By Illinois Review
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski is pressing ahead with a six-day campaign swing through southern Illinois – the very region Darren Bailey calls home – even as Bailey prepares to bury four members of his family following Wednesday evening’s devastating helicopter crash in Montana.
The “Southern Illinois Tour,” scheduled for November 2 through 7, includes stops in counties and towns that have long served as Bailey’s political stronghold. For many conservatives, the timing could not be more jarring. Bailey and his wife, Cindy, are grieving the deaths of their son Zachary, daughter-in-law Kelsey, and two young grandchildren, Vada Rose (12) and Samuel (7). Their ten-year-old son, Finn, survived only because he was not on the flight.
Reports indicate funeral services for the Bailey family will take place November 2 and 3 – in southern Illinois – just as Dabrowski’s campaign events begin in the same region. To many, the timing feels unthinkable. As the Bailey family gathers to mourn, Dabrowski’s team plans to crisscross those same communities with rallies and campaign stops.
While Bailey’s campaign has understandably gone quiet, Dabrowski’s operation is accelerating – and doing so in Bailey’s own backyard. The contrast is stark. What should be a time of unity and prayer within the Republican Party has instead become a moment of calculation and ambition.
Even some Republican insiders sympathetic to Dabrowski privately admit the optics are troubling, saying the idea of another candidate barnstorming the region right now feels wrong.
There is also historical precedent for restraint in moments like this – moments when politics pauses to make room for decency. In 2004, both President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry suspended campaign activities following the death of President Ronald Reagan.
Out of respect for the Reagan family, both men canceled rallies and pulled campaign ads off the air. Their actions reflected something rare in modern politics: basic human respect. It was a bipartisan acknowledgment that there are times when the nation – or even a community – must stop campaigning and simply stand together.
By contrast, Dabrowski’s decision to campaign through southern Illinois while funerals are taking place nearby has raised serious questions about his judgment and character. His campaign is already under fire for ties to a smear effort targeting Bailey – a leak scandal involving adviser Jeanne Ives and Naples-based Chicago radio host Dan Proft. Both have been accused of weaponizing media networks to damage Bailey politically. Dabrowski, notably, is a frequent guest on Proft’s radio show.
Just last week, Ives referred to Bailey’s campaign as a “clown show.” And on the very day tragedy struck, Proft was on air attacking Bailey and his 2022 campaign as “incompetent.”
“The only competent support that Bailey received in 2022 the entire cycle was from me and my team,” Proft told his listeners – a group reportedly numbering just fourteen viewers on Facebook. “Bailey’s campaign was a complete catastrophe… he had no message discipline… a bunch of goofballs.”
Yet while Proft now trashes the very campaign that elevated his profile, he had no issue cashing the checks that came with it. Records show he paid himself handsomely from his People Who Play By The Rules PAC, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in “consulting” and “media” fees funded by billionaire Richard Uihlein.
He made a fortune off the very movement he now discredits. Proft had no problem profiting from the campaign’s donors when it benefited him. Only now, after enriching himself, does he turn his fire on the people and campaign that made him rich.
Southern Illinois remains the moral heart of the state’s conservative movement – a place where faith, family, and community still come first. And right now, that community – and the country – are grieving.
