THE ILLINOIZE: What is Uihlein doing?...Pritzker takes credit for tax cut he repealed...Turner/Hamilton race gets ugly...
October 11, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
We are exactly four weeks, 28 days, from the November 8 General Election. Governor JB Pritzker has nothing on his public schedule and the Bailey campaign (still) hasn’t released a public schedule.
The Chicago Tribune is scheduled to make its endorsement in the race for Governor today. As I put the newsletter to bed at around 1am, it isn’t posted yet. But, it should be known Governor Pritzker has been pretty clear about his disdain for the Trib editorial board and Bailey was unopposed in the candidate interview. So, it would be a shock if they didn’t go with Bailey.
UPDATE: It isn't online yet, but the Trib is endorsing Pritzker. Shows you what my logic gets you.
We’ve talked about the great reporting by Capitol News Illinois’ Beth Hundsdorfer and Molly Parker of the Southern Illinoisan on the ongoing allegations of abuse and neglect of residents of the Choate Mental Health Center in Anna in southern Illinois.
They have another story detailing an accidental 9-1-1 call while a resident of the facility was being restrained. Read the whole thing, it is alarming.
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Let’s get to it.
WHAT IS UIHLEIN’S END GAME?
Conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein has dropped another $13.9 million into the race for Governor, but it isn’t going to Darren Bailey’s paltry campaign.
Conservative operative and radio host Dan Proft’s “People Who Play By the Rules” PAC has received $33.9 million from Uihlein since the June primary, becoming the de facto Pritzker attack arm of the GOP. Uihlein has largely ignored Bailey, giving the GOP nominee $1 million since the primary. Uihlein funded Bailey’s campaign to the tune of $9 million leading up to the June primary.
Between the primary and general election, Uihlein has contributed around $50 million combined to the two committees.
“It’s a head scratcher,” said one longtime Republican insider. “Why give $34 million to a guy like Proft who has never flipped a seat? Honestly, I have no idea what the [Uihlein] is thinking.”
Though, while independent polling has shown Bailey trailing Pritzker between 15-20 points, one GOP operative says its likely Proft has convinced Uihlein the race is close.
“He’s likely convinced Uihlein its close, and it’s not hard for that audience to say ‘the polls are wrong, just like they were for Trump, we’re close, so let’s prove all the liberals wrong.’ Facts never matter when wooing Uihlein,” the operative said. “Tell him what he wants to hear, and Proft is happy to oblige.”
Another GOP insider said Bailey’s debate performance last week, where he overperformed expectations, may have inspired Uihlein.
“They think [the debate] is moving numbers, which it’s not,” the operative said. “They’re showing Uihlein bad polling which has Bailey in striking distance.”
A Proft-funded poll last month showed a five point race.
“Either they have some metrics that have convinced Uihlein they can beat Pritzker, or Dan Proft is the best salesman ever,” a conservative lawmaker said Monday. “I don’t think Uihlein would just waste $35 million.”
Through a spokesman, Uihlein declined to comment.
One surprising part of Uihlein’s financial commitments to an outside PAC instead of Bailey directly is that ad rates for non-candidate PAC’s are higher, sometimes twice as high, than the rates paid by candidate committees.
When asked for comment, Proft claimed to have negotiated lower ad rates (which an industry source disputes), then proceeded to launch into a personal attack.
"Patrick, you should really know what you're talking about when it comes to campaigns. You don't,” Proft said.
Another Republican operative questioned Proft’s track record of success.
“If only Dan Proft’s win-loss record matched his ego,” the operative said. “We’d be living in a red state by now.”
PRITZKER TAKES CREDIT FOR TAX CUT HE REPEALED
When Governor JB Pritzker took credit for cutting taxes on 400,000 small businesses during last Thursday’s gubernatorial debate, he left out the detail that he reinstated the tax two years after repealing it.
Pritzker signed a repeal of the Corporate Franchise Tax, a Republican initiative in the so-called Blue Collar Jobs Act, in 2019. But in his 2021 budget proposal, Pritzker reversed course and proposed eliminating the tax, which the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association claimed would raise taxes on 317,000 businesses, to the tune of around $30 million annually.
In his budget address in 2021, Pritzker lumped the franchise tax in with other “corporate loopholes.”
At the time, Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon), the lead budget negotiator for House Republicans (and a current candidate for State Treasurer), said Democrats “went back” on their deal to eliminate the tax.
“The Democrats broke that agreement,” Demmer said the day after the budget passed in 2021.
When asked about Pritzker’s comments, two different Pritzker campaign spokespeople sent information about the repeal, but did not respond to our question about why he took credit for a tax he put back in place.
TURNER/HAMILTON RACE GETTING UGLY
Criminal activity by a lawmaker’s husband and of mismanagement of state grants on her watch are the center of a brutal new television ad in a downstate legislative race.
Appointed Rep. Sandy Hamilton (R-Springfield), launched the ad over the weekend, alleging appointed Sen. Doris Turner (D-Springfield) was involved in separate criminal incidents.
Hamilton and Turner are battling in one of the highest-profile legislative races in the 48th Senate District, stretching from Springfield to Decatur.
In 2005, Cecil Turner, Doris Turner’s husband, was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to federal prison for his role in a ghost payroll scheme in the Secretary of State’s office. Reporting at the time showed Doris Turner was caught on wiretaps discussed directing her husband’s co-defendants not to talk to authorities. Doris Turner was never charged with a crime.
“The ad tries to attribute the illegal activities of bad actors to Doris Turner in her role as a state employee,” the Turner campaign responded in a statement. “The events in this ad are nearly 20 years old, and Turner was never charged with a crime.”
Hamilton’s campaign manager, Matt Butcher, said in a statement that Turner has been part of a “career of corruption.”
“[Turner] was caught on wiretaps trying to coverup ghost payrolling – costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars - and resigned from her state job in disgrace because the Inspector General said she violated “her duty” by dolling out grants that were meant to help our seniors and most in need,” he said.
The latest attack from Hamilton comes after Turner hit the airwaves attacking Hamilton as a “sell out.”
Governor JB Pritzker won the new 48th district by around 5 points in 2018, but Republican Erika Harold won the Attorney General race in the district by around 6 points. The district is considered one of the most toss-up districts in the state and could wind up the most expensive legislative race in the state before November 8.
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