THE ILLINOIZE: One day away...Pritzker, Bailey hold last minute rallies...POTUS and Veep hit Illinois in the final weekend...Dems send fake MAGA mail in Supreme Court race
November 7, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
Welcome to a special pre-election day issue of The Illinoize newsletter.
For political folks, the day before Election Day is sort of like Christmas Eve, except while kids don’t want to sleep on Christmas Eve, all political people want to do right now is sleep for about a month.
Soon, kids. Soon.
We are one, uno, ein day away from the November 8 General Election. On the last day of campaign 2022, Governor JB Pritzker will be doing a fly around today. He’ll be in Marion at 6:45am, Caseyville (Metro East) at 8:45am, Springfield at 11am, Peoria at 1:15pm, the Quad Cities at 3:30pm, and in Rockford at 5:30pm. Sen. Darren Bailey will be in Oak Brook with AG nominee Tom DeVore regarding “Pritzker's lies and secret attempts to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on school-aged children.” Yeesh. He’ll also hold a rally in Merionette Park at 7pm.
Just a little rundown of what we’re planning for the next couple of days:
I’ll be on WGN-TV on election night from 7pm to who knows when. Watch on the teevee or online at www.wgntv.com.
We’ll have a live blog up on the website starting at 7pm tomorrow night. Stick with us for updates.
I’ll also be on WDWS in Champaign Wednesday morning at 10am. You can listen at wdws.com.
We’ll also do a Livestream/Podcast Wednesday at noon. Still efforting our plan for the show, but expect reaction to what goes down tomorrow.
Thanks so much for your support of our newsletter. I hope you’ve seen that we’re holding both parties accountable and keeping everyone honest, no matter their party. It takes a lot of time and resources to do this, and we hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber to help us out. It’s just $99 for a year or $9.99 per month. Subscribers get two exclusive newsletters each week as well as breaking news alerts and heads up on other important things we work on.
Just click below to join us !
Let me know what’s on your mind the day before the election. Send me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com.
Let’s get to it.
PRITZKER BRINGS IN VEEP FOR FINAL WEEKEND RALLY
Backed by a choir from a local church, Governor JB Pritzker brought in Vice President Kamala Harris for a last minute rally on Chicago’s south side Sunday afternoon.
Pritzker, who referred to his opponent, GOP Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) as “Donald Trump’s puppet,” spent much of his speech to supporters taking aim at the southern Illinois Republican.
“Darren Bailey wants to divide Illinois by handing the state over to the far right wing zealots who want to enact a hate-filled agenda,” Pritzker said. “Let’s be very clear: in 2022, hate is on the ballot.”
According to polling, Pritzker’s lead has been cut from around 20 points in late August to 9 points in a WGN-TV poll released in late October. Pritzker has vastly outspent his Republican challenger, but many believe the race has tightened further in the final two weeks before the election.
Pritzker attacked all Republicans running for office.
“Republicans are a bunch of pretenders,” Pritzker said. “While they peddle their lies in their fake newspapers (referring to the Uihlein/Proft-funded political mailers), we’re moving this state forward delivering bigger and better things for the people of our state.”
At an event in Aurora Saturday, Pritzker called the fake newspapers that have been mailed around the state “bull----,” and attacked billionaire Richard Uihlein, who has been funding the mailers and the third party PAC that has spent millions attempting to tear Pritzker down.
Harris spent much of her speech focused on abortion rights and attacking the Supreme Court and claiming the election was a fight for the “future of our democracy.”
IN DOWNTOWN RALLY, BAILEY CLAIMS ‘WE ARE GOING TO WIN’
Quite possibly the most evident sign in the David vs. Goliath race that is the contest for Illinois Governor came Sunday as both Governor JB Pritzker and Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) held rallies in the city of Chicago.
Pritzker’s event was highly produced with a stage, backdrop featuring his logo, and a choir from a local church. Bailey’s was hastily thrown together with a mobile microphone, on the sidewalk as Daley Plaza (where the event was scheduled for) was closed for the construction of the annual Christkindlmarket, lit by the lights of television cameras, with supporters waving flags in the background.
Nonetheless, Bailey was undeterred.
“We are going to win in just two days from now,” Bailey told the crowd of supporters.
“JB Pritzker and [Chicago Mayor] Lori Lightfoot, they’ve had four years to do anything, anything to solve any problem, all the problems that we have,” Bailey said. “Instead, they’ve spent four years making more problems and creating more of a mess for Illinois, and pushing more of our friends and families out of the state. The days are coming to an end, friends.”
Speaking for just four minutes, Bailey spent his time criticizing Pritzker and extolling his perceived failures in the Governor’s first term.
“We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to restore law and order and to make our streets safe, we’ve got to lower our taxes, and we’ve got to save our children’s education,” Bailey said. “Every bit of that has been decimated by JB Pritzker and Lori Lightfoot.”
Bailey was asked again if he believes Chicago is a “hellhole,” a term he has used for the most populous city in the state multiple times since the primary.
“When I see a problem, we call it out. We don’t ignore it,” Bailey said. “I have great hope for Chicago to be even better than the world class city than a lot of people think it is. I believe in what it can be and should be.”
Bailey, in a sign of last minute confidence, says he believes Pritzker “knows he’s losing” in the final hours of the campaign.
POTUS TRIES TO SAVE VULNERABLE DEM CONGRESSIONAL SEATS
On the final weekend before Election Day, the President of the United States traveled to a blue state in what was expected to be a safe district to save an endangered Democrat.
President Joe Biden spoke Saturday at a rally at an elementary school in Joliet in support of Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (D-Naperville), who has reportedly seen her lead in a seemingly safe Democratic district evaporate. Sources close to the race say polling has shown Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder within a couple of points of Underwood in the waning days of the campaign.
Underwood, Senator Tammy Duckworth, and Senator Dick Durbin were all in attendance for the President’s speech, which attempted to paint a rosier picture for Democrats than the party is facing nationwide.
“Folks, I’m not buying the notion that we’re in trouble,” Biden said. “I think we’re going to win. I really do.”
Notably absent from the event were Gov. JB Pritzker and Congressman Bill Foster (D-Naperville) who, himself, is locked in a tight race with Republican Catalina Lauf in the neighboring 11th District.
Protestors met Biden outside of the event, who Biden criticized.
“I love those signs when I came in. ‘Socialism.’ Give me a break. What idiots,” Biden said.
Republicans jumped on the President’s statement.
"The union carpenter, the single mother, and the seniors struggling to pay their bills? All 'idiots' according to Joe Biden and Lauren Underwood,” Gryder wrote in an e-mail to constituents. “While families are struggling thanks to their failed policies, the Democrats attack them. It's disgusting and wrong. Lauren Underwood owes her constituents an apology and should be ashamed of what was said.”
DEM GROUP SENDS FAKE MAGA MAIL IN SUPREME COURT RACE
These mailers, pretending to be from conservative Republicans bashing Supreme Court Justice Michael Burke for being a RINO (Republican in Name Only) hit mailboxes in DuPage County over the weekend.
But the mailers came from a PAC associated with a longtime Democratic operative and aide to Democratic Secretary of State candidate Alexi Giannoulias. Ballot Access Illinois paid for the mailer. It is run by Democratic operative Rudi Patitucci, who is listed as handling “Data and Targeting” for Giannoulias’ campaign. The PAC reported $0 cash on hand at the beginning of October, and has not reported any large contributions since the mailer came out.
Patitucci did not return a message from The Illinoize and the Giannoulias campaign did not return a message from The Illinoize seeking clarity of Patitucci’s role in the campaign.
The mailer compares Burke to outgoing Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-Channahon), who has been a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump.
“Machine Democrats and shady political operatives are behind this desperate, last-minute mailer targeting Republican voters,” State GOP Chairman Don Tracy said in a statement.
The mailer also seems to concede Burke won’t overturn any abortion laws in Illinois after Democrats have gone out of their way to seemingly make up Burke’s abortion position.
Burke is locked in a tight battle with former Democratic State Representative and current Appellate Justice Mary K. O’Brien for the new third district seat on the Supreme Court.
WHO ADMINISTERS ELECTIONS?
While introducing Democratic Secretary of State candidate Alexi Giannoulias yesterday, 1st Congressional District nominee Jonathan Jackson, son of Rev. Jesse Jackson said the following:
“As important as it is that you vote for Jonathan Jackson for Congress, let me tell you something. It’s even more important that we vote for a Secretary of State that will count every ballot and make sure that every vote matters.”
Umm…except, the Secretary of State doesn’t count any votes. As you know, (unlike the soon-to-be Congressman), all votes are counted at the local level (a county clerk, in most cases, or a Board of Elections in places like Chicago, Bloomington, and Danville) and certified by the State Board of Elections. The SoS has no roll in the process.
The most bothersome part of this, Rep. Lisa Hernandez (D-Cicero), the chair of the Democratic Party of Illinois, Treasurer Mike Frerichs, and Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who were all on stage, applauded as Jackson made his inaccurate comments.
Giannoulias didn’t correct the comments, either. It isn’t the first time they’ve falsely made election administration a part of the race.
Either they were all in on spreading a lie about “election integrity” or they don’t know how elections actually work. I’ll let you decide which one it was.
JOIN US