IL-GOV 2022 megathread

[Mr. Illini]

MWRD Commissioner Kari Steele is challenging Fritz Kaegi for the Cook County Assessor position

https://chicago.suntimes.com/elections/2021/9/20/22684281/kari-steele-fritz-kaegi-cook-county-assessor-water-reclamation-district-democratic-primary

I've always liked Steele, but this is suspicious. She's a close ally of Toni Preckwinkle, who is still sad that Kaegi knocked her cartoonishly-corrupt friend Joe Berrios out of the seat four years ago.

Fritz has my vote almost certainly. F you Toni.

P.S. Maybe we could rename this to be a general megathread for Illinois in 2022?

[Mr. Illini]

Griffin-backed candidates also announced for the other statewide races this week.

Steve Kim for AG, State Rep. Tom Demmer for Treasurer, and McHenry County Auditor Shannon Teresi for Comptroller

https://tinyurl.com/my87usu4

Initial take is that Kim is the only one who might have a chance.

[Mr. Illini]

https://twitter.com/capitolfax/status/1517193456375894018?s=20&t=3tkcTg1W8zZ...

JB has basically done everything he said he was going to do when he ran four years ago. What a breath of fresh air in Illinois politics.

[Mr. Illini]

1. The legislature pushing progressive policies that he went ahead and signed due to Illinois’s economy being so bad that he couldn’t veto it. Weed is the main thing but there are others.

This is an interesting way of saying that JB executed on his campaign promise to pass progressive legislation.

[Mr. Illini]

Bailey is again going around calling Chicago a “hellhole.” The funniest part is that he thinks people who live here agree with him. He is badly out of touch with the northern part of the state and he’s going to lose bigly for it.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2022/08/19/baileys-back-with-hell-hole-00052844

(Not to say people here don’t realize Chicago has problems)

[Mr. Illini]

Bailey is again going around calling Chicago a “hellhole.” The funniest part is that he thinks people who live here agree with him. He is badly out of touch with the northern part of the state and he’s going to lose bigly for it.

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/illinois-playbook/2022/08/19/baileys-back-with-hell-hole-00052844

(Not to say people here don’t realize Chicago has problems)

I think it may be an attempt to try and swing a few suburbs his way. For all the stereotyping about the tension between whiter suburbs and inner-city minorities, these scaer tactics sometimes do work, just probably not enough to win, especially since a lot of whiter suburbs of Chicago are extremely liberal and would be turned off by this rhetoric.

The only audience for calling Chicago a “hellhole” are downstate right wingers. Talking about crime in Chicago would resonate with suburbanites, but throwing the entire city under the bus will not. People from the suburbs come into the city to do things, cheer for Chicago sports teams, and generally have a strong cultural connection to the city.

[Mr. Illini]

The Trib's endorsement may not impact many votes, but it might give an indication of how the business community (and business-oriented suburbanites) are feeling. That's usually who the e-board speaks for (hence the third party endorsement in 2016, lol).

Good get for Pritzker. Bailey is a trash candidate and suburban Republicans don't like him.