THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Bailey vs. Bost confirmed...AFSCME deal reached...Highland Park remembers
July 6, 2023
We hope you enjoyed your Independence Day holiday and the anniversary of telling King George to “bite me, if you please.” (I’m of the age where there’s a West Wing quote for everything.)
This guy also enjoyed his day:
The Governor is in Rockford at 9am announcing a Metra line extension.
If you haven’t yet joined us as a paid subscriber, I hope you’ll take a minute to do so. Subscribers got two breaking news alerts Monday evening ahead of the holiday and they’ll get our exclusive newsletter tomorrow morning. I’ll give you a 30 day free trial if you join us!
Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Darren Bailey challenges Mike Bost in downstate congressional district (The Southern Illinoisan)
Recent gubernatorial challenger and former state Sen. Darren Bailey will challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro in next year's Republican primary for the Illinois 12th Congressional District.
Bailey filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission on Tuesday. He announced his campaign at a Fourth of July party on his downstate farm later that evening.
“I have a message for Joe Biden, the radical left, and for every weak-kneed politician who prioritizes their next election over the next generation: You may underestimate the power of the American people, but you do so at your own peril," Bailey told a crowd of about 300 supporters. "We are a force to be reckoned with, and we will hold you accountable. If you sell us out, we will send you home.”
In a statement released after Bailey's announcement, Bost campaign manager Myles Nelson said the five-term incumbent "has delivered conservative results" for Southern Illinois and "has never wavered in defending our values and has worked tirelessly to build our region into the Republican stronghold it is today."
"It's a shame that Darren Bailey is willing to divide conservatives at a time when it's mission critical that we be united against Joe Biden and the extreme liberals in Congress," Nelson said. "Bailey is putting selfish opportunism and personal ambition ahead of the interests of Southern Illinois conservatives, and Republican primary voters won't forget that."
Bailey's entry into the race all but ensures that downstate Illinois will be the site of a divisive and potentially expensive intraparty Republican clash for the second election cycle in a row.
Bailey, 57, is a farmer who served in the state legislature before running for governor with former President Donald Trump's endorsement last year. He won the Republican nomination by a landslide against a six-man field but lost to Pritzker by more than 12 points in the general election.
Bost, 62, is a Marine Corps. veteran and former business owner who served two decades in the Illinois House before being elected to Congress in 2014. He currently serves as the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee.
This primary will be the subject of our The Illinoize podcast this weekend. Subscribe to our YouTube channel or subscribe for traditional podcasts on Apple, Google, Spotify, or Amazon.
We’ll also have more on the race for subscribers tomorrow morning.
Related: Darren Bailey announces bid for downstate Illinois congressional seat held by Trump-backed Republican (Chicago Sun-Times)
Defeated for governor last year, Darren Bailey sets his sights on Congress and a downstate GOP primary with Mike Bost (Chicago Tribune)
Foster running for reelection; human rights lawyer launches primary challenge (Daily Herald)
Bill Foster announces reelection bid for Naperville’s 11th Congressional District seat (Naperville Sun/Chicago Tribune)
Lawyer, radio host announces primary run against Bill Foster for 11th congressional district seat (Naperville Sun/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois’ largest public employee union reaches tentative contract agreement with state (Chicago Tribune)
Illinois’ largest public employee union has reached a tentative agreement with the state on a new contract, the union said.
The two sides came to agreement in the hours after the union’s previous contract expired at the end of June.
Representatives of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents thousands of state workers ranging from corrections officers to public health employees, declined to provide details on the tentative pact, which has to go before membership for a vote.
“We will share details once members have had a chance to review terms and vote on the tentative agreement,” AFSCME Council 31 spokesman Anders Lindall said in an email Wednesday morning. “Those meetings are likely to start next week and take a week or two to complete.”
The tentative agreement reached Saturday coincided with the start of the state’s 2024 fiscal year and a $50.4 billion budget passed by the Democratic-controlled state legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Pritzker’s administration has not said how much money the budget included to accommodate a new collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME, but noted its previous contract with the union cost more than $400 million over four years.
At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Pritzker described contract negotiations as “friendly” in the sense that “we knew on both sides that we needed to reach an agreement and it was reached roughly on time by the end of the fiscal year.”
“This negotiation looked very much like the negotiation four years ago that we had,” Pritzker said. “When you come to the table with goodwill in your heart to try to reach agreement, and I think both sides did that, even when sometimes you have small disagreements in the process, the end result will be one that we can all be proud of and here we reached one that I think everybody is proud of.”
Legislative Republicans had questioned whether the Democrats’ spending plan had taken into account the costs of a new AFSCME contract, though Pritzker last month brushed off those concerns.
There’s no way the deal didn’t get done without raises, so it’ll be interesting to see where the additional cost comes from in the new budget.
On July 4, Highland Park remembers, together (Highland Park News/Chicago Tribune)
Kristina Donovan returned to Highland Park from Louisiana on Tuesday. A year after she survived the mass shooting at the suburban town’s Fourth of July parade while visiting from out of state, she felt compelled to come back.
“I need to stand where I stood, and pray where I saw people go down,” she said.
She joined a crowd of thousands in Highland Park who attended memorial services marking the anniversary of the day a shooter killed seven people and shot dozens more at the suburban holiday parade one year ago.
People gathered outside City Hall for a memorial ceremony before walking en masse along the street where the shooting occurred. Community leaders praised the town’s resilience and honored the memory of the victims of the shooting.
Before the ceremony, Donovan sat on a shaded park bench, scrolling through photos she took just minutes before the shots broke out. Tears rolled down her face. She had been visiting her daughter when the shooting happened, she said. Back home, she hasn’t been surrounded by the signs of hope and healing dotting the city, she added.
“Everybody heals differently, and everybody processes grief differently,” the 54-year-old said. “We’ve dealt with it all year. We just need today for our memories.”
Related: Highland Park comes together one year after Fourth of July parade mass shooting (Chicago Sun-Times)
POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Immigrant advocates slam Pritzker for cutting health care program for noncitizens (Chicago Sun-Times)
Illinois State Museum returns nearly 40 sacred wooden artifacts to Kenya (Associated Press)
Son of former state [Rep]. Eddie Acevedo gets 2 months for filing false tax claims (Chicago Sun-Times)
Chicago’s pension crisis worsens with investment losses (Chicago Sun-Times)
Mayor Brandon Johnson replaces Chicago Board of Education president and most members ahead of move to elected board (Chicago Tribune)
Delay in Chicago’s elected school board map could put grassroots candidates at a disadvantage (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: What path lies ahead for ‘sojourner’ Barack Obama? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: If Johnson aims to overhaul institutional taxation, why limit it to business? (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Opinion: Time, money not enough to fix certain state challenges (Shaw Media)
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