THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All
November 11, 2021
Good morning. Yesterday was a long week, eh?
Lots to get to, but I’ll start here. We broke the Rodney Davis news yesterday afternoon and nobody else has been able to confirm and report it yet. That’s DEEPLY SOURCED, baby!
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As always, drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com to let me know what’s on your mind.
For now, let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Sources: Davis to Pass on Governor's Race, Seek New District in Congress (The Illinoize)
Sources tell The Illinoize Congressman Rodney Davis (R-Taylorville) will run for re-election to Congress in the new 15th district next year and won’t attempt to take on Governor JB Pritzker. The announcement is likely to come in the next few days, assuming Pritzker signs the new maps into law.
Democrats drew Davis out of his current 13th district, attempting to make his battleground district more safe for a Democratic candidate. In return, the majority party gave Davis a safe Republican seat in the new map. Much of the new district is new territory for Davis. The 15th spans across the state, touching the Iowa, Missouri, and Indiana state lines. It includes Quincy, Jacksonville, Lincoln, Charleston-Mattoon, and Vandalia, none of which are part of his current district.
This is obviously a huge development in the GOP race for Governor. Davis was potentially the most high-profile candidate considering the race.
Now, for the GOP, the question is, find someone who can win in November or roll the dice with Darren Bailey?
Speaking of which, Ken Griffin, Illinois’ richest person, made some waves again yesterday.
Battle of the billionaires rages on as Ken Griffin vows to go ‘all in’ to defeat Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Chicago Tribune)
Billionaire Ken Griffin, an ardent foe of billionaire Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, declared Wednesday he was “all in” to back a candidate running to defeat the governor next year.
But Griffin did not say who he would support.
Griffin, speaking at the DealBook Online Summit hosted by the New York Times, sounded perturbed that Pritzker’s camp called him a “liar” last month after he criticized Pritzker over the issue of rising crime in Chicago and said he was considering moving his investment firm out of Chicago during an event at the Economic Club.
“He called me a liar,” Griffin said on Wednesday. “It’s all about politics for him. It’s not about people.”
“I’m going to make sure that if he runs again, that I am all in to support the candidate who will beat him,” Griffin said. “He doesn’t deserve to be the governor of our state.”
In its response to Griffin’s comments, Pritzker’s camp, as it did following the Economic Club event last month, referred to Griffin’s support of Rauner, whose unsuccessful anti-union agenda clashed with Democratic lawmakers, leading to a record-setting two-year budget standoff that helped decimate social services including funding for violence prevention.
“Ken Griffin financed Bruce Rauner’s disastrous tenure as governor and now he is eager to once again elect someone who would hold our budget hostage, waste taxpayer money, ruin our credit rating, and destroy programs that keep our residents healthy and safe,” Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein said in a statement.
I’ve told subscribers Griffin hadn’t expressed significant interest in funding Davis’ campaign, so it will be interesting to see who, or if, he has someone in mind.
Former Rep. Litesa Wallace Jumps into 17th District Race (The Illinoize)
Former Rockford State Representative and 2018 candidate for Lt. Governor, Litesa Wallace, is running in the new 17th Congressional district in 2022.
From a news release:
Educator and former Rockford State Representative Litesa Wallace launched her campaign for Congress today in Illinois’ new Seventeenth Congressional District. Born and raised in Illinois and a 16 year resident of Rockford, Litesa's parents were both public servants. Litesa understands the economic and social challenges facing the communities of the 17th district for whom she’s fiercely advocated throughout her career.
“As a single mom and former legislator, I know the challenges my neighbors face - from finding affordable childcare to the rising cost of food and rent. It’s why as a state legislator I strengthened the childcare assistance program, fought against food insecurity, advocated for affordable housing, and fought for a $15 minimum wage while in the state legislature".
Former Rockford and Quad Cities TV meteorologist Eric Sorensen also announced his run Wednesday. (Rockford Register Star)
And in the 14th, conservative talk show host Michael Koolidge is expected to launch a campaign against Congresswoman Lauren Underwood Monday. (The Illinoize)
After Paperwork Filing, Dan Brady Announcement Likely Coming Next Week (The Illinoize)
After a filing with the Illinois State Board of Elections showing he planned to run for Secretary of State gained attention Wednesday, Rep. Dan Brady (R-Bloomington) is expected to make his intentions known officially next week.
Brady didn’t disclose the reason the paperwork was filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections Wednesday, but sources say a statewide announcement is expected next Monday.
Brady, who is no relation to former gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady, has served in the legislature for 20 years. Democrats drew him out of his district in the latest legislative map, but Brady had been discussing a statewide run for months.
State Supreme Court asked to rule in case of woman allegedly raped by Lyft driver (Capitol News Illinois)
The rideshare company Lyft argued before the Illinois Supreme Court Wednesday that a 2014 state law protects it from being held liable for the criminal actions of one of its drivers who allegedly raped a passenger in 2017.
The case centers on the constitutionality of the state’s first law to regulate the industry, passed in 2014, and could have implications for the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches.
On those points, Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a motion to intervene on behalf of Lyft that specifically addressed constitutional concerns.
The alleged rape occurred in July 2017 in Chicago, when the plaintiff, referred to in court filings as Jane Doe, used the Lyft app on her phone to schedule a ride after a night out with friends. She was picked up by Lyft driver Angelo McCoy, and fell asleep in the back of the vehicle, according to the court filing by her lawyer, J. Timothy Eaton, of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP.
But, instead of driving her home safely, “McCoy drove Jane to a dark and secluded alley, woke her, zip-tied her hands, and brutally sexually assaulted her multiple times at knife point,” the legal filing alleged.
When McCoy began to drive away, Doe escaped from the back of the vehicle to safety, according to the filing, which stated McCoy “had a criminal history spanning three decades.”
Doe’s initial lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, described eight counts of misconduct against McCoy, Lyft and Sterling Talent Solutions, which conducted the company’s background checks.
The Supreme Court was not asked to consider whether Lyft or Sterling could be held directly liable for negligence or fraud. Instead, the legal question is whether Lyft can be held “vicariously” liable for the acts committed by McCoy.
Go read the whole thing because it brings up great questions about how the legislature operates.
Illinois COVID-19 cases top 5,000 for first time in two months — and it’s time to get vaccinated ‘right now,’ officials say (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois public health officials on Wednesday announced 5,044 new cases of COVID-19, marking the state’s highest total in two months and raising concerns about a rise in infections heading into the holiday season.
The troubling case count raised the seven-day average statewide case positivity rate to 2.5%, suggesting the virus is spreading at the fastest rate seen since late September, when the state was coming down from the Delta variant surge.
The numbers have now been moving in the wrong direction for about two weeks as people spend more time indoors due to colder weather.
Average daily cases have shot up 24% in Chicago since last week, with about 403 residents testing positive each day. The 400-case-per-day mark puts the city back in the “high transmission” level set by the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said experts have long anticipated a seasonal uptick because the virus spreads more easily indoors due to lower ventilation. The question is how bad things might get.
“For me, it’s especially an indication that now is the time to get vaccinated if you haven’t yet, and to make sure your kids are getting vaccinated,” Arwady said during a news conference Tuesday.
This isn’t going away until we get enough people vaccinated.
Finally, on Veterans’ Day, a column from former Adjutant General and Congressman Bill Enyart:
I enjoyed the privilege of wearing the military uniform of this great nation over the course of six decades. The son of a factory worker and dime store clerk, with not one of my grandparents getting past the eighth grade, I enlisted in the United States Air Force as a lowly boot recruit, at 19-years-old in 1969. 43 years later, I retired as a 63-year-old major general.
Back in the 1970’s, as an honorably discharged veteran, the citizens of this great nation presented me with the gift of four years of the GI Bill educational benefits. My great state, the State of Illinois, presented me with four years of free tuition at any state school.
Some people may say those benefits weren’t a gift, they were earned. To me, they were a gift. A gift of a brighter future. A gift, not of an entitlement, but a gift of opportunity. An opportunity of an education without the crushing student debt that so many of our young people bear today.
I owe thanks also to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville and the visionaries who built it. As a returning veteran and first-generation college student, those far-sighted educators realized that I probably didn’t have the tools to succeed at college without some extra tutoring. A simple one credit hour course required of what were called “non-traditional students,” meaning those outside the typical college student age range of eighteen to twenty-two, taught me the simple little things that mean so much to success in college. They were things my working-class parents had no way of imparting to me. Things that I didn’t learn in my three-hundred-seventy student rural high school.
My thanks to the visionaries of the Southern Illinois University system and the State of Illinois don’t end there. Two years after graduating from SIU-E, the then three-year-old law school at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale agreed to accept a veteran with a decidedly checkered academic past. With just enough GI Bill benefits and state tuition benefits to complete the three years required for a law degree, I enrolled.
Thank you for your service.
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