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AP fact-checks Pritzker’s new TV ad as the candidate triples-down

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Illinois

* Just as a refresher, here’s the transcript of JB Pritzker’s new TV ad…

Across the country, Democratic and Republican Governors spoke out against their state supporting Trump and keeping children away from their parents. Rauner wasn’t giving it a thought and now we learn why. Rauner has been profiting on Donald Trump’s policy. Rauner is the owner of this company which is paid millions to keep children from their parents. Bruce Rauner, that’s a disgrace.

The ad also quoted Rauner as saying that he hadn’t given any thought to the family separations.

* AP…

THE FACTS: There is no evidence that Rauner has made money off keeping immigrant children separated, and Rauner did speak out against the Trump policy. […]

Correct Care Solutions does not hold contracts with any facilities that house separated children, said Judy Lilley, a spokeswoman for Correct Care Solutions.

Um, yikes.

* Back to the AP…

The company treats adult detainees at some Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers and provides a physician for the Karnes County Residential Center in Texas, which houses immigrant families together. The company also provides health care to a correctional center in Milan, New Mexico, where AP reported that a 31-year-old father separated from his child was being housed. […]

As for the assertion that Rauner hadn’t given any thought to Trump’s family separations, the governor called the policy “bad,” ‘’wrong,” and “heartbreaking,” in an interview with the Chicago Tribune in June, just before the practice was abolished.

Rauner did say he had not given “any thought whatsoever” to rescinding his offer to send National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border, as some governors did after the family separation policy generated controversy. No Illinois National Guard troops have been deployed to assist at the border, Major Dutch Grove of the Guard told the AP.

And Politico has still not changed its “Illinois governor profits off ICE detention center contracts” headline.

* Meanwhile, Pritzker defended the ad yesterday…

Pritzker said the ad is factual.

“Taking so long to speak out about the National Guard and on other issues about Donald Trump,” Pritzker said. “This is a guy who is standing up for immoral policies, or at least not speaking out quickly enough against them.” […]

“The fact of the matter is that he is an investor, owns a piece of a company, that is profiting off of the separation of families,” Pritzker said. “That’s all true. So I don’t know why we’d need to pull it. It’s a factual ad.”

* And I got dragged into it…

(T)he Capitol Fax state politics blog referred to [the ad] as “brutally deceptive” and said hopefully “the Pritzker campaign doesn’t whine when they are lied about.”

“No,” said Pritzker of whether Capitol Fax’s description of the ad bothered him. “It’s a truthful ad. Bruce Rauner is a failed governor who’s unwilling to stand up to Donald Trump. … He’s standing up for immoral policies, or at least not speaking out quickly enough against them.” […]

“(Rauner) has not run a single positive ad. Not one. It’s not shocking because, what has he got to brag about? Three-and-a-half years in office and what has he got to brag about? Nothing,” said Pritzker. “We need real leadership in this state that believes in lifting up working families.”

* Related…

* True or not, expect more mudslinging in race for governor: For the Illinois governor’s race, Mooney said the two major party candidates have “more money than they know what to do with,” so expect to get berated with negative ads, no matter the cost.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:42 am

Comments

“JB, listen to me very carefully: you can still screw this up.”
-HRC

Comment by A State Employee Guy Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:45 am
Rich: Making friends and influencing people. Hah.

Comment by walker Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:48 am
Pritzker’s Crew is showing a lacking.

If you aren’t talented enough to beat Rauner in his failed record, considered the worst Republican governor in America AND is considered the most vulnerable incumbent in America…

… your crew lacks the talent.

Tripling down… reinforces that lacking.

Comment by Oswego Willy Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:51 am
Rich was both smart and ethical to get out front on this.

Comment by Responsa Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:52 am
==“We need real leadership in this state that believes in lifting up working families.”==

How about some real leadership that believes in lifting up the truth?

Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:53 am
“Pritzker triples down” could invite other Onion-style mock headlines.

Comment by Exclamation Point Deleted Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 9:54 am
Shame on a candidate for Governor running a misleading ad!! How low can one go?? Rauner should litigate.. oh wait… Jeannie Ives is a Madigan supporter!! Never mind

Comment by Wow Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:01 am
From the AP article:

After becoming Illinois governor, Rauner in 2015 pledged to follow what he called “blind trust” procedures for his investments. He handed over control of his wealth to an investment adviser, but still can consult with the adviser. It is unknown how much influence Rauner might have over Correct Care Solutions.

A finance expert says private equity investors can exert a lot of control over companies.

“They even have the power to change the management,” said Swasti Gupta-Mukherjee, a finance professor at Loyola University Chicago. “It’s important to keep them happy.”

*****
There are plenty of angles to tie Rauner to Correct Care Solutions. As Word has stated several times, just use the Google. While the ICE angle is on everyone’s minds and in the media, it may not be the strongest tack to take until or if there is more definitive evidence of Correct Care Solutions involvement in this particular humanitarian crisis that the Trump Administration has intentionally orchestrated.

How Team Pritzker backtracks from their overreach and still maintains an upper hand, I really don’t know. But tripling down is not the best bet at this time and with what is known. They can, and should do better.

Comment by Anon221 Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:01 am
JB knows that this issue plays well amongst the rabid progressive crowd that he needs to get fired up about his candidacy.

Nuance is dead.

Comment by Zeep Bow Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:02 am
Willy is right. There’s plenty to work with here without having to resort to conflating facts and slinging outright BS. This, combined with their bumbling use of Rauner’s Champaign-Urbana flub, is a worrisome sign from Team JB. Please do better.

Comment by Roman Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:10 am
When the toilet ads are edging yours out in accuracy, maybe just maybe it’s time to reassess things…

Comment by Ron Burgundy Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:10 am
I am appalled that there are disingenuous advertisements in politics.

Are you trying to tell me that Jeanne Ives wasn’t really Madigan’s favorite Republican?

Comment by dominionhinny Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:18 am
JB can’t tell if something is good or bad, right or wrong. He has no accomplishments to point to except being to to a wealthy family. So, what can of input can he provide to those generating ads and ideas???

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:25 am
So Rauner’s company isn’t caging immigrant kids, just other kids–and beating them to a bloody pulp while they’re at it.

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/03/14/lawsuit-says-11-year-old-deprived-of-medical-care-injured-by-staff-at-long-creek/

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:27 am
Looks like both sides are throwing red meat to their base right now. Pritzker is obviously trying to energize Democrats with this stuff and Rauner is buddying up with Mike Pence.

For those of us in the middle we’ll have to see if they get around to remembering that we’ll be voting in November as well.

Comment by Pundent Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:40 am
So JB has decided to get down in the gutter with Rauner. Rauner runs ads which are mostly false so JB decides he needs to do so too in order to beat him?
As OW stated, Rauner has a record going back to January 2015 and it’s a poor record. There’s plenty there in these past three and a half years to pick him apart with.

Comment by The Dude Abides Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:42 am
I, for one, want more days of learning about the good work Correct Care Solutions does at the taxpayer trough and the governor’s selfless act of investing in them without thought to ever realizing a profit.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:15 am
“He has no accomplishments to point to except being to to a wealthy family. So, what can of input can he provide to those generating ads and ideas???”

Yea, that whole 1871 and building Chicago’s tech community and creating thousands of jobs is all a load of hooey.

Comment by Anon0091 Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:49 am
Outside of giving a bunch of money to the venture, did he propel the growth of 1871? Was he in a leadership role?

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:22 pm
I went back and read the Politico piece by Korecki. It seems to me that the Pritzker campaign somewhat skewed her actual piece - GTCR has a Fund X (3.5 bn), and is a major investor in Correct Care Solutions, purchased in 2012 (annual revenue 1.2 bn) after Rauner had left active management.

She also noted that Rauner’s investments are not in a true blind trust, but have been turned over to a third-party investment firm, allowing him to retain closer control than a blind trust would have allowed.

In any case, as I noted earlier this week, Correct Care Solutions is the sort of investment GTCR would make - privatized healthcare, ripe for stripping of personnel/assets, high-profit, qualitatively dubious.

That the governor would remain in any way connected with investments of this type is the real story; there was no need for the JB campaign to try to link Correct Care with separated minors - how the company operates in prisons and other ICE detention centers is plenty dodgy enough.

Comment by dbk Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 1:18 pm
=JB can’t tell if something is good or bad, right or wrong. He has no accomplishments to point to except being to to a wealthy family. So, what can of input can he provide to those generating ads and ideas???=

Answer: JB could point those generating his ads to the findings of the auditors, AG, and the comptroller generated by the corrupt and inept Rauner administration, for example:
1) The $70 million dollars plus wasted on pinstripe patronage.
2) Real estate deals reminiscent to those of the Blagojevich administration.
3) Offshoring of Governor’s office inflated Staff salaries.
4) Kneecapping of the ICC now blatantly beholden to big utility interests.
5) Ethical issues and questionable appointments to the IEPA.
6) Loss of tens of millions of dollars from federal dollars from a number of agencies.
7) Deadly IDPH dysfunction….

and they could defend their earlier assertion that Rauner’s destructive budget stalemate costs billions of dollars in extra interest costs. Anyone familiar with the situation knows that there’s plenty of evidence proving Politifact wrong.

It appears Pritzker’s campaign Staff hasn’t looked at an Illinois newspaper for the past 4 years. He should tell them to get caught-up on IL executive gub’mint.

Comment by Deadbeat Conservative Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 2:22 pm