IL-GOV 2022 megathread

[Unelectable Bystander]

Bumping this now based on the recent events in the state. Almost every suburban school district is going masks optional yet Pritzker is threatening to sue and have the ruling overturned. The township I live in is one of the few districts still mandating masks, and now there’s football players tweeting at the superintendent that they won’t be complying. This is at least bizarre fiasco and at most something that can galvanize the covid backlash vote.

[Unelectable Bystander]

Does anybody have someone they’re high on in the primaries and why?

[Unelectable Bystander]

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.

Hard disagree on this one. Most suburbanites I know would either agree with this description or at least understand where he’s coming from, even those of us who love the city. It’s widely believed that it’s being terribly mismanaged.

Now using that kind of language isn’t the most productive thing because it reflects poorly on him, but it will always be helpful to keep the conversation strictly on crime, covid lockdowns, and job creation (or the loss of several Fortune 500 companies).

[Unelectable Bystander]

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.

Hard disagree on this one. Most suburbanites I know would either agree with this description or at least understand where he’s coming from, even those of us who love the city. It’s widely believed that it’s being terribly mismanaged.

Now using that kind of language isn’t the most productive thing because it reflects poorly on him, but it will always be helpful to keep the conversation strictly on crime, covid lockdowns, and job creation (or the loss of several Fortune 500 companies).

A citizen talking about a city in their state is one thing, but an elected official talking that way about a city they want to *represent* is a whole different thing and pretty unbecoming of an elected official. The double standard continues - Dems always have to treat the rural areas with kid gloves and "respect" them, but GOP can say whatever they want about the cities.

I very much agree with you that it’s unbecoming and don’t approve of him saying that. My comments were strictly about the electoral impact being a nothing burger, something that at least gets the conversation moving towards a favorable issue and at most comes off as “honest” or “authentic” (not unlike Beto using swear words at live events)