THE ILLINOIZE: Illinois GOP launching "election integrity" committee...The law cited against mandatory vaccines...First state employee union agrees to vax requirement
September 21, 2021
Good morning.
We told subscribers about this Friday, but since the news conference announcing the effort is today, I wanted to make sure you saw it. The conservative Illinois Opportunity Project will lead a ballot initiative to expand recall of public officials in the state. IOP has ties to Illinois Policy Institute founder John Tillman and radio host Dan Proft, who was instrumental in launching a series of fake newspapers around the state.
Supporters will have to collect some 360-thousand signatures by next May to get an expanded recall on the ballot in November. (Currently, you can only recall a Governor and the process is pretty close to impossible.)
Though, the issue will face some constitutional questions to make it on the ballot.
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Let’s get to it.
ILLINOIS GOP TO LAUNCH “ELECTION INTEGRITY” COMMITTEE
Nationally, Republicans are facing an identity crisis. Their standard bearer, the former President, continually peddles misleading and false information claiming the 2020 election was “rigged” and that he should be, and eventually will be back, in office. All across the country and in Illinois, confidence in electoral processes are low.
While Illinois Republicans aren’t challenging the presidential election in Illinois (Joe Biden won the state by around a million votes), the state GOP is launching a committee aimed at “election integrity.” Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy confirmed to The Illinoize Monday the committee is being formed and would be formally announced in the next few weeks. But, Tracy says, it isn’t being devised to relitigate the 2020 presidential election.
“Election integrity is an issue in every election because there are always irregularities in every election and that has been going on for a long time,” Tracy said. “[The] committee is going to focus on helping maintain and make our elections safer and more secure in the future.”
Tracy says formation of the committee is not a statement that Illinois Republicans want the presidential election overturned or that officials believe the election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, as the former president has alleged.
Democrats allege the state GOP is pandering to Trump and his supporters.
“Are we talking about the same people who denied the election results of 2020? It sounds like the IL GOP is still consumed by Donald Trump instead of the people of Illinois,” a state Democratic party spokesperson said in a statement provided to The Illinoize Monday night.
But Tracy says that’s not the case.
“Speaking directly to the 2020 election, it’s over, as far as I’m concerned, as far as the Illinois Republican Party is concerned,” he said. “Republicans, we care about voting. We want it to be easy to vote but hard to cheat. The Democrats, they only seem to want it to be easy. That’s all they care about.”
PRITZKER DEFENDS LEGALITY OF MANDATORY TEACHER VACCINES
As expected, numerous school employees around the state are challenging Governor JB Pritzker’s vaccination mandate for school employees. From the Daily Herald:
Four employees in St. Charles Unit District 303 and Geneva Unit District 304 say their employers have no legal right to require them to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker's mandate specified workers had to have received at least the first dose of a vaccine by Sunday. If they didn't, they would have to submit to weekly testing.
In the complaint filed against the districts and their superintendents, the four contend the school districts are interfering with their rights by enforcing a "modified quarantine" that was mandated by the governor's executive order.
They maintain that the governor has no authority to impose a modified quarantine, and that only the local health department or the Illinois Department of Public Health has that authority.
The order then can "either be submitted to voluntarily by the subject or objected to. And if it's objected to, the department of public health has to go to the court and obtain a judicial order of quarantine against that individual," said their attorney, Patrick Walsh.
I asked the Illinois Attorney General’s office, which provides legal defense for the Governor, how many cases had been filed against the administration statewide, but didn’t hear back.
Many of the cases we’re aware of cite a 1998 law known as the “Health Care Right of Conscience Act” as part of their argument against the mandate. The law provides government can’t force medical treatment on any employees.
“It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, transfer, staff appointment, hospital, managed care entity, or any other privileges, because of such person's conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience,” the statute reads.
Pritzker was asked about the arguments yesterday at an unrelated event in Peoria.
“What we’ve put in place is something that is workable, something that the vast majority of people are going to be following,” Pritzker said. “I know there are people who are attempting to challenge these things in court. I would just say that this is a very unhelpful thing to do and it is going to make schools and health care settings less safe.”
My assumption is the AG’s office will argue mandatory testing is the workaround to the law, and we’ll clarify for you once we hear from them.
Speaking of the Governor’s vaccine mandates…
PRITZKER ADMIN STRIKES VAX DEAL WITH SOME PRISON EMPLOYEES
Via Mitch Dudek of the Chicago Sun-Times:
The deal is small in scale. It ensures vaccines will go in the arms of only 260 workers who hold supervisory roles in the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. The workers are represented by Laborers International Union of North America-Illinois State Employees Association, Local 2002.
The deal could be used as a blueprint in negotiations with other unions who represent thousands of additional workers at the two state agencies, as well as the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
“Negotiations between the unions representing the rest of the workforce impacted by this mandate are ongoing,” according to an announcement from Pritzker’s office.
Under the deal, which was announced Monday, vaccinated employees will be granted “COVID time,” so that if a vaccinated employee gets COVID-19 or must quarantine, they will receive a period of paid time off without using their benefit time. Each employee will also receive an additional personal day. And if the vaccine is not available during an employee’s regularly scheduled shift, he or she may be compensated at their regular pay for time taken to receive the vaccine.
Employees must receive their first shot by Oct. 14, 2021. And should an employee elect a two-dose vaccine, they must receive the second shot by Nov. 18.
Employees who do not receive the vaccine or an exemption for medical or religious reasons will be subject to progressive disciplinary measures that could result in being fired.
We’ll see if AFSCME is as amenable to the administration’s requests as LIUNA.
HAPPY BIRTHDAYS
Today- Rep. Norine Hammond, former Sen. Kathy Parker
Tomorrow- former Congressman Bill Enyart
Saturday- former Congressman Jerry Costello, former State Sen. Rick Winkel (who became my political coverage partner at WDWS Radio back in the day)
Sunday- former Rep. Tim Schmitz, Rodney Davis campaign manager Matt Butcher
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