Southern Illinois News

Republican candidate for governor Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Louisville) recently echoed his stand on what he calls Gov. J.B. Pritzker's divisiveness. According to Bailey's recent radio ad, he can only help Illinois if he wins on Nov. 8.

"Our campaign has been a simple one. We exposed the corruption, the influence peddling, and the many examples of JB Pritzker’s failed policies," Bailey said. "We also made a pledge to bring in a new era of Illinois government. And we will make good on those commitments. We are going to treat everyone with dignity and respect. We are going to listen to the people, and we are going to make Illinois government accountable, accessible, honest, and transparent. The Governor’s mansion does not belong to any one person or one party. It belongs to the people. A Darren Bailey/Stephanie Trussell Administration would be committed to serving ALL the people of this great state. Where JB Pritzker sought to divide us, we will make it our mission to unite this state. Our focus will be on crafting policies that will lead to job growth and stop the mass exodus from our state."

According to one recent poll, Bailey and Pritzker are virtually tied. According to a polling of 600 likely voters by Osage Research conducted from Oct. 13–15, 42% of respondents said they would vote for Bailey while 44% said they would vote for Pritzker again. With a +/-4% deviation, Bailey and the incumbent Democrat are in a statistical tie, Prairie State Wire reported.

One scandal Pritzker has been dogged by over the campaign has been that involving campaign aide Jenny Thornley.  Thornley, a former Illinois State Police (ISP) merit board employee, was charged with stealing money from the government. When her manager learned about it, she lodged a false accusation of sexual harassment against him, which was later exposed. Thornley also made contact with the governor's spouse in order to assist her in February 2020. She later filed a fake workers' compensation claim due to the harassment while working with Pritzker's top staff, designating the governor's office as her employer rather than the ISP merit board. The claim, which was determined to be false, was processed and approved directly by Pritzker's General Counsel Ann Spillane. An independent investigation concluded that the claim was just a scheme to defraud the state. Attorney general candidate Thomas DeVore claims people in the highest levels of the Pritzker Administration were involved in the scheme.

As the campaign drew to a close, opponents claim Pritzker resorted to bully tactics to silence opponents. The publication of an opposition newspaper was disrupted momentarily after the Pritzker campaign put pressure on the Daily Herald, which owns the press that was printing the newspapers owned by LGIS. Opponents say Pritzker was also successful in shutting down a TV ad by radio personality Pat Proft’s People Who Play By The Rules PAC  which showed a video of a woman being robbed. Pritzker also sent a legal notice to NBC and WGN requesting they remove an ad from Pritzker’s primary opponent, Beverly Miles, in which she accused Pritzker of her politically-motivated firing. The legal notice said Miles had no evidence Pritzker was behind her firing.