Pritzker, Bailey face off in only gubernatorial debate as midterm elections near
Incumbent JB Pritzker and former Illinois senator Darren Bailey faced off in the only gubernatorial debate on Tuesday night with midterm elections just three weeks away.
If this race sounds familiar, it's the identical matchup from 2022.
Back then, Pritzker was able to spend tens of millions to give Bailey a boost because the billionaire Democrat viewed him as an easier opponent.
More conservative and more in line with the President than others in the field, he's now been able to get two elections with Bailey.
Former head of the Illinois GOP, now with Mercury Public Affairs, Pat Brady, weighed in on the one-hour debate discussing topics from funding schools to keeping the Bears in Illinois.
With Pritzker seemingly having all the advantages, Brady shares what he believes Bailey needed to do during the debate.
"He just needed to get a video clip of Governor Pritzker doing something that was going to go viral and promote him, but I think he failed miserably in that regard. The governor came across as a governor. It was fact versus fiction. I thought the governor was very effective, and I give him credit for even doing it.
Bradey added that Pritzker didn't even need to partake in their only debate, as he is leading over Bailey.
"I think he thought that the public needed to hear the debate on the issues and they got that, but I don't think it changed anything," he said.
Pritzker, Bailey on keeping Bears in Illinois
The debate touched on a number of topics, including property taxes, mental health centers, data centers and the SAFE-T Act.
Two topics particularly close to the heart of Chicagoans came up. The first — the Chicago Bears.
During the debate, Pritzker says he believes in November he will be able to get a Bears deal done to keep them in Illinois and says he is "not going to do it at the expense of the taxpayers." Meanwhile, Bailey says a Bears move to Indiana is "already done."
However, Brady pointed out that Bailey failed to deliver on what he would do to try and keep the Bears in Illinois.
"I think the problem with the Republican Party right now, we're attacking Pritzker, but we're not talking about what we're going to do," he said.
Candidates discuss Operation Midway Blitz
Pritzker and Bailey also shared very different thoughts on Operation Midway Blitz one year ago.
Bailey said mistakes were made, but he blames Pritzker for advising people to "push back and create division," while the governor said that Bailey did not speak out against the immigration enforcement in Illinois.
Brady says the topic reminds voters of what happened one year ago.
"You have a regional candidate like Darren Bailey, I don't really think understands the terror that ICE wreaked upon the neighborhoods in the ity of Chicago. And this was his opportunity to get in front of Chicago voters and that answer is just a fundamental misunderstanding of what happened here. And I mean, that was a swing and a miss for him. He should have been able to. That's the point. He could have gotten away from Trump too but he didn't do that either. So I think it was just a huge missed opportunity for him and the governor came across as a governor and Darren came across as a guy that just wants to yell at the governor."
