Last weekend started with a bang, with Governor JB Pritzker putting a jaw-dropping $90 million of his own money into his reelection campaign account on Friday night. The news was followed by Aurora mayor Richard Irvin announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor. Irvin is backed by multibillionaire Ken Griffin, who has reportedly pledged up to $300 million to ensure Pritzker doesn’t get reelected.
But those weren’t the only big money stories this week. Quarterly campaign finance reports were due on Tuesday for the last three months of 2021. We took a look at some key races and committees as the primary season heats up.
It’s been almost a week since Richard Irvin entered the Illinois GOP primary for governor, but he still hasn’t made himself available for interviews. With the clock ticking, one has to assume Irvin is spending his time scrambling to learn what he and his backer Ken Griffin stand for and how to walk back his years of supporting Democratic leadership.
After his “anticlimactic” campaign announcement, Irvin was slammed by a DGA video and his Republican opponents for his past support of Gov. JB Pritzker.
Now that he’s running a Bruce Rauner reboot campaign with the likely backing of Ken Griffin, Irvin is dodging questions about where he really stands.
With opponents nipping at his heels, Irvin won’t be able to stay quiet for long. As the crowded GOP primary gets nastier and more divisive, Irvin will have to answer tough questions like why he’s running against — in his own words — a “great leader” in Gov. Pritzker.
“Richard Irvin is hiding in a back room studying Ken Griffin’s talking points so he doesn’t embarrass his big donor when he opens his mouth,” said DGA Senior Communications Advisor Christina Amestoy. “Irvin can dodge questions all he wants, but Illinois families won’t trade the progress under Gov. JB Pritzker for a repeat of the disastrous Bruce Rauner administration.”
* DPI…
Tomorrow, Jan. 22, marks the 49th anniversary of the decision in Roe v. Wade––the landmark Supreme Court case that affirmed abortion as a constitutional right for all. For nearly half a century, anti-choice extremists have chipped away at reproductive freedoms in an attempt to restrict access to necessary health care. Here in Illinois, Gov. Pritzker’s administration has enshrined Roe v. Wade into state law, but the fight for reproductive freedom is not over.
The anti-choice extremists running for governor are a danger to women across our state and, if elected, would waste no time undoing the tremendous progress we have made in Illinois. Jesse Sullivan said he supports a near total ban on abortion. Richard Irvin called Planned Parenthood “bad for Aurora” and compared it to a “strip club or asbestos company,” while his running mate Avery Bourne called legislation enshrining Roe v Wade protections into law “extremist.” Darren Bailey proudly trumpets his extreme view on choice and claims, “Abortion is not healthcare!”
We cannot allow anti-choice extremist Republicans to drag our state back decades, especially as states like Texas and Mississippi install draconian bans on reproductive freedom. As the anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, every statewide Republican candidate must come clean on their radical plans to roll back the clock on women’s healthcare.
* Press release…
In [yesterday’s] hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis titled “A View from the States: Governors Respond to the Omicron Variant,” Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi questioned Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts on his hyperbolic rhetoric against pandemic health measures including vaccine and mask mandates. During his question line, Congressman Krishnamoorthi confronted the Governor on the reckless hyperbole of his claim on Twitter that “President Biden has forgotten we live in America - he thinks we live in the Soviet Union,” as well as the hypocrisy of his opposition to employer vaccine and mask mandates even as the Chicago Cubs baseball team, of which he is a co-owner, has established an employee mask mandate and requires masks in all their facilities.
“As we discussed in today’s hearing, hyperbolic rhetoric and attacks on public health measures, such as those Governor Ricketts has used against commonsense policies like vaccine mandates and masking only detract from our ability to end the pandemic,” said Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi. “Comparing federal efforts to counter COVID-19 to the Soviet Union is the type of politicized rhetoric that leads to confusion and mistrust among the public. It has real, dangerous consequences as we enter our second year of this pandemic.”
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth’s (D-IL) reelection campaign announced after a fourth quarter haul of more than $1.5 million that it raised almost $7.6 million last year, with more than 152,000 individual contributions averaging under $40 each. Of those contributions, 97% were $100 or less. The campaign, which ended the year with $6.4 million cash on hand, issued the following statement regarding this announcement:
“We’re energized by how many Illinoisans are eager to keep Senator Duckworth’s unique and powerful voice in the United States Senate and look forward to a successful campaign that enables Tammy to continue executing her mission of advocating for working families, new parents, small businesses, servicemembers and Veterans as our Senator for years to come. As we continue building out our robust campaign over the coming months, we’re thrilled that these numbers will help ensure we can reach Illinoisans in every corner of our state—and we are already hard at work making sure we do.”
Every Republican press release I’ve received since yesterday is already posted.
