The woman who accused a high-ranking political aide to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan of sexual harassment said Wednesday that she is being targeted in retaliation for speaking out.
Hampton told NBC 5 she was forced to send a cease and desist letter to Jack Hynes, an associate of Madigan’s who lives in the powerful Democrat’s 13th Ward and has ties to his political organization - including the supervisor she said harassed her.
The 28-year-old political consultant, who worked for Madigan’s organization intermittently beginning in 2012, said her attorney sent the letter after learning that Hynes was reaching out to men who know her “in an effort to get ‘dirt’ on her and determine whether she has had inappropriate relationships with those men,” the letter reads. […]
Hynes refuted Hampton’s claims in a statement, saying, “It’s unfortunate that a casual conversation among two friends has been escalated to the level of involving lawyers.”
“In an effort to advance an economic and political agenda, I have been thrust into the spotlight, despite the fact that I didn’t act on behalf of anyone, consult anyone or discuss this with anyone (other than the person I was talking to), especially Speaker Madigan or his staff,” he continued. “Any words spoken by me were innocuous and unrelated to the pending legal matter. To the extent my words offended Ms. Hampton, Speaker Madigan or anyone else for that matter, I apologize, that wasn’t my intent.”
* React from a Madigan member…
To be clear - he doesn’t deny asking about her personal life…he just describes it as “a casual conversation between…
The lawyer for political consultant Alaina Hampton sent a “cease and desist” letter to Jack Hynes on Thursday, accusing her former boss at the nonprofit Chicago Heights Economic Development Corporation of trying to smear Hampton — and claiming that Madigan’s team put Hynes up to it.
“It has been brought to our attention that you, on behalf of the 13th Ward Democratic Organization and Michael J. Madigan, have been conducting an investigation to build a case to disparage Ms. Hampton’s professional and personal reputation,” wrote the lawyers with Kulwin, Masciopinto & Kulwin. “In so doing, you have contacted several of Ms. Hampton’s male colleagues, friends and acquaintances, in an effort to get ‘dirt’ on her and determine whether she has had inappropriate relationships with those men.”
The political operative booted from his job with House Speaker Michael Madigan’s Democratic organization over inappropriate texting to a female campaign worker was arrested Thursday on a charge of violating a protective order because of texts and calls to another person, suburban police said.
Kevin Quinn, 41, allegedly made calls and sent text messages on Feb. 10 in violation of the protective order, two days before Madigan announced Quinn had been ousted from the organization. Quinn is the brother of Marty Quinn, the alderman in Chicago’s 13th Ward, where Madigan has ruled for decades.
The issue erupted Monday when Madigan issued a statement announcing he had cut Quinn loose from the speaker’s government and political operations.
Quinn was arrested at his home on the city’s Southwest Side around 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Evergreen Park police said. He had pleaded guilty in January to disorderly conduct.
In a blockbuster report with huge political implications, an outside consultant concluded that Cook County’s residential property tax system is stacked against the little guy, with assessments far more variable and “much more regressive” than they should be, especially in the city of Chicago.
The problem starts with proposed assessments issued by Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios, and actually gets worse as some homeowners, generally those well-off enough to hire a lawyer, appeal to the Board of Review. And in the end, the owners of relatively low-priced homes, many of them African-American and Latino, end up paying more than they should, with a relative break given to owners of more expensive properties, many of them owned by whites. […]
If the report is accurate, it’s striking how far the system is from performing as it should. For instance, by the coefficient of dispersion (COD) measure used by assessors, most homes should be valued within 5 percent to 15 percent of their true market value. In the county as a whole, that standard barely has been met, the report found. But in Chicago, the average COD was 25—almost five times the low end of the recommended variability range. […]
In the South township of the city, the average COD found was 21. In Hyde Park Township, it was 30; in Lake Township on the West Side, 44; and in south suburban Calumet, almost 50. The population in all of those is predominantly black.
In comparison, the CODs in the north lakefront’s North and Lake View Township were 13 and 11, respectively. And in suburban Elk Grove, Palatine and Orland, the CODs all were 8 or less.
* From Clem Balanoff, chairman of Our Revolution Illinois/Chicago…
“The Civic Consulting Alliance today released a scathing report confirming that Assessor Joe Berrios runs a regressive residential assessment process. The report, which Joe Berrios has been relying on to save his failed tenure as Assessor, reinforces what many have been saying for months: Berrios runs a corrupt, pay-to-play office that overtaxes working and middle-class families in order to reward his campaign donors.
It has been 254 days since the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica exposed Joe Berrios’s corrupt assessment process. Since then, another cycle of assessments has passed, forcing many residents to pay more than their fair share in property taxes, including costs passed on to renters, while billionaires like Donald Trump get millions in tax breaks.
Joe Berrios faces $41,000 in fines from the Board of Ethics for accepting illegal contributions from property tax lawyers doing business with his office. His actions have also led to a major lawsuit against Cook County by community organizations seeking to correct the unjust system.”
Democrat Andrea Raila’s bid to run for Cook County assessor suffered a serious blow Thursday, when county election officials kicked her off the March 20 primary ballot.
Raila, though, said she will appeal in court. If a judicial ruling doesn’t reverse Cook County Electoral Board’s decision, the Democratic primary will feature a one-on-one matchup between two-term incumbent Joe Berrios and asset manager Fritz Kaegi.
The Electoral Board signed off on a recommendation made last week by hearing officer Christopher Agrella, who found a “pattern of fraud” within the Raila campaign’s collection of petition signatures to run for office. That alleged fraud wiped out thousands of signatures, putting her below the threshold needed to get on the ballot.
*** UPDATE 2 *** Press release…
Following is a statement from Fritz Kaegi, the progressive Democrat running against incumbent Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios in the March 2018 primary election, in response to the newly released Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA) property tax assessment report commissioned by the Cook County Board.
“Today’s CCA report is the latest in a mountain of expert analysis that over the years all point to one indisputable conclusion: Assessor Berrios has failed the taxpayers of Cook County.
“Berrios campaigned on a promise to fix property tax regressivity in 2010–but during his tenure as Assessor, he has focused on filling his own campaign coffers and serving the interests of clouted property tax attorneys and wealthy property owners.
“Under Joe Berrios, wide swaths of the South Side, West Side and Southland have suffered greatly under a property tax assessment system that leads to tremendous inequity. It’s time to give Cook County taxpayers the property tax assessment system that they deserve and expect.
“As Assessor, I will bring integrity, fairness and transparency to the Assessor’s office and end the nepotism, corruption and pay-to-play politics that have come to define Berrios’s tenure.”
*** UPDATE 3 *** Chris Kennedy…
Today’s report proves that Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios knowingly gutted the economic future of so many homeowners, particularly in African-American and Latino communities, while our schools are underfunded, so that his wealthy and well-connected friends could save money. He’s been unapologetic and shameless throughout this investigation.
His tenure as assessor is a complete complete disgrace, and it’s exactly what’s wrong with the political establishment in Illinois. I called on Joe Berrios to resign months ago and today I renew that call. JB Pritzker took 48 hours to criticize the way Speaker Madigan handled a sexual harassment complaint and has been silent for months on Joe Berrios’ corrupt property tax system. With the evidence outlined in today’s study, he has no choice but to denounce Berrios and join my call for him to resign.
JB has spent $50 million in this campaign upping his profile but that money hasn’t bought any courage to stand up to the political insiders who are hurting the people of Illinois.
*** UPDATE 4 *** Andrea Raila…
In a much anticipated decision, the Cook County election board upheld the decision to remove Andrea Raila’s name from the March 20 primary ballot after thousands of military ballots with Andrea Raila for Cook County Assessor have already been mailed.
By refusing to drop his challenge, Frederick “Fritz” Kaegi continues his efforts to keep a qualified woman off the ballot because of technicalities, which have allowed other candidates on the ballot, but are called a pattern of fraud in Raila’s case.
“The inconsistencies of this board’s decisions is an embarrassment to the democratic process. 14,500 voters—supporters who signed Raila’s petitions lost today. Today was an example of the typical good ole boys sticking together,” said Raila.
Raila said, “The decision amplifies the disenfranchisement of women and minorities who are working so hard to gain access to the democratic process. It is unAmerican.”
In the year of the Woman, we are witnessing a man running for office under the banner of a Progressive, but using old school democratic tactics to knock the first Democratic woman to run for this office in 85 years off the ballot.
“My election attorney was not even allowed to present witnesses and affidavits that show Frederick “Fritz” Kaegi’s name on petitions that were circulated before the legal date allowed.” Raila added.
In the bowels of the board of elections, some twenty plus women clutching the special Newsweek edition SHE PERSISTED, gasped when the ruling announced and shouted. ‘SHAME ON YOU!” We will prevail!
*** UPDATE 5 *** Biss…
Today, Daniel Biss released the following statement in response to the release of an independent study reviewing Cook County’s property tax assessment process.
“Middle-class families like mine don’t need a study or high-priced consultant to tell us property taxes are stacked against us, and neither do wealthy homeowners like JB Pritzker and Chris Kennedy who have, for years, exploited the system for six figures in tax breaks. We all understand that the system is rigged, but that’s where the similarities end: I have a personal stake in fixing the system while my opponents benefit from its continuation. That’s why I’ve worked with ordinary homeowners, advocacy groups, and my colleagues in the legislature to find ways to root our corruption and hold wealthy homeowners accountable for paying their fair share. I was proud to introduce the HOME Act in June to bring transparency and fairness to our property tax system and will continue fighting for progressive reforms when I’m governor.”
Craig Wall: The Reader cover. Is this helpful in the conversation, does this hurt in the conversation?
Ald. Sawyer: It’s hurtful. I just happened to see the cover right before I started my speech, and that’s the equivalent of putting gasoline on a fire. Someone’s doing that intentionally to stir up race when we should be talking about disinvestment on the South and West Side. We should be talking about… employment opportunity. We should be talking about educational opportunities. Instead, we’re talking about something that happened nine years ago. I get it. It was wrong. The man apologized. Let’s move forward and talk about what’s important for Illinois, what’s important for the City of Chicago and not continue to race bait. That’s all the Reader did and I think they should apologize for doing that. That cover was offensive. That cover was offensive to whoever looks at it, you know whether… It’s offensive to JB I would imagine. I think that they’re race baiting. I think better of them than that.
“There was a time in America when certain things were socially acceptable without any thought to how dehumanizing they were to someone else. The image of the lawn jockey symbolizes the wink-and-a-nudge ignorance that puts racism into context historically and in this contemporary situation. As a Democrat, Pritzker indeed needs the black vote, and he puts all his weight on it in a most disrespectful manner.”
Not sure I get what he’s saying there.
* The magazine also published a column by Neil Steinberg about Pritzker…
To make it worse, Pritzker responded by apologizing to everyone in sight. Which, to be honest, doesn’t make him seem very gubernatorial. He might have said instead, “Why should an American citizen not accused of any crime, like me, be confronted with his mildly judgmental small talk a decade later?”
Yeah, smugness always works. Right.
* The Reader’s new editor interviewed Pritzker and asked him: “What are you doing to change? Will you seek counseling?”
* The mag also published another piece by Adeshina Emmanuel. The first one, entitled “Pritzker the sneak disser might as well have said the N-word,” is here. And this is the part of the new one…
That’s why I called out the African-American elected officials who accepted Pritzker’s apology and still back him in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. To me, a black millennial, their seeming willingness to consider the way Pritzker spoke about race issues as displaying an acceptable level of racism is part of the problem too.
They stood behind Pritzker and offered forgiveness that suggests to a lot of people-white people, that is-that they too should get a pass for sneaky racism so long as they don’t speak in vicious racial slurs. There are a lot of people-African-Americans and people of color across this city-who don’t forgive him. Some fear electing Pritzker is trading one racially insensitive billionaire governor for another. If you haven’t heard from those people, it’s because their opinions don’t matter much to the Democratic machine or the mainstream media.
That said, Pritzker’s political apologists deserve a chance to explain why they think African-Americans should see Pritzker as a friend to their communities. […]
The black politicians supporting Pritzker that did talk to me all shared a common message: We should judge Pritzker’s history and entire person, not words from a decade-old private conversation. They touted him as the Democrats’ best chance to beat Governor Bruce Rauner. They said that Pritzker wouldn’t abandon them once the polls close, and would stay engaged through his tenure with economic development, income inequality, crime, and other issues plaguing many African-American neighborhoods. […]
But Pritzker being sensitive to what words he says doesn’t mean we know what he really thinks about African-Americans. Then again, the same goes for any politician. However, the difference is most politicians don’t have wiretaps released with their problematic language just weeks before a closely contested primary as they make a hard push to court black voters.
Discuss.
…Adding… Statement from Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, 6th Ward Alderman and Chicago Aldermanic Black Caucus Chairman Roderick Sawyer and Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers…
“The Chicago Reader says its cover art featuring the image of a lawn jockey is a ‘wink and a nudge’ that provides historical context for racism. A ‘wink’ infers subtlety. This cartoon is not subtle and cannot do the work of contextualizing racism because it is in itself racist. At a time when we are having a debate as a state and as a nation about who we are and how insidious racism infects our politics, this image does not advance the thoughtful debate we need and is therefore disappointing.”
Democratic governor candidate J.B. Pritzker was not exactly excited to pick up this week’s Reader and see himself in exaggerated caricature form sitting on top of a lawn jockey. Nope. He characterized the cover illustration by artist Greg Houston as “not the right approach.”
“Well, I guess I knew they intended to be provocative at the Reader, but I think this is not the right approach,” he said while addressing a seniors’ luncheon hosted by Captain’s Hard Time Dining & Josephine’s Cooking soul food restaurant on 79th Street. […]
Reader executive editor Mark Konkol responded in a statement: “Today’s Reader included a variety of opinions about J.B. Pritzker’s wiretapped interaction with former governor Rod Blagojevich, including the candidate’s own statements in his defense. Alderman Sawyer is entitled to his opinion. We stand by our decision to engage readers on important issues of the day by producing journalism and social commentary that gets people talking.”
* On Tuesday IDPH reported “two laboratory-confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease among Illinois Veterans’ Home residents” in Quincy. Here’s the latest…
The Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs (IDVA) and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) are reporting a third laboratory-confirmed case of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy (IVHQ). The positive test result was reported late yesterday. The resident is in stable condition.
IDVA is boosting disinfection levels in its water to further reduce any potential exposure to residents or staff. IDVA is also implementing modified water restrictions across the IVHQ campus, including:
• Installing Laminar flow devices on all sinks. This filter reduces the aeration of the water as it flows from the faucet.
• Limiting bathing to showers only, which are protected with legionella blocking Pall filters.
• Instituting temperature checks every two hours while residents are awake, and full vitals every four hours.
Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have returned to the home in Quincy, at the request of IDPH on Tuesday, February 13th, to review testing protocols for individuals with respiratory illness.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) is outraged at third confirmed case of Legionnaires’ disease at the Illinois Veterans Home at Quincy today.
“Three cases this week alone and still no real solutions from the governor. Obviously his leadership throughout this entire process — from the initial 2015 outbreak to where we stand now — has been an abysmal failure. The time to act is now. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle in both chambers are willing to take action the moment the governor decides he cares.”
The [governor’s budget] plan relies in part on roughly $1.5 billion in savings from shifting pension costs away from the state and onto school districts, slashing health insurance benefits for retirees, and reducing rates for doctors, hospitals and pharmacies that participate in the state’s Medicaid health care program for the poor. It also calls for raiding $600 million from specialized funds that would not be repaid. […]
“He’s asking us to pass laws that his own Republicans will not vote for,” Cullerton said during an appearance on “Illinois Lawmakers.” “He wants to take money away from the state employees, take money away from pensions, take money away from health care. He wants to cut funding for education? We’re not gonna vote for that.” […]
“Every budget requires legislation,” said a top budget official during a background briefing with reporters. “There’s a misapprehension that passing legislation somehow constitutes an unbalanced budget. That’s absolutely, completely false.” […]
CPS would be asked to pay $228 million for teacher pensions after the state just last year had agreed to pick it up as part of an overhaul of the school funding formula. Suburban and downstate districts would take on about $262 million a year for the next four years.
A similar plan was floated several years ago by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, the governor’s chief political nemesis, but was pulled amid pushback from Republicans who argued the change could drive up property taxes or result in program cuts as schools take on the added cost.
The Tribune’s budget story was very good, but I have one quibble. CPS’ cost-shift would be completed in just one year, but the governor has proposed a four-year shift of 25 percent per year for suburban and Downstate schools. From Rauner’s address…
We will ask school districts to begin sharing the cost of their own pensions. We’ll phase in the shift over four years— in 25 percent increments per year
So, suburban and Downstate school districts would be shifted $262 million in pension costs in the first year. By the second year, the total local cost would escalate to $524 million. In the third year, $786 million. The last quarter of the state’s cost shift would up the total annual local pension costs to $1.048 billion (based on this year’s dollars).
We will… give schools and local governments the tools they need to more than offset the costs. The tools include increased education funding, the power to dissolve or consolidate units of local government, and more flexibility in contracting, bidding and sharing services.
More flexibility in contracting. Ah, the good ol’ Turnaround Agenda, aka Magic Beans. “My plan will not raise property taxes because I’m definitely gonna pass something into law that the Democrats will never give me!”
Rauner’s budget would increase K-12 education by $420 million, including $350 million that was required to continue fully implementing the funding reform plan. But Manar said the money doesn’t make up for the increased expenses of the pension shift and would make funding inequity among schools even worse.
So, he increases state funding by $420 million, but decreases state spending elsewhere by sending local schools a new $490 million tab in just the first year.
* And this isn’t just about K-12. From his speech…
We will ask universities to pay their pension costs also phased in over four years and to pick up their health care costs
The pension shift would cost $101 million and it’ll be $105 million for healthcare in the first year, for a total of $206 million. It’s offset by a $205.7 million GRF approp, but, again, that cost shift is just for the first year. By the second year, the shift would total $412 million, then $618 million in the third year and $824 million by the fourth year.
Whew.
* Senate Republican Leader Bill Brady has in the past called a cost-shift a “deal killer” because it would jack up property taxes and tuition. But now that the governor has proposed one, Brady is on board.
…Adding… From Brady’s office…
It’s worth noting. Not all cost shifts are the same. Leader Brady didn’t believe the Speaker’s cost-shift proposal was sound policy because unlike the Governor’s proposal, it included legacy costs.
Back in 2014, then-Republican state Rep. Darlene Senger became a co-sponsor of HR1267…
States the opinion of the Illinois House of Representatives that the proposed educational pension cost shift from the State of Illinois to local school districts, community colleges, and institutions of higher education is financially wrong.
Senger is now running for comptroller on Rauner’s ticket. Hmm.
That resolution was sponsored by Rep. Dave McSweeney. He has filed another anti-shift resolution during this General Assembly and it picked up 14 new bipartisan co-sponsors yesterday, to bring his total to about three dozen.
Today, the Pritzker campaign is launching a new series, highlighting where Dan Biss’ campaign rhetoric is at odds with his record. Dan Biss says he’s a proven progressive, but he voted for unconstitutional cuts to pensions and healthcare. Let’s check the record.
In 2013, Biss wrote the unconstitutional bill that cut pension benefits for 467,000 downstate teachers, university workers, and state employees. This followed a 2012 vote where Biss tried to slash healthcare benefits from nearly 80,000 state retirees and retired suburban and downstate teachers. Both of those efforts were opposed by the Illinois AFL-CIO and ruled unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court.
“Dan Biss led the charge on unconstitutional efforts to undermine pensions for public servants, only to get smacked down by the Supreme Court,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “From cutting pensions for almost half a million Illinoisans to slashing healthcare for 80,000, the Biss record looks a lot closer to Rauner’s latest budget address than that of a true progressive.”
I’m guessing the “series” is a bunch of press releases, but the campaign does have a new “Biss Please” Twitter account.
* And while Biss does have a problem with his voting record in the past, he does have stuff like this in his present…
People’s Action is proud to join our member organization Reclaim Chicago in endorsing Sen. Daniel Biss (D) for governor of Illinois. As a middle-class candidate and father of two children in public schools, Biss has championed progressive issues his entire career and is the only candidate for governor who has real government experience, passing nearly 90 bills during his time in the state legislature.
Biss has pledged to support the People’s Action Protest to Power Platform and promote a bold racial and economic justice agenda. Biss will lead Illinois’s working families into a future with prosperity for all – not just the wealthy few.
By the way, I’m also kind of a fan of Biss’ new “JB Spends” website. You enter any dollar amount you want and it tells you how fast Pritzker’s campaign could spend it. It also gives you some examples. For instance…
JB Pritzker’s campaign spends the average cost of buying a gas station in Cook County in 5 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes, and 51 seconds. source
A true test of someone’s character is what they say when they don’t think anyone’s listening.
On FBI wiretaps, JB Pritzker said what he really thinks of black folks.
Pritzker used insults and code language to put down our entire community.
We shouldn’t be surprised by Pritzker insulting ourcommunity, Pritzker called Barack Obama a mediocre President
Danny Davis, Bobby Rush, myself and many more Black leaders are supporting Chris Kennedy for Governor.
Chris’ father Robert Kennedy and his uncle President Kennedy fought and struggled and sacrificed alongside Dr. King in the civil rights movement.
Chris has devoted his life fighting for those who are left behind.
That’s the Kennedy way.
It’s time to unite, fight and get it right.
Support Kennedy for Governor.
* Meanwhile…
Chris Kennedy’s Campaign for Governor is sending the following letter today to Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Treasurer Michael Frerichs, State Senator Andy Manar and county chairs who endorsed JB Pritzker:
Dear Friend of JB,
As candidates for governor, my opponents and I all need to be vetted by the press and by the voters. No one should be exempt from that, but unfortunately, JB Pritzker has decided he will not attend the only televised debate taking place outside of the Chicago market.
I am sure that you will agree with me that Pritzker is denying Illinois voters the chance to hear where he stands on the issues facing residents throughout our state.
You have spent years as a champion for communities throughout Illinois, reminding the Democratic party that we should not ignore the voters outside of Chicago. Since you have endorsed JB Pritzker, I am calling on you to encourage your candidate to respect the voters of Central, Southern, Western, Northern and Eastern Illinois and join the debate in the Springfield-Champaign-Decatur market on WCIA-TV on March 5th.
Unfortunately, WCIA may now cancel the debate because Pritzker declined to participate.
We, as Democrats, believe that there should be a free exchange of ideas, that talking about issues isn’t a bad thing. That’s why debates are so important; they allow us to work through important issues and give voters the opportunity to decide.
All voters in our state deserve the same opportunity as those in Chicago. The Governor of Illinois is not responsible to only Chicago but to the whole state. If the debate is cancelled, it sends a message that the only voters who matter are those in Cook County.
In order to win back the governorship, Democrats need the support of not only voters in Chicago but across the state. It would be a colossal mistake to cancel the debate.
Do not let JB Pritzker deprive Illinois voters from hearing from all of us. Please join me in calling for the WCIA debate to continue as scheduled.
Sincerely,
Christopher G. Kennedy
Candidate for Governor
…Adding… Ouch…
Hey @KennedyforIL - I got your letter. It reminded me of the downstate forum I held in Peoria last summer- the one your campaign said you’d attend before ghosting on us. Downstate knows @JBPritzker because he’s been here repeatedly & has a plan to grow our economy. #twill#ilgov
After JB Pritzker announced that he was unwilling to participate in the only televised debate outside of Chicago, the corporate owner of media host WCIA Channel 3 in Springfield said they were considering canceling the event. In response, the Biss campaign launched a petition to Save Our Downstate Debate, inviting people across the state to add their name to a petition urging WCIA to carry on with the program, so voters can hear from the candidates who aren’t afraid to be heard.
The response to the petition was overwhelming, with 2,400 signatures collected in the last week.
“Clearly, JB Pritzker is worried,” said Biss communications director Tom Elliott. “And Illinois voters clearly want to see this debate continue with or without him. Daniel Biss agreed to participate in this debate early on, and he’s eager to share his vision for our state and how middle-class progressive values drive our campaign. On the first day of expanded early voting across the state, it seems JB is afraid to answer the tough questions being raised about his campaign, which raises serious doubt about whether he’s actually prepared to face Bruce Rauner in the fall.”
