THE ILLINOIZE: Griffin's gatekeeper threatens and intimidates...Pritzker warns of COVID comeback...Petition challenges...Melissa Hahn

March 22, 2022

Good morning.

The House and Senate are IN today, scheduled for noon. Governor Pritzker has nothing on his official or campaign public schedule. See you in Springfield.

I’ve done a crummy job of keeping up with legislative work this spring as I’ve been focused a lot on the political side, so I’ll try to do some catching up on that this week. Paid subscribers will get more in their newsletters tomorrow and Friday.

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Let’s get to it.

GRIFFIN’S “GATEKEEPER”: THREATS, INTIMIDATION, CASH PROMISES

In multiple stories about the slate of Republican candidates backed by billionaire donor Ken Griffin, we’re told candidates have not personally spoken with Griffin.

But, multiple sources say Griffin’s slate is being engineered by two top confidants and their tactics have included threats, intimidation, bullying, and the promises of campaign cash to get out of a primary.

Griffin’s top aide involved in the search for candidates is Cason Carter, the Director of Public Affairs for Griffin’s Citadel LLC hedge fund and investment firm. Carter is an Oklahoma native, former candidate for Tulsa City Council and Oklahoma State Senate, and joined Griffin’s firm in 2017.

Also involved in Griffin’s outreach is Mike Zolnerowicz, known in Republican circles as “Mike Z,” a former Chief of Staff and campaign manager to Governor Bruce Rauner and longtime aide to former Sen. Mark Kirk.

Sources say Carter was among those dispatched by Griffin offering millions of dollars in campaign cash to businessman Gary Rabine to bow out of the race for Governor if he chose instead to run for U.S. Senate. A spokesperson for the Rabine campaign did not return a message asking to confirm the story.

According to multiple people with knowledge of the situation, both Carter and Zolnerowicz attempted to engineer downstate venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan’s exit from the race for Governor to join Griffin’s slate as candidate for State Treasurer. When Sullivan refused, we’re told, the two men threatened Sullivan with political repercussions. The pair even forced a Republican fundraising firm to stop working with Sullivan or risk losing all of its GOP business. A spokesman for Sullivan declined to comment.

“You have these out-of-state consultants running this race and they don’t give a [care] about Illinois in the long run,” said one longtime GOP operative. “They’re trying to just sidestep party activists and buy votes through television ads. It’s not good.”

Along with Carter’s Oklahoma roots, records show Zolnerowicz has moved to Tennessee and top communications consultant Lance Trover lives in Washington, DC. Neither Carter or a spokesman for Griffin responded to a message from The Illinoize Monday.

Carter has reportedly told people in multiple meetings that what he says may as well “directly come from” Griffin himself.

“They order everyone around, they threaten people, they threaten fundraisers, they cut off fundraising to other candidates. All kinds of threats to everybody,” the consultant said. “They’re trying to steamroll this thing and the arrogance is mind boggling. But they’re view is, we’ve got the money, so [screw] you.”

Carter is often treated as the gatekeeper between candidates and Griffin himself, acting as a conduit with all campaigns and candidates.

“These guys are probably the least popular people in the Republican party in the state right now. Rank and file voters are furious with this,” a GOP source said. “Rauner almost lost to Jeanne Ives and the party’s gotten more Trumpy since then. And they’ve got a candidate that’s got some flaws.”

In their recruitment of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin for Governor, we’re told Carter was often unaware of potential opposition research issues already known about Irvin, including issues that will likely be brought up by other campaigns.

“They’re just insufferable,” a longtime GOP insider said.

The Irvin campaign did not respond to a phone call Monday.

Others say the billionaire and his consultants are splitting apart the Illinois GOP.

“I want [our] team to win, but these guys have created schisms that are going to be tough to repair,” the consultant said. “And, they’re just going to get Darren Bailey the nomination.”

Bailey is often seen as too right wing to win a general election.

“They have a higher opinion of themselves than they probably should,” said the Republican insider. “The Rauner campaign and administration was a disaster.”

It still isn’t clear what role Griffin is playing in the final strategic play for the slate, but some believe Griffin is playing more of a role than is being publicly laid out.

“Clearly, Carter is the gatekeeper,” the insider said. “And he’s keeping tight control on who is getting to Griffin.”

Whether that will backfire in the end will be known in around three months.

PRITZKER WARNS OF NEW COVID VARIANT

From the Governor’s news conference yesterday, via the Daily Herald:

With about 25% of new COVID-19 cases in Illinois linked to a highly infectious strain of the virus, health experts are "closely watching" trends although the state is still "in a good place," Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Monday.

He urged school districts to ensure they have robust COVID-19 testing in place in case of a surge.

The BA.2 subvariant of omicron is "30% to 50% more transmissible than the original and is causing surges in some places around the world," Pritzker noted at an event in Chicago.

"To be clear ... the number of admissions and COVID patients in hospitals across the state continues to stabilize and drop. The virus is very much still here and with us. It's not going away. But with vaccines, the existing variants (are) manageable."

Pritzker added, "With cases low and hospitalizations low, this gives us time to be prepared for a potential next wave if it should happen. The state stockpile is nearly fully replenished; we have more than 1.5 million rapid tests on hand with half a million more (arriving) in the coming weeks."

"I'm also calling on all schools to consider their current testing capacity and make sure that they're prepared with a strong testing plan in place if we experience another surge."

The new variant is already spreading like wildfire in China and Europe, so its likely just a matter of time before we’re dealing with it here. Outside of the transmission, infection, hospitalization, and death issues, we’re likely due for another gigantic political showdown. If schools are still in session, the Governor will likely face another huge fight if he tries to institute a new school mask mandate. If he tries to reinstitute a mask mandate statewide, you can probably expect people in the suburbs and city of Chicago will adhere to it and downstate communities will treat it as if it doesn’t exist.

And the Governor is running for re-election at the same time. Buckle up.

PILES OF PETITION CHALLENGES

Petition filing wrapped up last week and the window to challenge those petitions passed yesterday with more than 135 challenges filed.

None of the filings are available until the State Board of Elections meets next week, so its hard to tell at this point which objections are legit and which are frivolous.

Nearly every single candidate of almost two dozen who filed to replace Congressman Bobby Rush (D-Chicago) in the new 1st District had their petitions challenged.

I’m told the campaign of Tom McCullagh, who challenged the petitions of his Republican primary opponent, Michelle Smith, in the race to replace retiring Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield), believes they’ve found enough problems with Smith’s petitions to knock her off the ballot.

We’re also told the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Jesse Sullivan will also have to overcome an accusation of “roundtabling,” the act of passing a petition around a table and having people sign names out of the phone book or a voter list.

As we learn more, we’ll keep you updated.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations are in order to my old friend Melissa Hahn, who has been named Executive Director of the Conference of Women Legislators, or COWL. Melissa is a Springfield institution, having covered the statehouse for WICS and the Illinois Radio Network (RIP, IRN). She also worked for Treasurer Dan Rutherford, the state Chamber of Commerce, and was most recently with the State Board of Higher Education.

I’ve known Melissa since I was just a cub reporter and she has always been kind and wonderful to me, and I’m sure she’ll do a great job for COWL.

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Have a great day.