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Stop the presses!!!

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Illinois

* Press release…

The most important Illinois election season in a generation is under way, and two of the state’s leading newsrooms are joining forces to help voters separate fact from fiction.

Beginning this month, the Chicago-based, nonpartisan government watchdog Better Government Association — the Illinois affiliate of PolitiFact, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking project — will publish its PolitiFact work exclusively with the Chicago Sun-Times.

* Trust me, I know all too well that political news is ultra-slow these days. It’s like pulling teeth out there.

But after a pretty good run, the BGA’s fact-checking is really going small-ball lately, despite its bold claim that we’re in “the most important Illinois election season in a generation.”

Remember its recent full-bore, no-snark investigation into an off-hand remark on a St. Louis radio station by Gov. Rauner’s lt. governor? They followed that barn-burner up with an oh-so-serious deep dive into an off-the-cuff remark by JB Pritzker’s running mate on a southern Illinois radio station.

And now this…

With the incumbent routinely calling into question the state’s ability to attract business, Pritzker recently tried the opposite tack in a video tweeted out by his campaign.

“We have the most educated, dedicated workforce in the entire nation and that is why businesses want to come here,” Pritzker says in the clip, which features footage of the candidate visiting offices, farms and classrooms.

Guess what? Illinois doesn’t have the most educated workforce in the entire nation. But since there’s no way to measure “the most educated, dedicated workforce,” the BGA chose to just skip over the word “dedicated.”

Anyway, I wonder how the governor’s campaign will respond to this revelation. Suggestions?

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:46 pm

Comments

===I wonder how the governor’s campaign will respond to this revelation?===

Taxes, Madigan, corrupt, toilets.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:49 pm
The guy who wants to be governor is bragging about our state and slightly exaggerated our virtues. Heaven forfend.

After four years of our chief exec bashing his own state every chance he got, methinks Pritzker will be on the winning end of this one. We need a salesperson-in-chief for our state. Rauner never got that. Pritzker clearly does.

Comment by Anon0091 Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:51 pm
Why is this the most important Illinois election in a decade?

Comment by BlueDogDem Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:52 pm
47, I hate those corrupt toilets! Always asking for more…more…more…

Comment by Anon0091 Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:53 pm
===in a decade===

Correction: In a generation.

I rate your blog comment “Mostly False.”

lol

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:54 pm
“So BGA, are you calling our state’s workers stupid?”

Comment by Anonish Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:57 pm
“Illinoisans are smart and talented, so that’s why Illinois and Chicago rank high in Site Selection magazine for corporate relocations. But Illinois is terrible for business and we can’t attract companies, thanks to Madigan and corrupt insiders.”

Comment by Grandson of Man Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 12:58 pm
“If our state’s public education system had the funding they needed to be effective, if we did not have any worker’s compensation laws, froze property taxes, and put in place right to work maybe our work force would the most educated. Unfortunately this is just another insider lie from Madigan’s stooge JB Pritzker. Oh and toilets.”

Comment by Anonish Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:00 pm
===how the governor’s campaign will respond===

“As the BGA has so ably shown, the governor was right all along. Illinois sucks.”

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:02 pm
About 6 weeks about a New York based AP reporter said she was about to head to SPI to be “fact checker” It was suggested that perhaps it would better to come and do some reportin’. Never heard from again. Once upon a time there were 2 wire services with multiple reporters.
There are some of us who don’t have a little confidence with dark money lobby groups bein’ a fact checker”

Comment by Annonin' Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:04 pm
“Rich Miller opposes Better Government.”

C.K. (out of retirement just for this special occasion.

Comment by Saluki Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:04 pm
Being dedicated isn’t so good if it’s not by choice. We need to ban noncompete clauses. Noncompete clauses are damaging to the economy and suppress wages.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:18 pm
–Taxes, Madigan, corrupt, toilets.–

The obvious next step: Corrupt toilets.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:28 pm
CS-T will still be around come election time?

Comment by City Zen Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:31 pm
Illinois has/HAD a fairly well educated workforce partly due to many good community colleges, and good state universities. Rauner has done a lot of damage to them by not funding them with his no-budget games. It will take decades to recover from the Rauner-inflicted damage, and it will be an uphill battle all the way. Inadequate budgets and tier 2 pensions will make the best potential employees accept positions in other states. Thus we face a pending brain drain of not only students but faculty as well.

Comment by DuPage Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:40 pm
===The obvious next step===

And then taxing corrupt Madigan toilets (exclamation point)

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 1:55 pm
Rauner’s superstars rarely exhibit political deftness, so they’ll blurt out something about how there should be a gun referendum somewhere in Illinois.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 2:09 pm
It doesn’t matter how Rauner responds…does it?

#BlueTsunami

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 2:55 pm
Correction noted. Generation. Why? it seems to imply that one of the two parties has all the answers. If Rauner pulls off the upset will he get the green light on his TA? If Pritzker wins will he get the green light on a progressive income tax? Will either candidate shut out the opposition party’s best ideas?

All elections are important. In my neck of the woods, school board elections have the biggest impact on my taxes. Last election. 13% turnout..

Comment by blue dog dem Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 3:12 pm
All elections are important, but this one is the most important election for Congressional offices, etc..

Comment by M Monday, Aug 6, 18 @ 6:20 pm
The BGA has been small-ball for some time — more interested in going after that skeevy township assessor or deputy director of weights & measures than after real power. Their “exposes” inevitably fall into the ‘who cares?’ category.

Comment by Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Tuesday, Aug 7, 18 @ 7:54 am
I don’t know how the governor will react outside of what’s been mentioned above, Madian, corruption, toilets, etc.

How he SHOULD react is to suppliment Pritzker’s comment saying not only is Illinois tenth place in the US for advanced degrees, we have many skilled trades people as well.

Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Tuesday, Aug 7, 18 @ 11:04 am