The Pritzker Re-Elect Started Wednesday
Governor JB Pritzker campaigning in 2018. His 2021 budget address sure looked like the launch of his 2022 re-election campaign.
OPINION
Governor JB Pritzker’s live-to-tape combined State of the State and budget address wasn’t so much a budget speech. I mean, sure, he gave details about a budget proposal that the legislature will probably ignore as the Appropriations Committees ramp up (that’s not a Pritzker thing, that’s an every Governor thing).
What Wednesday’s speech attempted to do was define his eventual Republican opponent as the boogeyman of state government who, like Bruce Rauner, is to blame for all of the state’s ills. It was his gubernatorial announcement speech, in essence. It was pre-produced (filmed Tuesday at the Orr Building at the Illinois State Fairgrounds) with a bunch of b-roll wedged in to make it look like a campaign rollout video.
First of all, the setting of the speech was intentional. The Orr Building was field hospital during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1918 and 1919. But, the Governor gave a speech in an empty room with no patients and no vaccine. Isn’t that the most evocative image to best explain the administration’s vaccine rollout?
But, we saw the playbook for the Governor’s 2022 campaign starting to peek through in that speech.
Step 1: Blame everyone else.
Pritzker blamed the Trump administration for the slow vaccine rollout, Bruce Rauner for the issues at IDES, the Illinois republicans in Congress (who are in the minority) for not getting enough federal money for a bailout, Republican “millionaires” for convincing Joe Biden voters to oppose Pritzker’s graduated income tax, and House and Senate Republicans in Springfield for, well, just about everything else. He even called the superminority party “carnival barkers,” as if they have any influence on spending or policy in the first place. The only time the Governor has said “the buck stops with me” was in a press conference related to the COVID-19 outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans’ Home. That said, the administration has denied all of my FOIA requests for documents related to the response.
Step 2: Make businesses the bad guys
The Governor’s budget takes aim at business by piling on tax increases considered “corporate loopholes.” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) took a big swing at Pritzker for the corporate loophole designation for what Republicans call “incentives” that create jobs. He called “loopholes” the way rich people stash cash offshore in the Cayman Islands or rip out toilets to save on their property taxes at their extra mansion. Both were hits on Pritzker in 2018.
Some of Pritzker’s proposals make sense, to be fair. But a $30 million Corporate Franchise Tax, which is basically a $30 dollar check that every franchisee (think McDonald’s owners) sends to the Secretary of State is a giant paperwork pain in the rear and only nets $30 million (which is a drop in the bucket.) He also guts the private school scholarship program he reportedly promised Republicans he wouldn’t haul cut. Also, the Governor’s $500 million in federal CARES Act tax credits that failed in the House during veto session have magically disappeared. They aren’t in the budget and there’s no word on if they plan to move the bill in 2021.
Step 3: Start the populist rhetoric
Clearly, the Governor thinks the frustrations of suburban women who voted for him in 2018 and were protesting the cancellation of high school football games last fall believes he can lure those voters back with big promises. He’ll talk about bigger funding for education, investing in health care, he’ll keep talking about how great the vaccine rollout is going (even though the state is nowhere close to ready to expand 1B). Part of that will be making Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), who announces for Governor Monday, the face of the GOP. He wants the bible thumpin’, anti-maskin, street preachin’ guy to be a big turnoff to suburban voters.
The Governor has a microphone and platform to say whatever he wants nearly unchecked to media all over the state. If the media isn’t going to do its job pushing the administration for answers (I couldn’t tell you the last time the Governor’s spokesperson returned any of my e-mails), the GOP needs to find a clear, credible, suburban friendly spokesman (and gubernatorial candidate) who can start to pitch a clear message to the state.
Or else, Pritzker may have already defined them.
