* Last week, Darren Bailey reported raising just $1,000. This week, he’s reported $26,000 in contributions, including $1K from state GOP Chair Don Tracy and his spouse. If Bailey keeps up that blistering pace, he’ll raise another $300,000 by election day. By contrast, state House Democratic candidate Sharon Chung reported $119,800 in cash receipts this week.
Republican Mark Curran faces Democratic Judge Elizabeth Rochford in the race. As you know, a lawsuit has been filed to strike down the Illinois statute barring out of state and dark money contributions to judicial races. But it’s always possible, I guess, that Leonard Leo could take some of that $1.6 billion from Chicago businessperson Barre Seid and spend it on independent expenditures here. Leo has displayed a keen interest in state court races.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker visited Charleston on Thursday at the Charleston Carnegie Public Library on his way down to the DuQuoin State Fair.
While Pritzker was at the library, an event hosted by the Coles County Democrats, Pritzker urged Democrats in Coles County to vote in the upcoming general election because of what the future may look like for Democrats following the election.
“I’m so excited for this election because I know we can win, but it’s going to be a fight,” Pritzker said. “… Hate is on the ballot in Illinois this year. Hate has no place in Illinois.”
Charleston native Kim Miller, who was among the Bailey supporters, said she was motivated to turn out in protest by several concerns, including her opposition to abortion and to school sex education programs that promote gender transition medical measures to students. She added, “Those young people are vulnerable at that stage in life.”
Miller said she also has safety concerns about the criminal justice reform SAFE-T Act, particularly a provision that limits officers responding to criminal trespass incidents to issuing citations instead of being able to remove the trespasser. In addition, Miller said she disagrees with Pritzker’s COVID-19 closures of schools and the subsequent masking requirements for returning students.
“If we don’t stand up for our kids, what kind of nation are we leaving them,” Miller said.
Frustration with the state’s COVID-19 response was also voiced by The Body Club owner James Di Naso from Charleston when he stood up from his chair inside the banquet hall and shouted, “You shut down my gym during COVID,” as Pritzker began his remarks at the Coles County Democrats gathering. Di Naso was then removed from the banquet hall by some of the attendees around him.
* From Dan Proft’s PAC…
IL State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D) joined Dan & Amy’s Chicago radio show this morning with an interesting perspective on the People Who Play By The Rules PAC “Summer Of Joy” ad controversy: the most offensive thing of all was Lightfoot’s comments on the ad, specifically regarding “darker” skin being somehow “bad.”
..
Transcript beginning at ~8:43AM CST 8/25/2022 on AM 560 WIND Chicago:
Proft: “So what about that, what about the assertion that Lightfoot made?”
Ford: “Well I mean of course we live in America, people can make assertions all they want. I’ve been in politics for over 15 years and it’s the job of the opponent to put out ads that they see and as a candidate, I mean, you have to have tough skin if you’re in politics especially if you’re playing at the level of mayor. And I really really think that you have to pick your battles and this is not the battle that I think we need to be focusing on as a negative. I don’t need anybody saying the darker you look, the more dangerous you are. That’s bad. And so I find it offensive that we focus on saying that that’s an ugly vision of a person because that person is darker.
Proft: That’s what Lori Lightfoot said.
Ford: ”Yeah, that’s what I mean. I find…it takes us back. You know, in America where you have images of black people that have, you know…people have been discriminated because of darker skin, and so even if you had intentions on whatever, you pick your battles, and to say that because you made me [Lightfoot] darker, that means ‘I’m scary to white people.’ That’s not right. And so what we need to do is embrace all colors.
“You can’t expect your opponent to put you in the best light when they’re trying to defeat you. I know this. You know, so you’re not going to give her best image for ads that you’re trying to convey a message. Now, if you’re trying to convey a message that she’s darker than she is, and that makes her bad, then that’s your prerogative, but I don’t see how being darker makes the Mayor of the city of Chicago threatening to white suburbia.”
Proft: “It’s also so ridiculous because it’s like, everybody knows who she is and what her skin color is, this is not like a controversy, it’s not the topic of discussion which is why I can never even conceive of this allegation being made. This is like JB Pritzker arguing about being presented as ‘fat’ on screen, like ‘Oh no you know you got me from the wrong angle, you made me look fat’ I mean it’s just…everybody knows the physical characteristics of people who have been omnipresent in our lives particularly because of the every other day press conferences we had for two years during the pandemic, so it’s just silliness to suggest that I’m now I’m introducing a figure that people don’t know anything about in order to ’scare’ people.”
Ford: “Right. Let me tell you, and this is the truth, whether you’re a white person or black person, when you go into your Secretary of State office, go take a passport picture, and go do anything, everyone wants their picture to look pretty accurate and even in hands to make them look better. But you don’t come out against the color of your skin when it could really make a person that color be offended. I mean, the color you had her in, is just a little shade darker than me, and so we cannot play…even if you are offended you have to have thicker skin to avoid that issue, I mean, you just can’t do it.”
Amy: “Do you think the black community is upset at all with this ad?”
Ford: “You know, I don’t think so. So I don’t think the black community is upset, I mean we’ve seen, when I think about ads that have been put forth, I’ve seen ads of white people darkened too…I’ve seen it happen. Now, we know that there is such thing as racism, and there’s such thing as you know in society that you want to make people look scary…you know I mean just gotta have tough skin and pick your battles and this is not one that you go into to highlight, to make it you [Lightfoot] as a person confirming that ‘because I’m darker, I’m scarier’…that’s her confirming that because she’s darker, she’s scarier. She validated…even if you had intentions on making that assumption, she validated it. And that’s offensive.”
…
They went on to debate the merits of the highly controversial SAFE-T Act through the top of the hour.
* The Daily Herald looks at campaign contributions made by Richard Uihlein this cycle…
• State Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods, whose campaign received $277,137.
• Kane County treasurer candidate Chris Lauzen of Aurora, who received $15,000.
• DuPage County Board candidate Annette Corrigan of Wheaton, whose campaign received $2,500.
• Lake County sheriff candidate Mark Vice II of Round Lake, who got $3,000.
A recent audit of the Illinois Treasurer’s office shows several accounts understated $1.6 billion.
The report from the Auditor General for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2021, said testing of financial statements show uncorrected duplicate deposits between the treasurer’s office and the office of the Illinois Comptroller.
“It was determined only the duplicate deposit portion of the reconciling items would have been double counted in the available cash balance reported by the [comptroller],” the report said.
The report was released in June and said state law requires financial reporting to be “properly recorded and accounted for to permit the preparation of accounts and reliable financial and statistical reports to maintain accountability over the State’s resources.” […]
State Rep. Tom Demmer, R-Dixon, who is challenging Frerichs in the November election, advocates to combine the treasurer and comptroller offices.
“But one thing that’s concerning with this I think is that after the auditor general has laid out, again, a repeat audit finding, repeated from last year, we only get a cursory explanation,” Demmer told The Center Square.
* Ma’am, it’s Du Quoin, not DeQuoin….
Illinois Republican U.S. Senate nominee Kathy Salvi will attend the following upcoming public events as she campaigns throughout Illinois. […]
Tuesday, August 30:
12:00pm CT: Kathy Salvi will participate in Republican Day at the DeQuoin State Fair.
Location:
DeQuoin State Fairgrounds
655 Executive Drive
DeQuoin, IL
…Adding… MISO says there have been no brownouts anywhere in its territory this summer, contrary to Darren Bailey’s claims of a brownout in his district…
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, is the federally-regulated regional transmission organization that serves 15 states including most of Illinois outside of the Chicago area.
The grid operator told me they had no knowledge of any “brownouts,” which is a term it does not use.
“As of Friday, August 26, MISO has been in normal operating conditions for the entire month,” a spokesperson said. “None of our emergency operating conditions this summer have resulted in power interruptions.”
* More…
* Pritzker preaches policy priorities to packed UI crowd: “They want to distract us into believing that gay marriage, and Black history, Disney World, and library books are somehow more of a threat to our lives than AR-15s and ghost guns,” Pritzker said. “We are not going to let anyone put the LGBTQ+ community back into a closet. We won’t let anyone take away the civil rights and economic rights owed to our Black and Brown citizens. And we are never, ever going back on a woman’s right to choose.”
* The Illinois Public Safety and Violence Prevention task force met yesterday to share information and discuss strategies to prevent hate crimes. State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) said the meeting comes after many of those groups requested help from the state. WGEM…
The Illinois Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes is looking into the possibility of creating a statewide hate crimes and bias incident hotline. Illinois Human Rights Director Jim Bennett said Thursday that the hotline would be separate from reporting to law enforcement.
Bennett explained the new hotline could help victims of hate crimes and bias incidents talk with an expert on the other phone line. He also believes it could be a great opportunity to get people connected with agencies and local groups that people turn to when they are facing a crisis. […]
The commission is also recommending that the state create a grant program to help organizations connect with the helpline and develop more services to assist victims of hate crimes. They would also like to educate law enforcement about how to respond to hate crimes and create a continuing education course for state attorneys, public defenders, and judges.
Bennett told the Illinois House Public Safety and Violence Prevention Task Force that commission members would like to see a data collection and analysis hub for hate crimes and bias incidents. Experts across the country know hate crimes are underreported, even in Illinois.
* Anti-Defamation League Director David Goldenberg told lawmakers antisemitic incidents in Illinois have increased by 430 percent since 2016…
* Equality Illinois’ Director of Public Policy Mike Ziri said there has been an increase of Illinois LGBTQ students reporting harassment in school over the past year…
State Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, a member of the task force, told The Center Square that the state needs to address past policies and reforms and increase the penalties on offenders if they hope to stop hate crimes.
“I believe if we are determined to deter these types of crimes, we need to make sure there are significant consequences for those who engage in this type of activity,” Windhorst said.
Windhorst said that the SAFE-T Act and eliminating cash bail will not help the issues.
“With the SAFE-T Act and the Pre Trial Fairness Act, it appears to me that the offense of hate crime is not a detainable offense through trial,” Windhorst said. “If an individual is arrested for a hate crime, they will be released within 48 hours.”
[Added by Rich Miller: Rep. Windhorst did not make his comments during the hearing, when they could have been rebutted.]
