THE ILLINOIZE: House Democrats using anonymous Facebook pages for ads..."We Should All Care What This Looks Like"...Griffin's big play on the Supreme Court...Flouting bar and restaurant rules...

October 13, 2020

Election Day is three weeks from today. How are you voting? Mail, early in person, or on Election Day? Drop me an email at patrick@theillinoize.com and tell me what you’re planning to do and why. We’ll keep your responses anonymous and we’ll post the best answers here Friday.

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HOUSE DEMS RUNNING SHADY ADS?

House Democrats appear to be using anonymous Facebook pages to promote Democratic candidates and to attack Republican contenders ahead of the November 3 election.

Ads being promoted from pages called “Reform Illinois” and “Wrong For Illinois” have been appearing in feeds across the suburbs and city of Chicago. The Reform Illinois page has run around $60,000 in ads paid for by Democratic Majority, the House Democratic campaign arm, and the Wrong for Illinois page has spent around $5,000.

I live in a “tier one” district, containing one of the more hotly contested races in the state and have received multiple ads as recently as yesterday, so the House Dems clearly continue.

There may be some questions about legality of the ads, as they aren’t disclosed like an independent expenditure nor does the disclosure appear in the body of the image ads.

Yesterday was a state holiday, so we didn’t hear back from the State Board of Elections, but I hope we’ll get some more answers today. Neither a House Democrat and Democratic Party of Illinois spokesperson returned multiple messages from us yesterday.

Here’s our full story.

WE SHOULD ALL CARE WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE

I posted a new opinion piece on the website yesterday about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s refusal to testify before the House Special Investigative Committee charged with looking into his connections to a Commonwealth Edison bribery scheme.

Here’s the bottom line: Madigan claims he did nothing wrong, but his refusal to testify and dispatching a top lieutenant to snuff out the hearings kicks a can of kerosene on the old phrase “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”

There certainly may be nothing to the connection between Madigan and ComEd, but, in the meantime, we should all care what it looks like.

You can find my column here. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

GRIFFIN GOES BIG AGAINST KILBRIDE

Over the weekend, we reported that Illinois’ richest person, billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, donated $2 million to the campaign working to boot Supreme Court Justice Tom Kilbride from his seat.

Kilbride needs to get 60% to vote yes on retention in 21 counties from the Quad Cities to Peoria to Joliet to the Indiana line if he hopes to keep the seat he’s had for 20 years. Opponents say Kilbride is too close to unions, trial lawyers, and House Speaker Michael Madigan. Much of the $2.2 million Kilbride has raised so far comes from unions and lawyers or law firms.

I spoke with someone with knowledge of polling data this weekend who told me Kilbride’s numbers are weak and there’s a good chance he’ll be beaten. Our source also said ties to Madigan are “an anchor bringing him down.”

I’m told Madigan’s approval in the district is 5%. (not a misprint) His disapproval number?

73%.

Yikes. That anchor would bring down the Titanic.

I received no response from a Kilbride spokesman over the weekend.

THIS WON’T HELP, ROCKFORD

The Rockford Register-Star reported Saturday that a number of Rockford-area bars and restaurants are ignoring the Governor’s rule to stop indoor service due to spiking COVID-19 cases.

By the way, that sign is posted on the door of one of those bars.

One thing that caught my eye was a quote from Nick Fosberg, the owner of Fozzy’s (wocka wocka) Bar & Grill in Loves Park, just north of Rockford.

“According to our attorney, there’s no law that says you can shut down indoor dining,” Fosberg said. “We’re not breaking any laws.”

I contacted Fosberg last night who told me his attorney is none other than Tom DeVore, who has filed about 50,000 lawsuits since the pandemic hit Illinois in March challenging the Governor’s emergency authority (which, by the way, is pretty clearly outlined in statute). Apparently, he was even in Rockford earlier this month encouraging bar and restaurant owners to ignore state rules that were only adopted after COVID-19 positivity rates in the region jumped above 8%.

I asked Fosberg (over Facebook Messenger, welcome to reporting in 2020) if he disagreed with Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Nzogi Ezike, who said last week contact tracing showed many positive COVID-19 cases had going to a bar or restaurant as a common link. Fosberg declined to comment but shared a USA Today story questioning Illinois’ release of outbreak numbers.

We reached out to the Winnebago Public Health Department yesterday if they could or would do anything about restaurants ignoring the rules, but we haven’t heard back yet.

I’M HAVING A HARD TIME COMING UP WITH PUNS INVOLVING “CASH”

Without any state constitutional officers on the ballot in 2020, we’re seeing a gigantic amount of money raised and spent this election cycle, which is often down when the Governor is not on the ballot.

Here’s more!

• Aforementioned billionaire Ken Griffin gave $200,000 to Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) in an attempt to save that seat from a tidal wave of Democratic cash. His well funded-opponent is Ironworker Harry Benton of Plainfield. We’re told Griffin may be bringing some more cash into contested House races.

• And speaking of Justice Kilbride: his committee reported around another $370,000 to counter the Griffin contribution. Only two of the contributions didn’t come from labor unions or attorneys and law firms: $50,000 from the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association PAC and $25,000 from Ullico, which most folks would know as the Union Labor Life Insurance Company.

• Rep. Joyce Mason (D-Gurnee) reported around $237,000 in contributions last night, mostly from unions. Mason is already running ads on network TV in Chicago, so it’s interesting to see why Democrats are investing heavily in this race. Republicans like their candidate, Antioch Village Trustee Dan Yost, but he’s being vastly outspent.

• All you have to do is look at Rep. Mike Marron’s (R-Fithian) 3rd quarter fundraising report to show the problem the GOP is having raising money. Marron has a credible challenger, but isn’t a main target. Yet he only raised around $13,000 from individuals and non-political committees.

• It was even more difficult for Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-East Dundee), who raised around $2,500 from individuals in the 3rd Quarter. It was rumored for much of the summer that Skillicorn would drop out of the race, but never did. House Republicans aren’t giving him any money and the Democrat in the race, Suzanne Ness, is getting Brinks trucks of cash from House Dems.

• We plan to explore more of the funding disparities in Friday’s newsletter, as reports are due at midnight Thursday night/Friday morning. I may pull an all-nighter because I love you guys.

• House Republicans are dropping another around $32,000 for mail into the southern Illinois district of Rep. Nathan Reitz (D-Steelville), who is being challenged by David Friess. This is a big pro-Trump district, yet Reitz has a big cash advantage. Furthermore, it may be the best (or only) option to pick up a seat south of I-80.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday tomorrow to former State Representative Patti Bellock, who served in the House for 20 years and also served as Director of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

Have a wonderful week. If you hear any rumblings or have any dirt from the trail, please drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com.