Billionaire Governor Looks To Fend Off Downstate Farmer's Longshot Bid: IL Election 2022

CHICAGO — A Southern Illinois farmer's campaign to deny a billionaire incumbent a second term in the governor's mansion comes to an end Tuesday, as voters head to the polls to choose between Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Chicago Democrat, State Sen. Darren Bailey, a Xenia Republican, and Marion Libertarian Scott Schulter.

Four years ago, Pritzker defeated former Gov. Bruce Rauner by a historic margin. And pre-election polling indicates the incumbent still has the support of about half the electorate, with one forecast giving Bailey less than a 1 percent chance of unseating him. But Bailey's backers have suggested he may have closed the gap to within a few points.

Pritzker's campaign has sought to celebrate his first term in elected office while portraying his opponent as a "Trump extremist" who would imperial reproductive rights.

"After years of mismanagement, I've balanced four budgets in a row, paid off all the state's overdue bills, gotten six credit upgrades, and that's allowed me to provide $1.8 billion in gas, grocery and income tax relief for working families," Pritzker said at the candidates' final debate, citing laws he has signed that increase the state's minimum wage and make abortion a fundamental right in Illinois.

"And I did all that while fighting a deadly global pandemic, saving lives and livelihoods," the governor said.

But Bailey suggested Pritzker, thanks to the Democratic supermajority in both chambers, could have passed any legislation he wanted through Springfield, blaming the incumbent for inflation and tax increases.

"Friends, life is worse today than it's ever been in Illinois," Bailey said at the debate. "Nothing, nothing has gotten better in the past four years, and the only way that we change it is create change. Fire J.B. Pritzker and elect something different."

Emphasizing threats to public safety and middle class pocketbooks, Bailey has accused Pritzker of running a divisive campaign.

"Unfortunately, J.B. Pritzker during his four years in office has created so much division and hate in this state, with racial ideas and ideology. It has to end. I'm running for governor to bring unity all across this state, and only until we start focusing on the issues that unite us, that being out-of-control crime, high taxes and better education," Bailey said. "Those are why people are leaving the state. Those are why business refuses to come here."

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In the final days before Election Day, the governor has rolled out television advertisements featuring former President Barack Obama and rallied with President Joe Biden on Saturday. Previous ads have sought to define Bailey as too extreme for Illinois voters.

Though former President Donald Trump endorsed Bailey ahead of the June primary, he has not campaigned with him ahead of November. However, Bailey did appear at a Williamson County Republican Party event last month at which Donald Trump Jr. was the keynote speaker.

Bailey has been a prominent antagonist of the governor since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, taking the Pritzker administration to court over the first extension of his COVID-19 stay-at-home order. A state representative at the time, Bailey won a restraining order blocking the state from enforcing the order on him.

The governor mostly prevailed in subsequent court challenges of his executive actions until the Illinois Supreme Court declined to overturn a judge's decision to toss out his statewide school mask mandate earlier this year. Earlier this month, Pritzker issued his 35th disaster declaration and an executive order extending his COVID-19 emergency powers through Nov. 12.

Pritzker, heir to the Hyatt fortune, has spent more than $150 million of his own money on his reelection bid. At the same time, the governor has provided financial support to Democratic organizations around the state, supplanting one of the roles formerly played by campaign committees controlled by indicted former Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan.

In addition to contributions from his official committee, Pritzker also recently using a trust fund to skirt campaign finance limits and donate a $1 million to his party's nominees for a pair of open Illinois Supreme Court seats.

Bailey's bid for the Republican Party nomination was also boosted by Pritzker's fortune, with the governor, through the Democratic Governors Association, financing attack ads against Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin — Bailey's better-financed primary election opponent who was widely perceived as a greater threat to the governor's reelection chances.

TV spots claiming Bailey is "too conservative" did not hinder his chances in the GOP primary, and he cruised to victory with more than 57 percent of the vote.

Bailey's campaign had less than $800,000 in the bank heading into the start of October, and has collected about $3.6 million since then, according to campaign finance disclosures.

He has also received the support of the independence political action committee People Who Play By The Rules, which is led by Florida-based radio host Dan Proft and financed by billionaire Lake Forest shipping magnate Richard Uihlein, who has contributed $42 million to the PAC. The same financial network is linked to the distribution of political mailers designed to appear like newspapers.

The PAC's advertisements have attacked Pritzker on issues of crime, taxes and racial equity. The group's latest ads contain excerpts of the FBI wiretaps of former Gov. Rob Blagojevich and the niece of a Chicago police officer whose convicted killer was paroled by the Pritzker-appointed Prisoner Review Board.

The candidates have clashed over the ads during their debates. In the second and final debate last month in Chicago, Pritzker pressed Bailey to denounce Proft's PAC.

"I have absolutely no say over that, that's a PAC, any collaboration I have over that is actually illegal," Bailey said.

"Will you denounce it?" Pritzker said.

"So they do what they want to do," Bailey replied. "And I have absolutely no — I do want to issue a quick rebuttal to what Gov. Pritzker's last statement was—"

"Will you denounce it?" Pritzker repeated.

"The simple fact that Joe Biden declared an end to the emergency orders, the emergency proclamation that the pandemic — and I want to make sure maybe you missed that," Bailey said. "Because right now it's looking like your emergency orders are going to last longer than the Afghan War, and governor —"

"He did not remove the emergency order from the country," Pritzker said. "That's just false."

While President Biden did say that "the pandemic is over" in a "60 Minutes" interview in September, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra last month extended the federal declaration of a public health emergency for an additional 90 days.

Scott Schluter, an Iraq War veteran, diesel technician and longtime chair of the Southern Illinois Libertarian Party, will also appear on the ballot.

"We've got to have a governor that is willing to stand up to the Chicago crime syndicate known as the General Assembly," Schluter said in a campaign video. He advocates lowering taxes, reducing government spending and regulations, eliminating gun licenses and legalizing all drugs.

Registered voters can look up their polling place with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Same-day registration is available at specified early vote centers.