THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All... Illinois GOP voters still aren't over Trump...The "other" candidates for Governor...What losing Caterpillar means
June 16, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
I’m not sure anyone in the state is having a worse week than Richard Irvin. After being presumed the inevitable GOP nominee for Governor, he now finds himself trailing Darren Bailey by 18 points…with only 16% of voters still undecided. Then again, maybe its Ken Griffin for wasting $50 million.
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A new poll shows Illinois GOP voters still back Trump (WBEZ)
Former President Donald Trump wields a powerful spell over Illinois Republicans with a majority declaring him as their top choice for the White House in 2024 and even more believing legally he should still be there.
More than two-thirds of the state’s GOP voters believe Trump actually won the 2020 election. And nearly nine out of 10 still like the combative former president.
Those are some of the conclusions of a new Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ poll that takes the political pulse of a state GOP eagerly trying to regain its political footing in Springfield but facing a split between its rising Trump-allegiant wing and its longtime establishment wing seeking to avoid being clipped.
Trump lost Illinois by 17 percentage points in 2020. But Republicans here aren’t bailing on him, despite that reelection drubbing, his double impeachment or bi-partisan congressional hearings aimed at highlighting his bellicose role in the fatal Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Those undeniable and historic stains on Trump’s record seem virtually unnoticed by some of the Republicans polled by the Sun-Times and WBEZ.
In fact, it’s almost like none of it happened — or matters. Large numbers of Illinois Republicans still put Trump on a pedestal alongside arguably the party’s most revered president of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan, a product of downstate Tampico.
Related: Will Trump come to Illinois for Mary Miller? (Illinois Public Media)
Trump campaign rally for Rep. Mary Miller appears increasingly likely (Bloomington Pantagraph)
(I already told you all last week this is on the books for June 25 in Quincy, even though it hasn’t been officially announced.)
Survey: Rodney Davis (R), 15th Congressional candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Mary Miller (R), 15th Congressional candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Outside spending dominates in 15th district Republican primary (Illinois Public Media)
Outside campaign cash floods into local races for Congress (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Survey: Matt Hausman (R), 13th Congressional District candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Terry Martin (R), 13th Congressional District candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Jesse Reising (R), 13th Congressional District candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Nikki Budzinski (D), 13th Congressional District candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: David Palmer (D), 13th Congressional District candidate (Champaign-News-Gazette)
Why did some congressional candidates skip filing mandatory financial disclosure reports? (Daily Herald)
Chicago Tribune Congressional endorsements (Chicago Tribune)
Family of Gwen Casten — daughter of U.S. Rep. Sean Casten — says the only thing known about her death is that it was ‘peaceful’ (Chicago Tribune)
Debates, dinners and door-knocking: Four other Republicans seek to make it clear they’re in the race for governor, too (Chicago Sun-Times)
Polls and blistering campaign ads aside, six Republicans — not just two — are fighting for votes in what has become an expensive, dramatic and surprisingly fluid GOP primary contest to ultimately face Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in November.
With the focus mostly on state Sen. Darren Bailey and Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, the other four — venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, Hazel Crest attorney Max Solomon and businessman Gary Rabine — are working to get their messages to undecided voters in the final days ahead of the June 28 primary.
All four proudly say they voted for former president Donald Trump, are anti-abortion and pro-Second Amendment rights — and they’ve made attacks on Pritzker a focal point of their campaigns.
Sullivan, who began running his first statewide television ads in October, is planning home- stretch June rallies around the state, including in Lake Forest, Peoria, Champaign and Bloomington. Sullivan also plans to participate in a radio debate on June 23, various local party and community events, as well as a Lincoln Day Dinner, according to his campaign.
A Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ earlier this month confirmed Bailey and Irvin as the GOP frontrunners — but it was also the first to show that Bailey had moved into the lead — after a heated war of TV ads and mailers between the downstate farmer and Aurora mayor.
But the poll also found Sullivan, of Petersburg in central Illinois, leading in Chicago with 26%, followed by Irvin at 16% and Bailey at 13%.
Related: Gov. J.B. Pritzker traveling to New Hampshire, sparking presidential speculation and some criticism from Republican opponents (Chicago Tribune)
Republican attorney general candidates decry ‘tyrannical’ Pritzker, his ‘wingman’ Raoul and Illinois’ ‘world-famous’ corruption (Chicago Sun-Times)
Pritzker antagonist Thomas DeVore and repeat candidate Steve Kim square off in GOP primary for attorney general (Chicago Tribune)
Downstate Republicans battle to reclaim — and freshen up — ‘outdated’ secretary of state’s office (Chicago Sun-Times)
Survey: Darren Bailey (R), Governor candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Richard Irvin (R), Governor candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Gary Rabine (R), Governor candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Paul Schimpf (R), Governor candidate (Champaign-News-Gazette)
Survey: Jesse Sullivan (R), Governor candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: JB Pritzker (D), Governor candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Thomas DeVore (R), Attorney General candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Steve Kim (R), Attorney General candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: David Shestokas (R), Attorney General candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: David Moore (D), Secretary of State candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: Anna Valencia (D), Secretary of State candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Survey: John Milhiser (R), Secretary of State candidate (Champaign News-Gazette)
Cat's HQ move points in the wrong direction for Chicago (Crain’s Chicago Business)
With its move to Texas, Caterpillar is joining a growing conga line of companies transplanting their headquarters to the Sun Belt.
Cat, which shifted its executive suite to Deerfield from its longtime home in Peoria just five years ago, has never been a fan of the political climate in Illinois, particularly its tax policies. Texas has no income tax, an added benefit for the company and its employees. The company didn’t say much about its move to the Dallas suburb of Irving on Tuesday, but what it did say raises a concern that Chicago is slipping.
We believe being in the Dallas Fort-Worth market will give us the ability to attract new talent and provide additional career opportunities for our current employees to aid in retention,” the company said in a statement to various news outlets.
Chicago has long been a headquarters town, but it’s lost two Fortune 500 HQs in little more than a month. As the nation’s third-largest city, Chicago always has had a deep pool of educated talent. But it’s not growing.
“I don’t think you leave Chicago because of taxes,” says Harry Kraemer, former CEO of Baxter who teaches at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Talent is becoming more mobile. If you’ve got to hire 1,000 young people over the next five years, where do you want to be? What cities do you want to be in or not be in? A lot of people are moving to Texas, to Florida, to Atlanta, to Nashville. They’re moving places people perceive as upwardly mobile, safer.”
And that’s not even to mention the smaller businesses that have picked up and moved across the border to Indiana, Iowa, or Missouri. Yikes.
Related: Proposal calls for ComEd to pay $38 million back to ratepayers for scandal tied to Michael Madigan indictment (Chicago Tribune)
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