THE ILLINOIZE...Bailey's cash crunch...State Police want more authority to revoke or deny FOID cards...Irvin got fleeced
July 19, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
We’re a little late this morning thanks to a glitch in our Substack platform. My apologies if your coffee was lonely.
I was on WLS Radio in Chicago this morning with the great Steve Cochran. You can listen to the podcast here.
Governor JB Pritzker, who was in Florida this weekend potentially testing the waters for a 2024 run for the White House, is working from home after close contacts with the little COVID bug while in the DeSantis state. Florida Congresswoman Val Demmings, who is running for U.S. Senate, announced yesterday she had tested positive. She and Pritzker were in contact in Tampa this weekend.
As far as I can tell, neither the Governor or his GOP opponent, Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), have had COVID yet over the past 2.5 years we’ve been living in this pandemic-world. It’s especially notable considering how many events the two men attend and how many hands they shake. (I’m checking to confirm.)
The Governor is, of course, vaccinated. Bailey has said publicly he did not receive the COVID vaccine.
I don’t care about their politics, I hope both men and their families stay healthy for the next four months and beyond.
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Let’s get to it.
BAILEY AT “GIGANTIC” CASH DISADVANTAGE HEADING INTO FALL
Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) may have cruised to victory in the GOP primary for governor last month, but campaign finance reports show he begins the fall campaign at a gigantic disadvantage.
Bailey raised around $8.6 million between April 1 and June 30, but $8 million of that came from billionaire paper products magnate and conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein. Bailey spent around $9.2 million in the second quarter, around $7.7 million of which was dedicated to television ads.
Bailey ended the quarter with around $364,000 cash on hand. Governor JB Pritzker, meanwhile, who had nominal Democratic competition in the primary, but spent piles of money helping Bailey and attacking Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, finished the second quarter with $60 million in the bank.
“If [Bailey] doesn’t figure out how to raise some significant money fast, this thing will get away from him,” said a longtime GOP operative who asked not to be named. “Even if Dick Uihlein writes a $50 million check, Bailey won’t be able to compete financially, but he has to find a way to put together a robust operation.”
The Pritzker campaign has already begun airing a set of attacks on Bailey. Some Republicans we talk to harken back to the 2006 gubernatorial race where Judy Baar Topinka came out of a bruising primary with no money and then-Governor Rod Blagojevich, behind a $25 million war chest (the good old days where $25 million was a lot), defined Topinka before she could ever get on TV, essentially ending the race by the summer.
Even Republican insiders who believe the poor economic circumstances and pending “red wave” could keep Bailey afloat against the divisive Pritzker know he has to be able to withstand an early onslaught from Pritzker.
“If [Bailey] lets Pritzker decide the narrative, he’s done,” said a Republican insider. “But if he can make the story in the suburbs about crime and the economy and not about guns and abortion, he has a chance to keep it close into the fall.”
ISP WANTS MORE AUTHORITY TO DENY AND REVOKE FOID CARDS
I’m hesitant to get deep into this story until I see the full emergency rule. I’ve asked State Police for it and will update on the web if I get it.
In the meantime, via the Chicago Tribune:
In response to the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois State Police has issued an emergency rule that will allow the agency to retain and expand the use of reports on people found to pose a “clear and present danger,” even if they don’t have a firearm owner’s identification card or a pending application.
The alleged Highland Park shooter was able to obtain a FOID card just months after the suburb’s police filed a clear and present danger report with state police in September 2019 because the report wasn’t retained after it was determined he didn’t have a firearm permit or pending application at the time, according to state police.
The emergency rule, filed Friday and effective immediately, clarifies the ability of state police to retain a clear and present danger report even if the subject doesn’t have a FOID card or a pending application at the time it is received. The agency would be able to use such reports in evaluating future FOID card applications.
The emergency rule will remain in effect for 150 days, but state police said they plan to make the change permanent through the state’s administrative rule-making system.
Note: it’s safe to assume at least some of the Republicans on the Joint Committee for Administrative Rules (JCAR), will oppose the rule no matter what it is, but it’s hard to imagine any Democrat siding with them and stopping the rule.
The new rule will contain a broader definition of “clear and present danger,” aligning with state law to include “physical or verbal behavior, such as violent, suicidal, or assaultive threats, actions, or other behavior,” state police said.
Clear and present danger reports — separate from the state’s so-called red-flag law, which involves going before a judge and allows officials to temporarily take guns from individuals — can be made by individuals including physicians, psychologists, school administrators and law enforcement officers.
A state police spokeswoman acknowledged Monday that had the new rule been in place at the time Crimo applied for a FOID card in December 2019, it would not have guaranteed a denial.
“However, had the report been available at the later time of FOID application, and had the ISP officer been able to consider conduct that wasn’t ‘imminent’ or ‘impending,’ further investigation and assessment may have been possible,” state police spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said in an email.
“What this new administrative rule does is allows for ISP to retain and use clear and present danger reports for possible future evaluation of a broader array of conduct,” Arnold said.
The rule change will make approximately 5,700 additional records available to state police to use in evaluating future FOID applications, Arnold said.
I have preached and preached and preached that we need to have the tools available to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. I also admit you can’t legislate away hate or bad people. I’m not sure if the rule will work, but ISP deserves the benefit of the doubt in this instance to make informed decisions to stop people who shouldn’t have guns from having them.
IRVIN’S CAMPAIGN OF CONSULTANTS
I talked a lot through the primary about how Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s campaign (funded by billionaire Ken Griffin) seemed more like a playpen for high priced consultants than an actual campaign.
After his second quarter campaign finance report hit over the weekend, you can see just how much consultants tied to the Bruce Rauner/Mark Kirk cabal fleeced Griffin and Irvin for.
For instance (from April 1 through June 30):
“Field Consultant” Torey Barrett: $143,700
Opposition researchers Mark Campbell & Bill Collier: $104,682
Former Kirk communications staffer Lance Trover: $95,584.81
Attorney John Fogarty: $80,750
Former Kirk communications staffer Kirsten Kukowski: $76,897.33
Rauner and ILGOP alum Nick Klitzing: $60,099.82
Rauner/Kirk alum Mike Zolnerowicz: $60,000 (We’re told “Mike Z” was making money on other parts of the campaign, too.)
Longtime Irvin consultant Dennis Cook: $51,005
Finance consultant Dana Grigoroff: $50,000
House GOP/Kirk Alum communications staffer Eleni Demertzis: $45,567
Campaign Manager and "Mike Z’s” Right Hand Woman Kayleen Carlson: $42,676
Kirk/Rauner opposition researcher Ed Murphy: $40,238
Rauner/ILGOP Alum Andrew Weissert: $40,000
Rauner/Kirk alum and “compliance consultant” Les Williamson: $30,352
“Security Consultant” Ethos Tactical: $21,258
That’s not every staffer or every consultant, just some of the most notable and it’s only the second quarter. Of the nearly $40 million Irvin’s campaign spent last quarter, those vendors alone cost around a million bucks. Not a top notch investment for the Griffin camp.
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