THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All
March 31, 2022
Good morning.
The House is IN at 11:30. The Senate is IN at noon. The Governor has no public events.
Counting today, there are 9 session days left before the scheduled adjournment April 8.
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Darren Bailey plays to Downstate Republicans in his first campaign ad for governor (Chicago Tribune)
State Sen. Darren Bailey has launched his first TV commercial of the primary campaign, joining two rivals for the Republican nomination for governor who have been airing ads for weeks.
But Chicago-area residents may not see much of the conservative from downstate Xenia on their TVs. Television station logs and cable ad buys show Bailey is focused on markets in areas where rural Republicans predominate.
In the expensive Chicago market, none of the city’s broadcast stations have reported a Bailey ad buy. But his campaign did purchase ad time on broadcast stations in St. Louis, Champaign, Peoria, Rockford, the Quad Cities and in the southern Illinois market that includes Carbondale, according to government and industry reports.
Bailey’s campaign also purchased 80 half-minute spots on the Fox News Channel in Chicago, part of a $63,762 statewide buy on the conservative cable news channel running through Monday.
Bailey’s ad also follows a theme Republicans are using nationally as well as locally to try to paint Democrats as soft on crime. His plan to increase police funding, his campaign said, is to prioritize police funding in the budget “to ensure we have more boots on the ground to tackle crime and keep families safe.”
Bailey has sought to belittle his rivals as not real conservatives. His TV launch came as two rivals who have been on the air longer — Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin and cryptocurrency venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg — placed new campaign ads.
By the way, the Democratic Governor’s Association has TV ads beginning in Illinois today. There seems to be an expectation they’re going to try to meddle in the Republican primary, but the DGA hasn’t responded about their plans. We’ll keep an eye out for the ad today and we’ll post it today. I’d guess if they’re trying to help a candidate through the back door, it’d be Sen. Darren Bailey, who the Pritzker folks believe is too conservative to be elected statewide.
From crime to QAnon — Pritzker and GOP follow national political scripts after parole board drama (Chicago Sun-Times)
A day after losing his battle to keep two of his appointees on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday delivered an impassioned defense of the “incredibly thankless job” they do and a blistering attack on their Republican critics — comparing them to QAnon conspiracy theorists.
The governor lodged his new attack on the GOP at an unrelated event on Tuesday, as he defended his appointees from the criticism they faced the day before.
“Now, to have Republicans attack them and their character and their biographies, to have Republicans essentially trying to tear apart this agency of government — I mean this is what the GQP has been all about, tearing government apart,” Pritzker said at a Springfield news conference where he commemorated the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Illinois State Police.
The Democratic governor pronounced the GQP acronym slowly and carefully in response to a reporter’s question about the Senate vote the day before. His staff said they haven’t heard him utter the acronym before. But it’s been used by some Democrats nationally to label Republicans as the “Grand QAnon Party,” more interested in dismantling government and chasing dark conspiracy theories than governing.
But Pritzker doesn’t just have Republicans to blame for this week’s defeat during what has already become a heated election year.
There were 14 Senate Democrats who didn’t support Eleanor Wilson, Pritzker’s appointee to the parole board, Monday evening, and 12 other Democrats who refused to vote at all. Pritzker’s other appointee, Oreal James, had resigned from his post earlier Monday to avoid what many expected to be a similar rejection.
The governor offered no opinion on the Democrats who declined to support his appointees.
Related: Opinion: Pritzker Out of Line to Compare Senate GOP to QAnon (The Illinoize)
The Illinois Prisoner Review Board is losing members following a week of state Senate scuffles (WBEZ)
Illinois lawmakers try to tackle 'organized retail crime' as legislative session wraps up (State Journal-Register)
Illinois lawmakers are pitching a new bill aimed at deterring a particular type of offense that has drawn headlines in recent months: organized retail crime. They have just over a week to pass the bill before their self-imposed April 8 adjournment deadline.
The crime, sometimes called "smash-and-grab crime," is defined in the new legislation as theft of merchandise from a retail store when the thief has the intention to resell the stolen products, when they commit the theft in a group or when the theft is committed while the goods are in transit.
It has drawn attention because of a few high-profile cases of large thefts, such as when the state's attorney general recovered what his office called in a press release "tens of thousands of products worth millions of dollars."
And from the Associated Press:
The legislation takes aim at retail theft networks that are believed to be responsible for stealing merchandise from stores. It identifies the offense of “organized retail crime” and seeks to eliminate jurisdictional restraints that often hinder wholesale prosecution. It would also provide more money for police and prosecutors to chase the scofflaws.
“Crime networks have really been utilizing the chaotic smash-and-grab tactics in stores across the country,” said sponsoring Sen. Suzy Glowiak Hilton, a Western Springs Democrat. “People come in to smash and grab, they scare the employees they scare the folks who are patronizing the stores and they do damage as well. People fear for their lives.”
“This will lead to a more comprehensive prosecution that will capture more individuals that are involved in the network,” said Sen. John Curran, a Downers Grove Republican and co-sponsor of the legislation. “You’re talking about anyone involved in organizing, planning through the actual commission of the crime and on the back end with the proliferation of stolen goods.”
Related: Crime survivors travel to Springfield to lobby lawmakers for better trauma recovery support for victims (WBBM-TV)
Lawmakers pass ban on withholding college transcripts (Capitol News Illinois)
More Calls for ‘Gas Tax Relief’ as Prices Increase (WTTW)
Illinois Democrats make pitch for 2024 Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago (Chicago Sun-Times)
Fueled by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and backed by the top Democrats in Illinois, Chicago is taking initial steps to pull together a bid for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which would be the first major party gathering here since the city hosted the Democrats at the United Center in 1996.
Last fall, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison flew to Chicago to meet with Pritzker, and that’s when the Democratic governor made his pitch for the city to host the 2024 convention, sources familiar with the meeting confirmed.
At that meeting, Pritzker lauded Chicago as the ideal choice for the convention and discussed how Illinois is at the forefront of a series of major policy initiatives that are important to the Democratic Party.
After that, Pritzker moved quickly to work with Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., - a DNC vice chair - Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s team and a litany of other top Democrats in the state to start laying the extensive groundwork needed to put together a bid.
The Democratic National Committee contacted several Democratic cities, including Chicago, to determine if it was a potential host city even as no formal “Request for Proposal” has been issued. In a letter, Harrison told potential bidders to let the DNC know of interest in hosting the convention - where some 35,000 delegates and others are expected - by Oct. 1.
The process of bidding for a convention usually starts with organizing a non-partisan host committee, charged with raising millions of dollars from local individuals, corporations and foundations.
At the same time, organizers have to get the official buy-in and guarantees from local governments dealing with transportation and related matters. That is not expected to be a high bar to clear given the dominance of Democrats in the Chicago area and Illinois.
The image above is of Bill Clinton and Al Gore at the United Center in 1996.
Biden signs Emmett Till anti-lynching bill: Rep. Bobby Rush championed measure for years (Chicago Sun-Times)
President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till anti-lynching bill on Tuesday, invoking, during a Rose Garden ceremony, the lives of the Chicago youth whose lynching helped spur the modern civil rights movement and Ida B. Wells, the Chicago journalist who crusaded against lynching in the years after the Civil War.
The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, championed for years by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., whose district sweeps in parts of Chicago’s South Side, defines lynching as a federal hate crime for the first time.
The bill was more than 100 years in the making, with Congress not acting as race related hate crimes persisted.
The measure is named for Till, the Black youth from Chicago who, at the age of 14, was brutally murdered in 1955 by white men while visiting relatives in Mississippi.
Related: His Name was Emmett Till (The Atlantic)
Wright Thompson is my favorite sportswriter and writes incredible prose about issues in the south. His piece in The Atlantic is worth taking the time to read.
SOME TOP LINKS FROM THE WEEK SO FAR
Senate Democrats Hand Pritzker Another Loss on Prisoner Review Board
Opinion: Pritzker Out of Line to Compare Senate GOP to QAnon
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