*** UPDATE 1 *** From the committee’s chair, Rep. Chris Welch…
“As of 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25, the Special Investigating Committee has received no formal indication of any witnesses planning to testify.
“The committee will proceed as scheduled with our Tuesday, Sept. 29 hearing at 2 p.m., and I ask all members to come prepared to conduct themselves in a manner reflective of the serious business before us.”
The correspondence received by the committee is here. Still no statement from Rep. Welch on the planned appearance by an as-yet-unnamed witness from ComEd.
*** UPDATE 2 *** House Republican Leader Jim Durkin…
Speaker Madigan continues to take the path that his own House Rules apply to all except him. The House Democrats and Governor Pritzker must step up and demand answers about Madigan’s involvement in ComEd’s admission of guilt in a bribery scheme lasting nine years.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 2,514 new confirmed cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 25 additional confirmed deaths.
• Cook County: 1 male 60s, 2 males 70s, 1 female 80s, 1 male 80s, 1 male 90s, 1 female 100+
• Cumberland County: 1 female 80s
• DuPage County: 1 male 70s, 2 females 90s
• Green County: 1 female 60s, 1 male 60s, 1 female 80s
• Jersey County: 1 male 90s
• Kane County: 1 male 50s
• Menard County: 1 male 90s
• Richland County: 1 male 80s
• Saline County: 1 male 70s
• St. Clair County: 1 female 70s
• Tazewell County: 1 female 70s
• Will County: 1 male 60s, 1 male 70s
• Williamson County: 1 female 80s, 1 female 90s
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 283,885 cases, including 8,563 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 18 – September 24 is 3.6%. Within the past 24 hours, laboratories have reported 69,793 specimens for a total of 5,363,471. As of last night, 1,637 people in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 371 patients were in the ICU and 124 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
Following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH is now reporting separately both confirmed and probable cases and deaths on its website. Reporting probable cases will help show the potential burden of COVID-19 illness and efficacy of population-based non-pharmaceutical interventions. IDPH will update these data once a week.
*All data are provisional and will change. In order to rapidly report COVID-19 information to the public, data are being reported in real-time. Information is constantly being entered into an electronic system and the number of cases and deaths can change as additional information is gathered. For health questions about COVID-19, call the hotline at 1-800-889-3931 or email dph.sick@illinois.gov.
*** UPDATE *** Press release…
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 17 counties in Illinois are considered to be at a warning level for novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). A county enters a warning level when two or more COVID-19 risk indicators that measure the amount of COVID-19 increase.
Seventeen counties are currently reported at a warning level – Bond, Boone, Cass, Christian, Clinton, Crawford, DeWitt, Fayette, Grundy, Hamilton, Macon, Menard, Peoria, Putnam, Washington, Wayne, and Winnebago.
Although the reasons for counties reaching a warning level varies, some of the common factors for an increase in cases and outbreaks are associated with university and college parties as well as college sports teams, large gatherings and events, bars and clubs, weddings and funerals, long-term care facilities, correctional centers, schools, and cases among the community at large.
Public health officials are observing people not social distancing, gathering in large groups, and not using face coverings. Some communities lack access to convenient testing before people become symptomatic. In some counties, local law enforcement and states’ attorneys are not enforcing important mitigation measures like social distancing and the wearing of face coverings. Additionally, some people refuse to participate in contact tracing and are not providing information on close contacts or answering the phone.
Several counties are taking swift action and implementing mitigation measures to help slow spread of the virus, including increasing testing opportunities, stressing the importance of testing to providers, hiring additional contact tracers, working with schools, meeting with local leaders, and educating businesses and large venues about the importance of mitigation measures.
IDPH uses numerous indicators when determining if a county is experiencing stable COVID-19 activity, or if there are warning signs of increased COVID-19 risk in the county. A county is considered at the warning level when at least two of the following metrics triggers a warning.
COVID-19 County Metrics
• New cases per 100,000 people. If there are more than 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the county, this triggers a warning.
• Number of deaths. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly number of deaths increases more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly test positivity. This metric indicates a warning when the 7-day test positivity rate rises above 8%.
• ICU availability. If there are fewer than 20% of intensive care units available in the region, this triggers a warning.
• Weekly emergency department visits. This metric indicates a warning when the weekly percent of COVID-19-like-illness emergency department visits increase by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Weekly hospital admissions. A warning is triggered when the weekly number of hospital admissions for COVID-19-like-illness increases by more than 20% for two consecutive weeks.
• Tests performed. This metric is used to provide context and indicate if more testing is needed in the county.
• Clusters. This metric looks at the percent of COVID-19 cases associated with clusters or outbreaks and is used to understand large increase in cases.
These metrics are intended to be used for local level awareness to help local leaders, businesses, local health departments, and the public make informed decisions about personal and family gatherings, as well as what activities they choose to do. The metrics are updated weekly, from the Sunday-Saturday of the prior week.
A map and information of each county’s status can be found on the IDPH website at https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countymetrics.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton warned Thursday that Illinoisans could face an across-the-board income tax hike of at least 20% if voters reject a proposed constitutional amendment to shift the state from a mandated flat-rate tax to a graduated-rate tax based on income.
For weeks, Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritkzer’s administration has cautioned that severe budget cuts could be on the way if voters don’t approve the proposed amendment to overhaul Illinois’ income tax system. But Stratton’s threat that all taxpayers, regardless of income, could face a tax hike unless the amendment passes on Nov. 3 appeared to represent a new shift in strategy for the Pritzker administration.
“To adequately address the budget crisis under our current tax system, lawmakers will be forced to consider raising income taxes on all Illinois residents by at least 20% regardless of their level of income,” Stratton said during a virtual rally on behalf of the pro-amendment Vote Yes for Fairness group that marked the start of voting in Illinois. […]
A 20% increase would raise the state’s current 4.95% flat-rate personal income tax by nearly 1 percentage point to 5.94%. It would raise an estimated $4 billion a year, even more than the projected $3.4 billion that would be generated under a graduated-rate levy enacted if the amendment is ratified, said professor David Merriman, a longtime expert on state finances at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
* React from the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment on Tax Hike…
“If you need more proof Springfield has too much power and can’t be trusted look no further than telling voters to support a tax hike amendment or politicians will continue to raise them for you.
“It’s clear there’s only three words the Springfield politicians understand: Raising your taxes.”
Lissa Druss
Spokesperson for the Coalition to Stop the Proposed Tax Hike Amendment
…Adding… Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider…
Governor Pritzker’s team is so worried that his massive tax hike won’t pass that they have resorted to threatening taxpayers with…an even more massive tax hike. I believe the people of Illinois are too smart to be fooled by these outrageous scare tactics.
We deserve a state government that makes the same hard choices families make every day - to cut costs and live responsibly within our means. It’s clear that state government under the direction of Governor Pritzker and Speaker Michael Madigan are not capable of doing that. We shouldn’t reward their terrible decision-making with more of our hard earned money.
…Adding… HGOPs…
MEDIA ADVISORY: Illinois House Republicans Respond to Pritzker Administration Threats to Illinois Residents for Graduated Tax Amendment
WHO: Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and Deputy Minority Leader Tom Demmer (R-Dixon)
WHAT: House Republicans respond to the Pritzker Administration’s threat to raise income taxes on every Illinoisan by 20 percent if the unfair tax amendment does not pass in November.
A special Illinois House committee’s hearings next week on the Springfield bribery scandal should begin with testimony from executives of Commonwealth Edison, the company at the center of the federal corruption probe, WBEZ has learned.
In a letter Thursday to the Democratic lawmaker heading the legislative inquiry, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said he or his lawyer, the former federal prosecutor Ron Safer, “will be questioning” the ComEd executives at the special panel’s meeting on Tuesday. […]
Durkin told [committee chairman Chris Welch] he “will be presenting an opening statement” at the committee meeting Tuesday, and he added that “a representative” of ComEd has confirmed the company’s executives will appear at the session to testify.
ComEd CEO Joe Dominguez and other executives from the power company – which serves 4 million homes and businesses across northern Illinois – already have testified and taken questions about the scandal at the state board that regulates utilities and at the Chicago City Council. […]
A ComEd spokesman said the company would comment on its participation in the hearings later Thursday. Welch did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday morning.
ComEd has not yet commented, but I’ll post it when they do. I have been able to confirm that a ComEd official will testify.
“ComEd has pledged to respect the legislative process that has been initiated and accepted the invitation to provide testimony at the hearing next week,” company spokesman Paul Elsberg said in a statement.
The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid rose slightly last week to 870,000, a historically high figure that shows that the viral pandemic is still squeezing restaurants, airlines, hotels and many other businesses six months after it first erupted.
The figure coincides with evidence that some newly laid-off Americans are facing delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state agencies intensify efforts to combat fraudulent applications and clear their pipelines of a backlog of jobless claims.
California has said it will stop processing new applications for two weeks as it seeks to reduce backlogs and prevent fraudulent claims. Pennsylvania has found that up to 10,000 inmates are improperly receiving aid.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of people who are continuing to receive unemployment benefits declined to 12.6 million. The steady decline in that figure over the past several months reflects that some of the unemployed are being re-hired. Yet it also indicates that others have exhausted their regular jobless aid, which last six months in most states.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 23,113 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Sept. 14 in Illinois, according to the DOL’s weekly claims report released Thursday.
While this number is based on advanced estimates, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) will be releasing a final number later Thursday. […]
There were 27,384 new unemployment claims were filed in Illinois during the week of Sept. 7.
* WalletHub looks at where Illinois stands in relation to other states. 1 equals the quickest recover and 25 is the average…
• 253.52% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Last Year)
o 23,113 the week of September 14, 2020 vs 6,538 the week of September 16, 2019
o 19th quickest recovery in the U.S.
• 96.22% Change in Unemployment Claims (Latest Week vs Start of 2020)
o 23,113 the week of September 14, 2020 vs 11,779 the week of January 1, 2020
o 26th quickest recovery in the U.S.
• 762.89% Change in Unemployment Claims (Since Start of COVID-19 Crisis vs Last Year)
o 1,671,157 between the week of March 16, 2020 and the week of September 14, 2020 vs 219,055 between the week of March 18, 2019 and the week of September 16, 2019
o 4th quickest recovery in the U.S.
The number of nonfarm jobs decreased over-the-year in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas in August, with five metro areas at record low payrolls for that month, according to preliminary data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). The unemployment rate increased over-the-year in all metro areas and to record highs for the month of August in two metros. The official, BLS approved sub-state unemployment rate and nonfarm jobs series begins in 1990. Data reported prior to 1990 are not directly comparable due to updates in methodology.
“With the state’s COVID-19 mitigation plan in place, we are working hard to keep people safe while restoring confidence in and strengthening our economy,” said Deputy Governor Dan Hynes. “IDES is continuing to work tirelessly to support working families by connecting them to job training and workforce matching programs and ensuring benefits get to those impacted by this pandemic.”
The number of nonfarm jobs decreased in all fourteen Illinois metropolitan areas. Total nonfarm jobs were down in Peoria (-11.0%, -19,000), Elgin (-9.7%, -25,300) and Decatur (-8.4%, -4,300). In Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights, jobs were down -7.6% (-291,600). No industry sector saw job gains in a majority of metro areas.
Not seasonally adjusted data compares August 2020 with August 2019. The not seasonally adjusted Illinois rate was 10.9 percent in August 2020 and the highest August unemployment rate since 1983, when it was 11.3 percent. The official, BLS approved, statewide unemployment rate series begins in 1976. Nationally, the not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in August 2020 and the highest August unemployment rate since 2011, when it was 9.1. The unemployment rate identifies those individuals who are out of work and seeking employment.
State Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, said he doesn’t think the testing data has been complete in Region 4 because it doesn’t include the negative results from Illinois residents who use a hospital system in the St. Louis area. He said the mitigations keeping bars and restaurants from allowing dine-in service is “destroying livelihoods.”
“Gov. Pritzker needs to show some leadership and immediately cancel these mitigation measures that he had put in place based on the region’s positivity rate because that positivity rate number is not accurate; I have no confidence in it whatsoever,” Schimpf said. […]
“To me, it’s extremely frustrating that they did this, and I don’t think it was anywhere close to accurate at all,” Schimpf said.
Significant issues with the state’s COVID-19 reporting and tracking methods are likely affecting the accuracy of the published positivity rate for the Metro East region, prompting State Senators Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) and Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) to call on Governor Pritzker to immediately remove the increased restrictions on IDPH Region 4.
“As more and more facts call into question the accuracy of the positivity rate for Region 4, I find it unconscionable that the State of Illinois is shutting down businesses and destroying livelihoods based on a metric that is clearly neither meaningful nor accurate,” said State Senator Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo). “Governor Pritzker needs to immediately lift the mitigation measures he imposed on our region several weeks ago.”
Schimpf and Plummer noted several issues with the state’s data reporting and collection methodology, which could be creating an inaccurate and inflated rate for the region. They noted that IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike confirmed that until recently, Illinois was not including data from some of the largest hospitals and healthcare facilities in the region. One of those networks, BJC HealthCare, provides healthcare to 30% of Metro East residents at several hospitals and clinics in Missouri and Illinois.
“This is a crisis impacting everyone so the lack of transparency and zero accountability from this administration must end,” said State Senator Jason Plummer. “It is shockingly callous for Governor Pritzker and his allies to knowingly use faulty data to implement arbitrary rules that have destroyed economic opportunity for many Illinoisans. Our priority should be to protect the most vulnerable, but this administration is exacerbating the crisis by creating economic hardship and additional health issues for many desperate families.”
Because many Metro East residents utilize Missouri hospitals for medical care and COVID-19 testing services, only including positive test results from those providers would dramatically increase the reported positivity rate for the region.
The Senators also pointed to issues with data collection state-wide, such as individuals being counted multiple times and individuals in state facilities, such as prisons, who do not mingle in the general population being counted. Additionally, according to health officials, some private labs may be submitting only positive results because those are the only results that they are required to release.
* And…
So, are @JBPritzker and @IDPH committing denominator fraud with testing numbers? If so, this is criminal.
I’ve been watching these two for a few days now, but I wanted to wait to see what I could get out of the administration before pulling the trigger.
* Jordan Abudayyeh…
IDPH uses an electronic reporting system for labs to report all of their results including negative and positive tests. The majority of clinical labs within the state of Illinois are using this system; while new labs or non-traditional providers are required to immediately begin reporting manually, IDPH works collaboratively to include these labs in the electronic reporting system as soon as possible. Out-of-state labs are also included in IDPH’s network when they cooperatively provide results for Illinoisans.
There is absolutely no truth to these baffling claims from lawmakers in Region 4. There are no situations where the state takes just the positives from a testing entity and includes that in a region’s positivity rate. Any situation where data gets included in the positivity rate requires a full data set of both positive and negative results to be provided electronically to IDPH. For those labs who are not yet a part of the electronic reporting system, their results are communicated to IDPH through a manual survey tool and are not included in the positivity rates for regions. Because the state has worked to include a robust network of labs in our electronic reporting system, the number of positives reported to the state via the manual survey tool is relatively small and diminishing. In the case of Region 4 these manually reported results would have a negligible effect on the region’s positivity rate, even if they were included in the positivity calculation, which they are not.
As for the other claims these lawmakers make about congregate facilities in the region, the medical experts have repeatedly said they are included in totals because there are members of community that work at these facilities who then go out into the community. These facilities are a part of the community and can contribute to community spread. It’s important to note that congregate facilities are not unique to region 4. There are congregate facilities in every region of Illinois and other regions have managed to keep their positivity rates below warning level.
Instead of peddling conspiracy theories that undermine the health and safety of Illinoisans, lawmakers should be sharing the messages backed by medical experts that are proven to reduce positivity rates: wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance.
Some Madison County Board members are questioning the COVID-19 positivity rate used by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to impose stricter mitigation rules for Region 4 after Health Department Administrator Toni Corona said during the Health Department Committee meeting that private labs are not required to report negative tests.
Oy. Not true, people. Not to mention that the region’s positivity rate is going down.
…Adding… Sen. Schimpf is fundraising off of this with some flat-out false claims…
I really try to reduce the toxicity in politics. We have to disagree without being disagreeable. But right now, I am so mad at Governor Pritzker that I would have difficulty keeping my temper in check when speaking with him.
This week the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) revealed that when calculating the Region 4 (Randolph, Monroe, St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Bond, and Washington Counties) positivity rate, they HAD NOT been including data from the BJC Healthcare network.
The BJC Network provides healthcare for 30% of the residents of the Metro East and administers thousands of COVID-19 tests. BJC officials indicated to me that they had submitted only their POSITIVE test results to IDPH. This means that our data wasn’t simply incomplete–it was incorrect!
You can read initial media coverage of this development here.
Instead of taking corrective action and reopening Region 4 immediately, this morning Governor Pritzker still maintained that his mitigation sanctions should remain in place, stating he was “rooting for the Metro East.”
No, Governor, you are not. If you were rooting for us, you’d admit that your administration made an incomprehensibly stupid mistake. Own it and take corrective action immediately to allow our businesses to reopen.
If you want to help me spread the word that Governor Pritzker’s positivity rate is not accurate, you can donate here.
I will immediately roll your donation into Facebook advertising to spread the news of this travesty.
Thanks for reading and S/F,
Paul
Paul Schimpf
You know, perhaps if he’d just picked up the phone and called IDPH, he could’ve cleared this up. Instead, he’s basically joined up with the Eastern Bloc.
State senators Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, and Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, said in a news release Tuesday that “Illinois was not including data from some of the largest hospitals and healthcare facilities in the region,” including BJC HealthCare. The St. Louis-based company operates two hospitals and multiple health-care centers in the metro-east.
BJC spokeswoman Laura High says BJC has worked diligently “to comply with all reporting requests concerning COVID-19 testing of Illinois patients,” including those who live in Illinois but are tested at a Missouri BJC facility.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, BJC has reported both COVID-19 positive and negative results to all required agencies including (the Illinois Department of Public Health) and Illinois counties,” High said. “Our reports are based on people who provide Illinois residential addresses regardless of where they were tested.”
Schimpf said Wednesday he stands by his statement. Plummer was not immediately available for comment.
Betsy Londrigan just released an internal poll that shows her campaign down by only one percentage point in this key race! We knew the numbers would be tight but this shows this race has further tightened.
Friend, we’re counting on your support now more than ever. We must show Leftwing Londrigan who really has the support of the grassroots in this race. Londrigan’s record of supporting Nancy Pelosi’s radical agenda and palling around with corrupt Illinois politicians like Mike Madigan have NO place in Congress, much less in Downstate Illinois.
We knew this race was in a dead heat before this poll was released and this solidifies our fears. We can’t afford to have any supporters sitting on the sidelines. Can we count on your support today to show Londrigan that Team Rodney is ready to fight to defend this district?
Chip in any amount you can afford now to help Team Rodney respond in this key race.
I probably wouldn’t have posted Londrigan’s internal poll, but that email legitimized it.
* Londrigan campaign press release…
A new poll conducted by GBAO Strategies shows Betsy Dirksen Londrigan in a statistical tie with Congressman Rodney Davis, 47 - 48%, showing an increasingly tight race in Illinois’ 13th Congressional District. At this time in 2018, Davis led the race by six points. Davis also held a six-point lead in the race at the beginning of this summer, but now Dirksen Londrigan has brought Davis’ support to under 50% and is in a position to overtake the vulnerable incumbent by November.
Donald Trump won the 13th District in 2016, but he now trails Vice President Biden 44 - 51%.
After coming within 1% of unseating Davis in 2018, support is growing for Dirksen Londrigan and her vision for Central Illinois — ensuring access to quality, affordable health care, protecting those with pre-existing conditions, and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
The poll was conducted by GBAO Strategies on behalf of the Dirksen Londrigan campaign among 500 likely voters between September 17-20, 2020. It has a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points.
* Meanwhile…
Today, Rodney Davis’ campaign for Congress released a new ad titled “Kathy,” which highlights Betsy Londrigan’s support for a government-run insurance plan that could force the closure of more than half of America’s rural hospital, including 39 in Illinois.
The ad features Kathy Fergin, who has been a nurse anesthetist in central Illinois for 25 years. Kathy discusses Betsy Londrigan’s support for a government-run insurance plan known as the Medicare X public option, which would have disastrous consequences for rural hospitals, according to two independent, non-partisan studies.
Research highlighted by the American Hospital Association found that the Londrigan-backed public option plan could force the closure of more than half of rural hospitals across the country, including up to 39, or half, of the rural hospitals in Illinois.
Additional research conducted on behalf of the AHA shows the Londrigan-backed plan would cut funding for hospitals across the country by nearly $800 billion over a 10-year period. The AHA says the plan “would result in the largest ever cut to hospitals” and “could have a significant impact on patient access to care.”
As Capitol Fax’s Rich Miller noted, “This congressional district has a huge number of major regional hospitals, likely the most in Illinois and perhaps one of the most in the country. Those hospitals are significant local employers and they also drive technological development. Not to mention that hospitals have been especially hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Rural hospitals in IL-13 include Carrollton, Jerseyville, Litchfield, Staunton, Carlinville, Hillsboro, Taylorville, Pana, Clinton and Monticello.
Londrigan announced her support for Medicare-X in 2018, but has since dodged questions on how the plan would decimate hospitals across the country.
Kathy: I’ve been a nurse anesthetist in central Illinois for 25 years.
Rural hospitals are vital to our families and our economy.
But Betsy Londrigan supports a government-run health insurance plan that could force more than half of America’s rural hospitals to close.
Here in Illinois, we could lose 39 hospitals.
Betsy Londrigan’s liberal policies would destroy jobs and jeopardize care.
…Adding… Londrigan response…
Health care is personal to Betsy Dirksen Londrigan and she is committed to protecting and building upon the Affordable Care Act, protecting those with pre-existing conditions, and working to lower prescription drug prices. Dirksen Londrigan is committed to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care while Congressman Rodney Davis is working tirelessly to tear down our health care system.
An ad released today by Congressman Davis is just another desperate attempt to divert attention from his numerous votes in Washington to gut health care protections for Central Illinois families. Here’s what Davis doesn’t want voters to know:
Davis voted 11 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement.
Davis repeatedly voted to support a lawsuit that could lead to the Supreme Court overturning the Affordable Care Act by the end of this year.
Davis’ actions would have rolled back funding for Medicaid Expansion and thus risk the closure of rural hospitals, including across Illinois. Repealing the Affordable Care Act would also strip health care coverage from millions, including more than 31,000 in Illinois’ 13th District alone, and remove protections from more than 282,500 13th District residents with pre-existing conditions.
“Betsy’s priorities have always been to strengthen and expand upon the Affordable Care Act and the essential health benefits that go along with it and lower the cost of prescription drugs,” said campaign spokeswoman Eliza Glezer. “Voters in Central Illinois won’t be fooled by Congressman Davis’ desperate attempts to distract from his 11 votes to repeal the ACA without a replacement, votes to gut protections for people with people with pre-existing conditions, and votes against lowering the cost of prescription drugs.”
Additional information on Davis’ disastrous health care record can be found at www.RodneyDavisTruth.com.
A visibly shaken Grant had trouble recollecting details of the call during a meeting with the Daily Herald Editorial Board on Tuesday, but said she believes the short clips were taken out of context and are a mischaracterization of her views.
“I made a very clumsy and insensitive statement that does not reflect how I feel about my colleagues and any candidates,” Grant said in a prepared statement at the start of the meeting. “My faith is part of my daily life, and hearing those words calling me ‘racist’ rocks me to my core because that’s not who I am.” […]
In one of the recordings, Grant is heard saying Mejia-Beal, a gay, Black man from Lisle, is afraid to travel to the heart of her district, “not because he’s Black but because of the way he talks, he’s all LGBTQ.” In another, Grant says Mejia-Beal is “just another one of the Cook County people … another Black Caucus.” […]
Grant told the Daily Herald her comment regarding the Black Caucus was meant to suggest the General Assembly already is heavily represented by Democrats. And she said she would never intend to imply that the “LGBT community is something that would hamper a person’s ability to run for state (representative). It’s actually a ludicrous suggestion.”
I mean, he’s just another one of the Cook County people. That’s all you’re gonna vote for is a Cook County, another, ya know, Black Caucus, that’s all we need is another person on the Black Caucus.
The more I read that comment, the more repulsed I become.
DH: So those comments you just stated had to do with the size of the Black Caucus in Springfield. Do you have concerns about how large the Black Caucus is?
Rep. Grant: Oh, not, not necessarily the Black Caucus. No, it had nothing to do with that. Um, it’s just that I don’t, I mentioned the disparity between the numbers, and that’s how that came up. I, I made mention that a lot of people in my constituents, or my constituents, they really don’t even understand the, the General Assembly and the differences that are very much glaring and that’s, you know, a 44 to a 74 number. And it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s difficult to get things done and I just had made mention that there’s, there’s some.
DH: OK.
It had nothing to do with the Black Caucus. Right. OK.
*** UPDATE *** Rep. Grant’s opponent, Ken Mejia-Beal, just reported a $55,300 contribution from Gov. JB Pritzker’s campaign fund. Add that to the governor’s previous contribution and Pritzker’s fund has now maxed out.
Also, this is from Rep. Deb Conroy…
Time is up in using faith and a good heart as an excuse to use hateful bigoted speech! DuPage County deserves better than the words Representative Grant chooses to express her thoughts.
