate court justice Mary K. O’Brien was given a “Recommended” rating.
...Adding… Press release…
Illinois Chamber of Commerce PAC Announces Endorsements of Judge Daniel Shanes and Justice Michael Burke for Illinois Supreme Court
(Springfield) – The political arm of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce announces its endorsement of two outstanding candidates to fill new positions on the state’s highest court.
Representing thousands of Illinois small, medium, and large employers, the Chamber of Commerce advocates for the election of candidates that understand the impact of government decisions and legal precedents on a healthy economy. Judge Shanes, running in the newly drawn 2nd district and Justice Burke, running in the new 3rd district, are just the kind of judges all Illinoisans concerned with our future prosperity should support.
“The Chamber Board considered impartiality and fairness, knowledge and experience, and unquestioned integrity as the hallmarks of judicial candidates worthy of job-creators’ endorsement. Judge Shanes and Justice Burke represent the best choices for voters in all three areas,” said Todd Maisch, President and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.
After the news conference, Sullivan issued his own response, accusing Irvin of running a “campaign that seems to have no relationship whatsoever with the truth.”
“Richard Irvin yet again ducked important questions on abortion and his own Democrat voting record, distorted his own background, and blatantly lied about Jesse Sullivan,” the downstate venture capitalist’s campaign wrote.
Bailey tweeted out that he is “the only proven conservative leader in this race.”
“A lot of script reading & nervous dipping and dodging from the Irvin basement today,” Bailey’s campaign tweeted “Why did it take him several days to face the public? We need a Governor with the courage to lead and the integrity to tell the truth.”
It’s not like either of those two guys have held regular or even more than occasional press conferences. Maybe practice what you preach, fellas. Show us your stuff.
* It appears from this Mike Miletich report that I may have miscounted…
Irvin cut off many questions by yelling “hold on” and “let me finish.” In fact, Irvin said “let me finish” at least 25 times during the 10 minutes allowed for questions.
North Central College Political Science Professor Stephen Caliendo listened to the news conference and said Irvin tried his best to stick to his agenda.
“I don’t think his team is probably scrambling right now saying, you know, how do we deal with that disaster of a press conference we just had,” Caliendo said. “Certainly they’re going to want to talk to him about handling things a little bit differently. But he got, he said the things he wanted to say.”
The problem with Professor Cliendo’s analysis is that, while Irvin was able to say some things, the message received was heavily cluttered by his constant dodging of pretty simple and basic questions.
GOP candidate for governor Richard Irvin holds a news conference, but dances around questions on abortion, Trump
Republican candidate for governor Richard Irvin met with the media Monday for only the second time since announcing his candidacy, but deflected questions of likely interest to voters that ranged from his past presidential votes and the prospect of another presidential bid by Donald Trump to whether Roe v. Wade should be overturned.
Aurora Mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin slammed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of a COVID-19 outbreak at a state-run veterans’ home during a Monday press conference – and repeatedly avoided questions about whether he voted for Donald Trump and his stance on Roe v. Wade potentially being overturned.
Center Square covered it straight, of course, but Irvin’s message was lumped in with the other Republican candidates.
I get asked all the time — what made Lion Electric choose Illinois to build its very first US manufacturing plant?
A lot of it comes down to the leadership of Governor Pritzker.
By investing in job training and high-tech manufacturing, Illinois has become a place where businesses want to be.
Now we’re building the nation’s largest heavy-duty electric vehicle plant here in Joliet, bringing over 1,400 new jobs and Made in America buses and trucks.
We’re thriving and we’re proud that our future is here in Illinois.
The non-refundable income tax credit is equal to 50% of the income tax withholdings of new job created in the state. This percentage increases to 75% if the business expansion project is located in an “underserved area” census tract […]
Additional credits are also available as reimbursement for qualifying training costs. Ten percent of eligible training costs of newly hired full-time employees positions at the project may also be included as part of annual credits.
