Bailey Tries to Change the Narrative to Crime
GOP gubernatorial nominee Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) listens to a media question during a news conference Tuesday in Chicago.
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In a hastily called news conference Tuesday afternoon, GOP nominee for governor Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) took aim at Governor JB Pritzker over crime in Chicago, but also revealed he has a downtown Chicago apartment in the city he has repeatedly called a “hellhole.”
Bailey told Jim Leach on WMAY in Springfield last night he and his wife had been renting an apartment in North Aurora in suburban Chicago, but began renting an apartment in Chicago’s John Hancock building last month.
Why move to the city you continually insult?
“As I’ve said from day one, I want to immerse myself in the culture,” he said. “You can’t deny there’s problems here. And if we keep denying there’s problems, the problems will only get worse.”
A Republican political consultant joked Tuesday night the only culture he’s immersing himself in is “tourists at the American Girl store” across the street from the Hancock building.
At least one Chicago TV station has pulled an outside PAC’s anti-Pritzker crime ad featuring a woman attacked in the Lakeview neighborhood citing a “number of complaints.” Chicago reporters tried to get Bailey to disavow the ads yesterday, but he instead said they’re raising an important issue.
“Whatever we need to do to raise awareness and wake people up to understand the situation that’s going on, because it’s real,” Bailey told a reporter. “If they are making [people aware of] crime, I think that’s a good thing.”
Bailey also refused to take a position on a national abortion ban proposed in Washington or if he would seek a similar track in Springfield.
“Nothing is going to change anytime soon,” Bailey repeated multiple times.