* Cook County Record…

On the same day Illinois voters by wide margins selected Democrat JB Pritzker to be the state’s next governor, and his running mate, Democratic State Rep. Juliana Stratton, to serve as lieutenant governor, a group of Pritzker campaign workers added Pritzker and Stratton as individual defendants in a discrimination lawsuit the workers brought in the closing days of the gubernatorial campaign, particularly targeting Stratton for allegedly defaming the campaign workers behind the suit as “extortionists.”

On Nov. 6, the group of campaign workers, through their attorneys Shay T. Allen and Jeanette Samuels, both of Chicago, filed an amended complaint in Chicago federal court, which for the first time named both Pritzker and Stratton as defendants in the case.

The lawsuit also added a count of defamation against Stratton, alleging she “caused to be widely disseminated false statements about the Plaintiffs, including that they were extortionists.”

The lawsuit now further alleges that, after the lawsuit was filed, the Pritzker campaign retaliated against five of the plaintiffs, placing them on “’administrative leave with pay,’ pending the outcome of an investigation into knowingly false allegations against them,” actions they said were taken with the approval and knowledge of Pritzker, Stratton and Pritzker campaign manager Anna Capara.

“… No meaningful investigation has taken place and the moving force of the adverse employment action taken against Plaintiffs was to punish them for asserting their constitutional rights,” the complaint said.

* From the amended complaint…

After the filing of this lawsuit, Defendant Stratton caused to be widely disseminated false statements about the Plaintiffs, including that they were extortionists.

I looked and didn’t see an instance where Stratton said they were extortionists. Some news reports did describe the lawsuit and preceding demand for $7.5 million as a form of extortion or characterized her comments as such, but she never actually said it that I could find. Here’s an example…

Pritzker and his running mate Juliana Stratton denied the allegations, and Stratton referred to a letter sent by the plaintiff’s attorney in which the plaintiffs demanded a $7.5 million settlement in a 24-hour window, suggesting the whole thing is akin to an extortion attempt.

“When people feel like they have been harassed or discriminated against, they have the right to come forward and have their voices heard. In this case, we had a letter delivered to us asking for $7.5 million dollars in 24 hours or they threatened legal action and to go to press. That’s not a good faith effort,” Stratton said in a statement.

…Adding… The Pritzker campaign says it still has not yet been served with the lawsuit.

* Meanwhile…

I am that former Pritzker campaign staffer who posted an Instagram video in October of a colleague wearing a charcoal face mask and pink nail polish after a long day at the office.

I posted the video to my private Instagram account late on a Saturday night after a 14-hour workday. Five days later, at the precise moment when it would inflict the most harm on the Pritzker campaign, somebody leaked a screenshot of the post to the media. The leak came just days before Halloween and after NBC’s Megyn Kelly ignited a media firestorm on Oct. 23 by making racially insensitive remarks about blackface.

It never occurred to me for a moment that my colleague’s face mask resembled blackface, and I had no idea Kelly was planning to defend blackface on national television three days after I posted the video.

To anyone who was offended by the image, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. It was taken out of context and I simply did not see what now seems so obvious. What I found humorous about the video was my colleague’s impersonation of Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs while tending to his pores.

Childish? Yes. Poorly timed? Absolutely. Intentionally racist? Not in the least.

Thoughts?