GOP Mudslinging in Governor's Race Ramps Up
Aurora Mayor and Republican gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin is attacking fellow Republican candidates Sen. Darren Bailey and Jesse Sullivan. It’s been a sign of a ramped up series of attacks in the race to challenge Gov. JB Pritzker in the fall.
A new mailer from the campaign of Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin takes political attacks to a nearly comical level. The direct mail piece shows Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) in a poorly photo-shopped “I ❤️ Biden” and venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan in an equally goofy photoshop wearing an “I ❤️ Obama” t-shirt.
It can be argued Bailey’s 2008 vote in the Democratic primary for President is a campaign issue, while Sullivan’s “support” of Obama claim is a little more dubious. The humor in the allegation made by Irvin’s crew is that Irvin has voted in five of the past six Democratic primaries.
Negative campaigning isn’t a new concept in Republican primaries. Then-Rep. Jeanne Ives attacked incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner in the 2018 primary. In 2014, Rauner’s camp made attacks at then-Sens. Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady and then-Treasurer Dan Rutherford. In 2010, businessman Andy McKenna aired TV ads attacking Dillard and former Attorney General Jim Ryan.
For the most part, those attacks were at least based in reality. In 2022, it seems to some as if campaigns believe they can say whatever they want without any incentive to be held accountable.
“It’s as if facts don’t matter anymore,” said one longtime GOP consultant. “Bailey says whatever he wants and the Irvin people are putting blatant falsehoods on TV and in mail. But they don’t care if it’s true or not because they [the Irvin campaign] has the money and the other guys don’t.”
Irvin has outspent the other candidates in the race, though, sources tell us polling numbers show Irvin, Bailey, and Sullivan in a a dogfight, depending on the source of the poll. Bailey has received millions in recent weeks from billionaire businessman Richard Uihlein. Uihlein is also funding a third party PAC run by talk radio host Dan Proft, which is running attacks against Irvin.
“Pritzker is immensely beatable, but we’re watching these guys beat each other bloody,” said a former GOP lawmaker, who asked not to be identified by name. “Even if someone conservative like Bailey or moderate like Irvin wins, they may be fatally flawed for November.”
We’re told all candidates but Irvin appeared at a candidate forum in Tazewell County last night and there was no sniping between the candidates. Irvin has not appeared in a joint setting with other GOP candidates yet.
Messages to the Irvin and Bailey campaigns were not returned Monday. Andrew Welhouse, a spokesman for the Sullivan campaign, said his outsider credentials are being attacked.
“Jesse Sullivan is what these insiders and politicians fear the most, the only candidate who doesn't owe anything to anybody, who can win both the primary and the general election,” Welhouse said. “We're focused on delivering real solutions to voters who are facing crippling taxes, sky high crime, and the effects of generational corruption in Illinois. That's why we're seeing so much momentum with the voters, they're sick of the insider corruption and the same old politics.”
It doesn’t appear as if campaigns will tone down their rhetoric in the remaining nine weeks until the primary election.