THE ILLINOIZE: DeVore running for Attorney General...Has the Irvin campaign taken over the Illinois GOP?
September 22, 2022
Good morning, everyone.
Happy 2-22-22.
Not a long newsletter this morning, but a couple of stories I think you’ll find interesting. The legislature is back this week, so we’ll see what kind of fireworks they come up with this time. Though, I asked one top Democrat yesterday what was going on this week and they responded “bupkis.” Which, while I’m working on my farm boy Yiddish, I think that translates into “not a lot.”
But, we’re steaming toward the June 28 primary, and with petition filing coming up and the court case involving masks in schools ongoing, there’s never a shortage of things to keep an eye on.
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Let’s get to it.
PRITZKER PEST DeVORE RUNNING FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL
Southern Illinois attorney Tom DeVore, who has become the face of legal challenges to Governor JB Pritzker’s pandemic executive orders and school mask mandate confirmed to The Illinoize last night he is circulating petitions to run for Attorney General.
DeVore, 52, who lives in Sorento near Greenville in Bond County, had previously announced a run for Appellate Court, but asked supporters last week to stop circulating his petitions.
In a video posted on his personal Facebook page last night, DeVore confirmed his plans.
“I have no desire to be a politician. No interest,” DeVore said in his video. “My desire has always been, and it still is today, to try to help people. At one point in time, I believed that running for the Appellate Court was a way that I might be able to accomplish my ultimate goal, which is to help people help themselves.”
DeVore said the actions of Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who has defended the Pritzker mandates in court, influenced his decision.
“The last three or four weeks have kind of changed [things] a little bit for me,” DeVore said in his video. “I can’t sit by and do nothing and not be able to help people fend off [these executive actions] ever happening again. These children have convinced me of that. There’s only one way I can help, and that’s making myself available to the people of this state as Attorney General.”
DeVore has directed multiple comments at the Governor over the course of the legal battles, but said he would not attack Raoul.
“There should be a stark difference of the two personalities that are going to be there if I’m the nominee,” he said. “I’ve got nothing bad to say about him. I’ll never talk bad about him. I will say I’m disappointed in him for how he represented the people for the last two years, but that’s as far as I’ll go.”
Raoul’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
DeVore faces a candidate backed as a part of billionaire Ken Griffin’s Republican slate in a potential primary. Attorney Steve Kim, who ran for Attorney General in 2010, has announced his campaign, though has not received funding from Griffin yet.
Raoul defeated Republican Erika Harold by around 13 percentage points in 2018. He had just shy of $1 million in his campaign account to start the year. DeVore’s Appellate Court committee had around $1,000 with an additional $5,000 loan from himself earlier in the year.
HAS THE IRVIN CAMPAIGN TAKEN OVER THE ILLINOIS GOP?
Numerous Republicans are raising questions to The Illinoize regarding alleged coordination between the gubernatorial campaign of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and the Illinois Republican Party.
In recent weeks, state GOP Executive Director Derek Murphy resigned to take a post as political director of Irvin’s campaign. The party communications staff has also begun sending daily e-mails attacking Governor JB Pritzker within around an hour of a similar daily press e-mail from the Irvin campaign. A handful of Republican operatives we spoke to say it appears the campaign and state party are using similar talking points.
Illinois GOP spokesman Joe Hackler denied the Irvin campaign and state party are coordinating their messaging or working together. He said the timing of the daily e-mails are a coincidence.
“The ILGOP is committed to focusing on the issues that people care about instead of the noise, [issues like] taxes, crime, and corruption,” Hackler said. “To that end, I hope all Republican campaigns do the same.”
The Irvin campaign did not return messages seeking comment. Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy was not made available when The Illinoize requested comment.
Many high level staffers on the Irvin campaign comes from the campaign or administration of former Governor Bruce Rauner. In that position, Rauner loyalists were often in charge at the Illinois Republican Party and worked to beef up Rauner’s accomplishments and attacks.
Political operatives we spoke to, on condition of anonymity as to speak freely, say even if the Irvin campaign hasn’t taken over the state party, it will attempt to.
“They sure are trying, with an assist from [GOP National Committeeman] Richard Porter and Chairman Tracy,” said a GOP operative with ties to another gubernatorial campaign. “No need to call an appraiser, the value of the Illinois GOP is a flat $20 million.”
$20 million is the amount billionaire Ken Griffin donated to Irvin’s campaign earlier this month.
Another Republican operative believes the Irvin campaign is funded by self-interested opportunists.
“What we’re seeing in Illinois is the capturing of a skeleton political party by a mercenary crop of political profiteers. This amoral group of operators has found their latest vessel, and wielded an inside relationship with one large donor to scare the party establishment into submission,” said the Republican. “Despite the fecklessness and gridlock of the Bruce Rauner years, they are back again. But, not because they believe their ideology or values are at stake, but because they have chosen politics as the profession through which to get rich.”
The operative continued to wonder aloud why Irvin is even running for Governor.
“Bailey is a true believer. Sullivan seems to be in it for the right reasons. Rabine is having the time of his life,” said the operative. “But find me a person in Illinois who can explain why Richard Irvin is running for governor, other than that a group of party people told him it would be easy and they’d get him lots of money to do so.”
Whether Irvin, an African American who has voted in 5 of the last 6 Democratic primaries can win a primary of a party focused on mask mandates and Trumpism is another story. If Irvin can’t, one operative speculates it will put an end to the careers of Rauner acolytes.
“They are banking on a hugely flawed candidate in Irvin,” the operative said. If he loses the primary, team Rauner will have trouble getting hired to do a Peoria City Council race.”
TRIVIA
I asked you yesterday who the last Illinois resident not named Obama was to win votes in the electoral college. The answer is former Governor Adlai Stevenson in 1956.
BEFORE WE GO
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