THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Deep dives on Irvin...Questionnaires...Legislative primaries...Texas...COVID...Batinick
May 26, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
Here’s my column in Shaw Media newspapers this week.
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Richard Irvin, the mayor of Aurora, often finds himself in conflict with Richard Irvin, the GOP candidate for governor (Chicago Tribune)
In his bid for the GOP nomination for governor, Richard Irvin has been plagued by inconsistencies in past actions as Aurora mayor and statements since hitting the stump.
For his part, Irvin denies any disparities in his positions.
“I think I’m consistent the whole time, whether mayor or a candidate running for governor,” Irvin said at a campaign meet-and-greet in west suburban Elmhurst on Saturday.
Irvin’s candidacy is being brought to voters by the same team that took wealthy Republican private equity investor Bruce Rauner from near political obscurity to the Governor’s Mansion in 2014. Rauner defeated a weakened Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn as the first-time Republican candidate was presented to the public as a blank slate. He also stuck to a tight script to avoid alienating voters.
But to win the GOP primary for governor, Irvin’s campaign staff is keeping him to a tight script with little public or media interaction and few direct answers to questions about Republican politics or issues of the day. Instead, Irvin and his team have attempted to rewrite or obfuscate his past by trying to bulldoze past it and saying they are focused on the future.
Related: Irvin recounts his theft conviction as a teen, says young people need 'to be constantly engaged' (Daily Herald)
A ‘people person’ who’s ‘nobody’s pushover?’ Richard Irvin says he’s not hiding behind his TV ads — or Ken Griffin’s millions (WBEZ)
Mayor Richard Irvin chides organizers over banning police in uniform from Aurora Pride Parade (Aurora Beacon News/Chicago Tribune)
Here's what Illinois GOP governor candidates said about gun control, hours after Texas shooting (Bloomington Pantagraph)
The senseless massacre of 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday has brought the issue of gun violence back to the forefront in the Illinois governor's race.
The six Republican candidates for governor met at two competing debates that evening, where they were asked at the top how they would prevent such tragedies from happening again.
"I really do feel when you remove God from our society, these are the types of things that happen," said venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan. "And the Democrats always want to talk immediately about gun control and limiting our Second Amendment rights. But we have the strictest gun laws in the nation here in Chicago and what is that doing for us?"
Sullivan suggested that focusing on the impact of "fatherhood and promoting the family in our society again" would help reduce such heinous acts.
Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, said he would not support additional gun control measures and would seek to eliminate the state's FOID card requirement.
"We have the federal background safety check and I feel confident that that is enough, and that the FOID card hinders the freedoms of Second Amendment gun owners," Bailey said.
Businessman Gary Rabine said "we gotta raise our kids better than we are," saying that additional gun control would not prevent such a tragedy.
"There's no way the most stringent gun laws in the country or our city are going to eliminate that," he said.
Related: GOP gubernatorial debates: Irvin more elusive than lesser known rivals Schimpf and Solomon (Chicago Sun-Times)
GOP gubernatorial debates: Bailey calls Chicago ‘a crime-ridden, corrupt, dysfunctional hellhole’ (Chicago Sun-Times)
Survey: Illinois governor candidates: How would you work to increase the state's population? (Peoria Journal-Star)
Survey: Illinois governor candidates: How will you bring down health care, prescription drug costs? (Peoria Journal-Star)
Survey: Illinois governor candidates: What's your plan to improve the pension burden on cities? (Peoria Journal-Star)
Tazewell County candidates square off in new 87th House District (State Journal-Register)
Two Tazewell County political leaders will square off in the Republican primary for the new 87th House District for a spot in the new Illinois General Assembly.
County Treasurer Mary Burress will face anesthesiologist and county board member Bill Hauter in the June 28 contest for an open seat that had initially been split between Rep. Tim Butler, who is running in the new 95th District, and Rep. Keith Sommer, who is retiring after 24 years in the Statehouse.
Burress has been treasurer since 2010 and ran in 2020 against state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, in the 46th Senate District. She lost to the incumbent by over 6,000 votes – the closest race Koehler has had since being elected in 2006.
Hauter works at OSF St. Francis Medical Center as a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist. He also serves on the Tazewell County Board, having been elected in 2020.
Related: Survey: Meet Mary Burress, 87th Illinois House District candidate (State Journal-Register)
Survey: Meet Bill Hauter: 87th Illinois House District candidate in the state's primary election (State Journal-Register)
Two GOP foes are vying for Illinois Senate seat in 35th district (Rockford Register Star)
Two Rockford area candidates want to represent Illinois House 90th district (Rockford Register Star)
Illinois Public Media to host 13th Cong. Dist. primary debates (Illinois Public Media)
Illinois GOP reps say ‘soft-on-crime’ policies, mental health to blame for mass shootings (Belleville News-Democrat)
Republican members of Congress from southern Illinois said addressing mental health problems and securing schools are the answer to mass shootings in the United States following two of the deadliest so far this year.
U.S. Reps. Mike Bost of the 12th Congressional District, Rodney Davis of the 13th District and Mary Miller of the 15th District said in emailed statements that they grieve for the families of the 19 children and two teachers killed at an elementary school in Ulvade, Texas, on Tuesday. It happened less than two weeks after ten Black people were killed at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
Miller blamed mass shootings on “soft-on-crime policies” and said she “will continue to support the Second Amendment rights of my constituents in Illinois.”
Bost called on Congress to work on addressing a “mental health crisis” in the U.S., as did Davis. Bost supports legislation that would expand coverage of virtual mental health services under Medicare.
Davis said tax incentives and education could help improve use of gun locks or safes “to make sure guns don’t get in the hands of criminals or people who don’t know how to use them.”
Related: Pritzker, other Illinois Democrats blast Texas governor for injecting Chicago into debate over school shooting (Chicago Sun-Times)
Eight Illinois counties hit high risk level for COVID-19 — and Cook County’s not far behind (WBEZ)
Public health officials are now urging residents to mask up indoors in eight Illinois counties as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations keep trending upward statewide — and the Chicago area isn’t far behind.
“Even if Cook County moves to High, as long as the healthcare system in Chicago remains stable we likely will not automatically reinstate a mask mandate,” Dr. Allison Arwady said in a statement. “We may, however, advise high-risk people to consider limiting non-essential indoor gatherings.”
Related: Illinois COVID-19 hospitalizations fall (Shaw Media)
Kankakee County sees COVID vaccination at standstill, surge in cases (Kankakee Daily Journal)
‘You were a corruption super-spreader’ : Judge sentences ex-state Rep. Luis Arroyo to 57 months in prison in bribery case involving sweepstakes machine bill (Chicago Tribune)
Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo was sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison for trying to bribe a state senator to help with legislation expanding the shadowy world of sweepstakes gambling machines, for which Arroyo moonlighted as a lobbyist.
In rejecting a defense plea for probation, U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger railed against Arroyo’s “dirty” conduct, saying in a lengthy speech that he sold out an already corruption-weary public and committed a “frontal assault on the very idea of representative government.”
Batinick ready to ‘pass the baton’ (Capitol News Illinois)
Rep. Mark Batinick, a self-described “policy guy,” came to Springfield with the goal of pushing good policy.
Batinick said after eight years in the General Assembly, it was either time to try and run for something else or to just move on to better manage his time as a family and business man.
“I felt like it was time to pass the baton,” Batinick, who represents the 97th district which includes portions of Oswego, Montgomery, Naperville, Plainfield, Bolingbrook, Joliet and Shorewood, said. “I’m proud of a lot of the things that I was able to accomplish, especially from the minority side.”
As a freshman lawmaker watching the budget impasse unfold, Batinick said he observed that “so much of Springfield was theater,” and he would watch then-House Speaker Michael Madigan keep everyone busy, “acting like all these things were getting done.”
Rep. Batinick is one of the good ones and the House will not be better losing him.
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