'Most Important' Governor's Race Heats Up At Illinois State Fair

SPRINGFIELD, IL — The Illinois election season unofficially got underway this week ahead of the final weekend of the Illinois State Fair. Thousands of visitors were on hand at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield for Governor's Day on Wednesday and Democrats Day on Thursday before heavy nighttime rains forced the cancellation of a Friday concert. Incumbent Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and challenger billionaire J.B. Pritzker both emphasized the importance of the November election.

“It’s one of the most important elections in Illinois history, certainly the most important in my lifetime,” Rauner said at a Governor's Day rally, according to the State Journal-Register. “Everything’s on the line.”

Republicans have portrayed Pritzker as a political novice who would be a pawn of corrupt Democratic Party leadership, warning of increased taxes, job losses and continued corruption. Rauner suggested Democratic Party leader Mike Madigan "should be prosecuted" because he "may well have committed crimes."

A day later, Pritzker, too, emphasized the importance of the election while speaking at a Springfield hotel at a brunch hosted by party leaders.

“2018 is the most important election of our lifetimes because everything we care about is under siege,” Pritzker said, the Journal-Register reported. He promised to prove pundits wrong by winning downstate counties that usually vote Republican and encouraged activists to push for votes in every corner of the state.

“Over the next 80 days, we have to work our hearts out getting every Democrat out to the polls and inviting independents and Republicans to join us in the battle to retake our state from an unhinged governor and his pals in the White House," Pritzker said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Joe Biden had been due to appear as a keynote speaker for the Democrats but was forced to cancel due to illness, according to the Illinois Democratic County Chairs' Association. His substitute was South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a past candidate for the chair of the Democratic National Committee who has generated attention from party leaders as a potential candidate in a future national election.

Buttigieg questioned Rauner's business acumen, which had been a selling point of the campaign of the freshman governor and private equity investors political debut when he won election four years ago with a largely self-funded campaign.

Now Pritzker, the billionaire heir to the Hyatt fortune and a major party fundraiser for decades, is making a similar, if far more expensive, move. He said the governor had been given lemons.

“This governor was handed lemons, and he took those lemons and miraculously turned them into a dumpster fire," Buttigieg said, according to the Associated Press.

Rauner's campaign chartered a small plane outside the event displaying a banner that read "Pritzker [Loves] Madigan," featuring a heart symbol, the Tribune reported.

Erika Harold, the Republican running for attorney general, criticized Democratic nominee Sen. Kwame Raoul for not agreeing to debate her. The Champaign attorney and 2003 Miss America winner used the proceeds from her pageant victories to help pay her way through Harvard Law School, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. This week she claimed Raoul was afraid to appear on stage with her in debates or any joint forum appearances.

"Our state deserves an attorney general who is tough enough to stand on any stage, with any person, even if that person is just a mere Miss America," Harold said in her Governors day speech Wednesday, according to Capitol Fax.

However, a spokesperson for Raoul's campaign told Patch Harold had misrepresented ongoing negotiations about debates and multiple joint appearances had already been confirmed.

On Thursday, Raoul said the election for attorney general was more important than ever because of the policies of the Trump administration, the State-Journal Register reported.

“My opponent says that filing suits against the Trump administration is purely political, maintaining access to life saving health care is not political, it’s a duty,” he said, according to WGN. Raoul went on to refuse to answer any questions concerning state party chair Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, the Sun-Times reported.

Speaking to about 3,000 attendees at the Thursday morning brunch, Madigan had said whichever party was more united would come out on top in November.

“Look around the room," he said, according to the Sun-Times. "We are different but we are Democrats. And if we stay together, we will win the general election. Every Democrat is going to be elected.”