Your Questions...Answered!
Governor JB Pritzker at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. (Photo: Getty)
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OPINION
I like to periodically open it up to your questions. Thanks to all who submitted. We’re not going to use any names to protect identities and employers and biases and all that stuff. Don’t worry, there is plenty of opinion to be found here.
What is JB Pritzker’s end game with ICE?
I look at everything Governor Pritzker does through a lens filter of “wannabe 2028 contender.” That said, he’s sort of been a little bit more conciliatory the past couple of weeks about crime in Chicago than his September riverfront ‘there’s no crime here!’ press conference. Politically, the anti-ICE rhetoric is playing very well in the city and suburbs. The violence and indiscriminate arrests are angering and motivating even normally non-political suburbanites. They ain’t voting for Republicans next year. If ICE was actually grabbing the “worst of the worst” and not dragging a day care employee in the country legally out of her workplace at 7am, Pritzker would probably have egg on his face. And if ICE and CBP pull out this week, as is being reported, Pritzker can, and likely will, take a victory lap.
What do you actually think of the Governor?
I don’t really know him at all. The people I know who know him say he’s a really fun and engaging in private. “You’d never know he was a billionaire,” someone once told me. My interactions with him have all been in public and have often been testy. He also likes to throw in some sort of dig at my conservative background. After I questioned him on failures at DCFS a few months ago, he accused me of parroting “right wing talking points” even though the line I quoted was from Capitol News Illinois reporting. I’ve never had the chance to actually do a sit-down interview with him. (I’ve only been asking for five years.) But, that said, my relationship with his state and campaign staff is significantly better than it was this time two or three years ago. Which is a credit to them.
Is there any potential opponent Pritzker is worried about in 2026?
I haven’t spoken to anyone on his team in depth about Rick Heidner yet. But, in terms of everyone else in the race, the answer is “no.”
Does Sheriff Jim Mendrick play spoiler to Ted Dabrowski?
Until Mendrick starts running a professional campaign, he’s not spoiling anybody’s chances but his own.
Was Darren Bailey ever actually going to stop running for Governor?
Yeah, I think it was being discussed. This was a big tragedy in their lives and Bailey, who turns 60 on primary day, just got asked to take in a 10-year-old boy who lost his whole family. That’s bigger than any campaign. But, I certainly think the call the Baileys got from President Trump a couple of weeks ago convinced them to stay in the race.
Does Bailey get 50% in the primary? If so, can Bailey get 40% against Pritzker?
Literally everything went right for Bailey in 2022 and he got 57% in the primary. He doesn’t have the same kind of momentum or the same kind of money this time, so it seems unlikely he tops 50%, especially if Heidner comes in and drops a lot of cash in the primary. As for the general, Bailey got 42% in 2022 and literally everything went wrong down the stretch. So, yes, he can break 40. Can he break 45? I don’t know.
Does Donald Trump Jr.’s relationship with Rick Heidner move POTUS’s support away from Darren Bailey?
I don’t think Trump gets anywhere near this primary unless he thinks someone can beat Pritzker. Because, let’s be clear, Donald Trump HATES JB Pritzker. So he won’t embarrass himself again going all in for someone who can’t win.
Does Darren Bailey’s school really teach that dinosaurs and humans walked the Earth at the same time? Does it teach that the majority of slave owners treated their slaves well?
I have not personally seen the Bob Jones University curriculum used at the Full Armor Christian Academy the Bailey family founded, but the reporting is not flattering.
Can a Republican win countywide in any of the collar counties?
McHenry County is the obvious one. Trump won there by about five points last year. Will County is also on the radar. Harris beat Trump 49.7% to 48.1% there last year and the GOP won the County Clerk’s office.
Who is most likely to replace Tony McCombie if the House GOP doesn’t get out of the superminority?
Let’s game this out. I think for McCombie to get ousted, it’s going to have to be a blood bath for Republicans in November. In our top ten races that could flip, #1, #3, #6, and #7 are all House GOP seats. If she loses all four, she surely gets a challenge from the right. If, somehow, they lose five or more, you have to imagine the heavily conservative downstate caucus that’s left goes in a different direction. Can you imagine House GOP Leader Blaine Wilhour?
Why should Kathy Salvi and the rest of the ILGOP still have a job after failing to have a candidate for each statewide office?
It’s pretty embarrassing. Disqualifying, probably. But, who would actually want the job in her place?
Will Susana Mendoza pick sides in the Comptroller primary, especially if she’s running for Mayor?
Let’s be clear: she’s totally running for Mayor. And she would be significantly better at it than WORST. MAYOR. EVER. Brandon Johnson. That said, it doesn’t really incentivize her to get involved in the primary, but I think it’s been made pretty clear she’s supportive of Lake County Treasurer Holly Kim.
How p*ssed is Daniel Biss that he’s in a competitive congressional race with a TikToker?
It’s one thing to be in a race, but the fact he could actually lose is the really wild possibility. Biss was a state senator and finished second to JB Pritzker in that 2018 Democratic primary for Governor. I have to imagine there was a Birkenstock-shaped hole in the wall of his campaign office the day Kat Abughazaleh got indicted for (essentially) protesting ICE. I think he’ll win that primary in the end, but it’s wild how this has shaken out.
