Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is on a mission. He wants to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate, just in case the current president, Joe Biden, is unable or unwilling to run. Pritzker has been traveling this summer, going to key states to test the waters and show himself to Democratic voters, offering himself as a viable alternative.
Given the polling numbers for Vice President Harris, the field is virtually wide open if Biden decides not to run.
With a family fortune estimated at $15 billion, the heir to the Hyatt hotel chain isn’t worried about finding money to run for president. But in what is sure to be a crowded field of Democrats, Pritzker is going to have to up his game if he expects to be seen as a credible candidate.
In this, he has much in common with the other Democratic gubernatorial candidate running for president, California’s Gavin Newsom. Neither man would dare run on his record because of their low approval ratings in their own states.
In 2020, Illinoisans rejected Pritzker’s cornerstone policy initiative, an attempt to change the state’s flat income tax to a progressive one. In 2021, Californians banded together and collected enough signatures to prompt a recall election against Newsom.
But these two governors think they have what it takes to be President when a growing swath of their constituents reject their approach?
Gov. Pritzker’s approach appears to avoid running on his record. His speech to Florida Democrats focused on partisan politics and insults rather than tangible solutions to improve the lives of all Americans.
Neither man wants to talk about prices or inflation. And neither governor mentions the epidemic of violent crime in their states’ major cities.
Pritzker tried to skirt any blame for the fear families feel because of the crime and lawlessness in Chicago. He pivoted to his plan to attack white nationalism and get assault weapons off the streets. Here at home, Pritzker and Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx championed the anything but “SAFE-T Act” that has demoralized police departments and emboldened criminals.
Just in the last couple of months, a Chicago Police officer was shot while conducting a traffic stop, an officer ambushed by gunfire responding to a domestic call, and an off-duty officer paralyzed from the waist down trying to de-escalate a fight. They are part of the group of 27 officers who have been shot at this year.
Three officers have also tragically taken their own lives and died by suicide. Yet, unfortunately, these brave officers who do their best to protect our communities aren’t priorities in Pritzker’s public safety plans.
Illinois has the second-highest property taxes in the nation, school closures in some districts for almost two years, and at least $2 billion in COVID unemployment funds lost to fraudsters. There is an underreported scandal in the state’s children and family services agency, DCFS, which has prompted 12 contempt of court orders this year for failing to find appropriate placements for children in DCFS care. The last contempt citation involved a 15-year-old girl whom DCFS has kept detained in a locked psychiatric hospital where she has been ready for discharge since January 14, 2022 — more than 170 days longer than necessary.
Eight children have died in DCSF care in the last eight months. And Pritzker wants to run for president?
It’s not much of a record to run on, and Pritzker knows it. His policies have also fed a massive exodus from the state. In the last year, Illinois lost the second-most number of people in the country, with only New York losing more.
With that kind of dubious record, Pritzker would be better off staying at home.
