PALATINE – In his bid for governor, state Senator Darren Bailey, his wife Cindy and his running mate for lieutenant governor Stephanie Trussell have been traveling throughout the state on their second bus tour.
At their stop in Palatine, IL Thursday, former state Representative Jeanne Ives endorsed Senator Bailey – and the announcement drew out some Chicago area media, including CNN Headlines.
Senator Bailey sent a message to the 60 Republican leadership that went against traditional primary protocol courtesy and made their choice in the IL GOP gubernatorial known by endorsing Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.
“Your day is coming,” Bailey said to the Irvin endorsers.
Like the tactics they used in 2018 during the Rauner campaign, there are reports that the Irvin campaign consultants promised donations to organizations in exchange for endorsements. Thus far, no inside whistleblowers have stepped up to publicly confirm such a scheme is being used once again within those 60 Republican leadership ranks.
Irvin's voting record shows he has voted in the Democrat primary seven times and only once – in the 2018 Rauner/Ives primary battle – did Irvin pull a Republican ballot.
When asked what he would say if given the chance to those 60 Republican that placed their thumbs on the 2022 ILGOP primary scales, Bailey was adamant.
“The people who have endorsed Irvin, I'm going to say ‘Your day is coming’ because I'm going to stand relentlessly. I'm going to call you out and I'm going to stand up and educate the people.
“The only way they're going to get their due reward is if we need the people stand up and make sure that we vote, that our friends and our family are registered to vote, and we stand up and we vote these people out of office.”
During the short question-answer segment in Palatine with media, the CNN reporter asked Bailey his thoughts about Speaker Madigan’s indictment.
Bailey said “God bless the FBI and the many men and women who have been working diligently to bring this down. Corruption has got to be exposed, as I said again, as governor and putting people in position in as agency heads, guys, I will not tolerate corruption. Some of the some of the tax votes, even in our own party, I stood up and I called them out. This nonsense has got to stop.”
What about the current speaker, Chris Welch, the CNN reporter followed up.
“It's sad that the system won't stand up and hold itself accountable,” Bailey said. “We were three weeks without a legislative Inspector General. And guess what? When one was appointed two weeks ago there were no inquiries. Nothing was done. A person was picked. I'm sure the person is a good person, but there were no interviews. The process was fast paced to the point of we were forced to vote for that person. Thank goodness the Republican Party stood up and said ‘No,’ because this isn't right.
Bailey said he finds it shameful that “Speaker Welch and President Harmon have not stood up to do their due diligence and call out some of the corruption that we've seen and witnessed.”
An audio of the question-answer period is available HERE: Download The American Legion 3
