* I often think JB Pritzker plays things way too safe, but I gotta give the candidate credit for even doing this event. Emotions can get so raw that one wrong move could’ve knocked this thing horribly off the rails. I was a bit skeptical when I first saw the video, and it appears he had some help keeping things on track, but I also thought he handled himself well, particularly when he pointed to his history of involvement with the Center on Wrongful Convictions and other programs and causes. NBC 5 was there…

MARY ANN AHERN: Emotions raw today as these mothers met with Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker. They’ve lost children to gun violence or in a police shooting, moving on for their other children, far from easy.

MOTHER 2: What the effect is afterwards? Nah, nah. Nightmares, he can’t even go in his Daddy’s room ’cause he hears stuff.

MARY ANN AHERN: They explain there are few resources for them to turn to.

MOTHER 3: We have to come up with the monies to pay for these funerals. The state doesn’t help us. You know? Cause if we go to the Attorney General or they are involved with a crime they don’t help. The city doesn’t help. So we are left all alone.

MARY ANN AHERN: Pritzker notes these mothers might have found help but the state’s budget crisis depleted social service agencies.

J.B. PRITZKER: Agencies closed. Things that people really need on the ground closed. Violence prevention programs closed. And so now we got to rebuild all of that.

MOTHER 2: I wasn’t expecting to do this.

MARY ANN AHERN: Frustrations are high. As they say they have heard campaign promises from politicians before.

* Black Lives Matter posted the video on Facebook. It’s worth a look…