[MUSIC] >> Welcome to CapitolView on Suzhou.

I'm Brian Sapp.

Governor Pritzker continues his time in the national spotlight, from supporting the Texas Democratic legislators to questions about his running for president and the candidates to continue to kick off their campaigns and gather signatures on the ballot.

However, few Republicans have made that step into statewide offices.

We'll talk about that.

And the state fair is underway this week.

Both Democrats and Republicans have their own days to make their pitch to fairgoers.

We'll talk about these stories with our guests this week.

Dan Petrella.

He's a reporter with the Chicago Tribune.

And Jason Piecha.

He's the director of public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois, Springfield.

Gentlemen, welcome to the program.

>> Good to be here.

>> Thanks for having us.

>> Yeah.

Let's start with Texas.

It's national.

Um, they spent a week or two here in the state.

Um, and last week we saw a couple of bomb threats.

Lots of other politicians supporting them.

The governor, even I saw the US senators, Durbin and Duckworth getting in on this.

Dan, I saw you had an article last week Friday on this, and you've been following that.

Where are things now?

>> Yeah, it's a very fluid situation as we're sitting here on on Wednesday morning recording this.

Um, so rolling back to last Friday, um, uh, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton enlisted the help of Illinois state Senator Jim Tracy, uh, from the Quincy area to file a request here in Illinois court in in Adams County, uh, that Illinois enforced the civil warrant that the House speaker down there in Texas had had issued to bring the Democrats back.

Um, but since then, Governor Greg Abbott has said that he's going to end the current special session, or lawmakers have said they're going to end their current special session on Friday.

Um, Greg Abbott, has the governor of Texas has said he will continue to call more special sessions to try to deal with this redistricting issue?

Uh, the question now is whether, uh, the Democrats who have been hiding out here in Illinois and in some other states like New York and California, head back home.

Uh, and, you know, try to declare victory by, um, you know, putting an end to this first special session or whether they, they, um, hold fast and stay away.

And, um, you know, try to continue fending off this effort to, to redraw the lines, you know, ahead of next year's election to try to tip the balance in Congress by by adding 4 or 5 more Republican seats in the Texas congressional delegation.

So, um, it's been, uh, very busy and active and, uh, you know, even today here Wednesday in Chicago, uh, Texas, Democrats have two different events, one with Planned Parenthood of Illinois and another with some Indiana Democrats who are coming over to sort of rally with them.

So, um, they're definitely, uh, doing their best to keep this in the spotlight as they continue to try to fight off this this rare mid-decade redistricting effort by the Republicans there in Texas.

>> Um, Jason, when we look at this, have they do you feel like they've been making an impact, or is it just an echo chamber of both sides, or just hearing what they want to hear out of this?

>> Yeah.

It's interesting.

I, I stopped making predictions on what the Illinois legislature will do.

Um, and maybe I should extend that to what the Texas Legislature will do.

Uh, but, you know, there is a large feeling that, uh, you know, this is largely symbolic, largely performative in a way to, uh, you know, just call attention to what Texas is trying to do and what the Trump administration is trying to do to, to, you know, protect the Republican majority in the US House during the midterm elections.

Um, you know, again, I don't want to predict what Texas is going to do, to do.

But, you know, it seems inevitable if the governor there insists on calling a new special session every month, um, that eventually those Democrats are going to have to go back and and do their jobs.

And, uh, you know, that makes me think it might be inevitable that that this redistricting will happen, um, which, you know, it'll be everyone will be outraged about it, the people who are opposed to this.

But, uh, but it'll happen.

>> Um, I was I saw, uh, is it this week or next week?

Um, Ray LaHood and then, um, the daily, uh, William Daily are supposed to be talking about a commission, a commission here.

Um, one of the things I think is everybody's talking about congressional districts and gerrymandering.

I don't know how many times I've heard this story about where gerrymandering came from.

Um, Dan, do you think that where do we go is, you know, if they do do this in Texas, are we going to, you know, go scorched earth here?

And what do you think is going to happen?

>> There's certainly the possibility I think the most likely outcome is, um, you know, California has said that they will take an attempt, the Democrats there to suspend their independent redistricting process for a couple election cycles to combat what's going on in Texas.

New York has also talked about it a little harder to do here in Illinois.

Um, they've really wrung out just about every Democratic seat that they can get out of the map.

With the 14 to 3 split.

We have now a heavily gerrymandered map in and of itself.

Um, you know, maybe they could squeeze one more out, but they might weaken the position of some of those, um, you know, exurban and downstate Democrats in their districts, if they have to try and carve off some Democrats in the outer suburbs or, you know, Rockford area or wherever to strengthen, uh, 15th Democratic seat here in Illinois.

But, uh, you know, this this thing that you mentioned, Bill Daley, the former commerce secretary and chief of staff and, um, brother to Mayor Richard Daley, son of Richard J. Daley.

Uh, yeah.

And Ray LaHood, the former congressman, um, from Peoria area, launching a new effort to try and get an independent redistricting amendment on the ballot.

This is, uh, as a voter driven initiative has had, um, sort of, uh, doomed fate in several past attempts.

Um, and so they would really have to try and tailor it in a way that it could survive a legal challenge to the Supreme Court has thrown out previous attempts to do this, I think most recently was in, um, 2016.

Uh, so, you know, maybe they've learned from that.

But, um, the message from Democrats across the country has been, we like the idea of independent redistricting.

Um, you know, California Governor Gavin Newsom even said on Friday when they had a news conference with some of the Texas Democrats out there.

We believe in this.

We're not abandoning it.

But, um, you know, this is a shortage of time.

It calls for extraordinary measures.

And Democrats really want to see this happen statewide so that it's not, um, you know, unilateral disarmament on their part, um, where Democratic led states go to independent redistricting and Republican states continue to, to gerrymander and squeeze every seat they seed they possibly can out of out of their states and maintain the majority in Congress.

So, um, we'll see what the proposal that the folks here in Illinois put together looks like.

Um, you know, Governor Pritzker has tried to kind of walk that fine line after a major flip flop on that issue when he first ran for office.

So, uh, I don't think it's something that we're going to see come out of the legislature.

Be interesting to see if, um, you know, a citizen led initiative can find a way to thread that needle to actually get it on the ballot this time.

>> Okay.

I, I've been reading a bit about that, and they hope that they can at least get started.

And it it's in the consciousness talking about the governor Jason he's been in the been keep drawing into the front of the camera there this weekend.

He was on Meet the Press last week.

Stephen Colbert um, what does this say about his national aspirations and still running for governor here?

>> Sure.

I mean, obviously, uh, his His national profile continues to grow.

He was on Meet the Press over the weekend where, you know, the reporters here in Chicago and Springfield, elsewhere in Illinois have been asking him for literally years, uh, what his plans for a presidential run, another governor run is for or what they are.

And when we come to the presidential question, you'd always, uh, you know, deflect, avoid the best he could.

Um, but on Meet the Press the other day, uh, you know, he actually mentioned he's he won't rule it out.

The famous saying of he won't rule it out.

He can't say definitely no to it.

Um, and that, you know, maybe the most that he's opened the door to that possibility to thus far, um, and, you know, all of his other actions, uh, back that up that he's, he's he's looking very seriously at a, at a national run, all the big national TV appearances, as you mentioned, um, you know, having the Texas Democrats come to Illinois and, you know, become part of that national story as well.

Um, so all signs are pointing to to this.

Um, but, you know, we'll see what happens.

>> Um, Dan, as you know, covering the governor, I've noticed new to, you know, Illinois politics here for the last seven months.

He seems to keep finding a way to either.

I don't know if he draws himself into these conversations or he just gets placed there.

Um, what do you think?

Do you have an observation?

>> I believe it's a very concerted effort on the part of a part of the governor and his team.

Um, they have courted this national media attention for, for several years now, as Jason has mentioned.

Um, they've really ramped it up in the past 6 or 7 months since President Trump took office again.

But, you know, going back even a couple of years, there were profiles in The New Yorker and The New York Times and, um, you know, I think, uh, maybe Vanity Fair did a big one during the DNC last year.

And, um, you know, he was, uh, he's done Jimmy Kimmel and he made appearances on The Daily Show and another appearance on, uh, Colbert during the convention last year.

So he definitely is, um, you know, laying the groundwork, courting that national attention, trying to position himself as a voice, um, in the party, uh, nationally, not just here in Illinois.

You know, he he made that speech earlier this year to, um, Democrats in New Hampshire, which really caught a lot of attention nationally.

Um, I don't think it's coincidence that there happened to be New York Times reporters there covering that covering that speech.

Um, so it definitely, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean he's certainly going to run, but it definitely, um, is evidence that they've been laying the groundwork for a couple of years now.

Also haven't mentioned yet his Think Big America, his dark money group that has gotten involved in, uh, abortion ballot measures and some, um, you know, some actual elections in, in other states, too, over the past couple of years.

So, um, definitely, you know, trying to make himself a voice of the the strong anti-Trump wing of the party is there?

>> Um, Jason, is there a flip side to this?

He still has to run for governor.

Is this a distraction yet?

Um, is this I. I haven't seen it.

I still see all the press releases him with all his state events.

Has this become a distraction, um, of running for governor again for his third term?

>> Uh, it could become one.

And I think maybe we're going to talk about it, but, uh, you know, the Illinois Policy Institute put out a poll recently, you know, measuring his job approval rating.

Um, and for the first time, uh, very small majority, he's underwater for, for the first time, uh, in the polls that this group has done, uh, given this is a sort of a conservative leaning organization that commissioned the poll.

Um, so and, you know, it makes me think, you know, I'm getting ready for school to start here, where I'm going to have a bunch of new journalists coming to Springfield to learn about how to cover politics, and I do a little unit on how to cover polls.

Um, and it's important to remember this is just one poll, uh, in one snapshot of time.

And I think the margin of error of this poll was 3.5%, which, you know, could make the result flip the other way as well.

Uh, you know, and the best way to determine the, the validity of a poll is to keep doing more polls to see how they change.

But, I mean, on the day that this poll was taken, you know, a good sample size, 750 people or so likely voters, um, you know, they voted the way they did.

It might be right after they saw Pritzker talking about national issues, talking about Trump on a national TV show.

And some of them are thinking, you know, what about Illinois?

We have big problems here as well.

Maybe you should, uh, you know, concentrate on that, too.

The governor says he is.

And every decision he makes, he, you know, as he mentioned on Meet the Press, you know, whatever decision he makes with running for whatever, will have Illinois residents at the forefront.

Uh, but we'll see where that goes.

>> Okay.

That brings us to statewide candidates.

There's been plenty of movement I've seen.

Keep getting the press releases, lots of reports about the all the shuffling happening statewide.

But you don't see a lot of you see a lot of that from the Democrats, but not from the Republicans.

Um, where do we stand?

Um, I think we've had a couple of gentlemen announce loosely that they're running for governor and not many much talk about the Senate.

>> Yeah.

That's right.

It's been it's been very quiet.

Even you know, now that supporters are supposed to be out on the street collecting petition signatures to get folks on the ballot, uh, next spring for the primaries.

Um, they've got until the beginning of November to get those filed.

But, um, the latest news is, uh, you know, Don Treacy, the former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, is, uh, going to be entering the race for the US Senate.

Um, the seat currently held by by Dick Durbin.

Interestingly enough, his successor as chair of the state party, Kathy Salvi, ran in the Senate race last time against Tammy Duckworth and didn't perform very well.

I think she had the second widest margin of loss of all the Republican candidates who ran statewide.

And, uh, 2022.

Um, so it'll be interesting to see if, uh, Don Tracy can perform a little better.

Um, I'm guessing we'll be hearing this week, uh, as the political days at the fair.

Go on.

As we as we mentioned earlier, um, maybe some more folks will will jump into the race, but I think it really speaks to the state of, uh, where the party is these days in Illinois where, um, you know, it's it's really aligned itself with Trump and alienated some of the more, uh, you know, moderate members, uh, who who used to be sort of the core of the Illinois Republican Party, folks in places like DuPage County and places like that King County and the suburbs.

Um, so it'll be interesting to see who declares and whether there's anybody who can really give a good run to the Democrats who are running for these these statewide offices.

>> Um, I, I like reading online.

My news feeds get fed.

I try to follow everybody just because, you know, I got to do that.

But one of the things, Jason, that I've noticed is, um, there seems to be a split in the Republican Party.

I think they're trying to figure out with such a strong progressive base here.

They don't some people don't want to seem to go full MAGA, and others are like, no, that's the only way to go.

Do you foresee will they coalesce around a point of view, do you think, will we get there, Jason?

>> Yeah, you're right on with with how the Republican Party is sort of, you know, in two pieces right now, the MAGA sect and then the, the more moderate sect.

Um, I think, you know, Republicans in Illinois especially are seeing, uh, the performance of Darren Bailey in the last Gubernatorial election, how handily he was defeated by J.B. Pritzker.

Um, and as we know, you know, Darren Bailey, you know, sought the endorsement of Donald Trump.

Um, and, you know, MAGA republicanism, um, isn't going to be, at least for now, a successful recipe for winning a statewide office in Illinois.

There's just too many Democrats, and I think too many moderate Republicans who are turned off by the by that far right side of the Republican Party.

So, um, you know, I'm not saying a Republican will never win a statewide office in Illinois again, but it needs to be more of a moderate Republican.

And they need to tread that line of, uh, you know, standing for Republican values, but not necessarily, uh, you know, jumping full in with the Trump side of the party.

And that's hard to do because to get any widespread support from Republicans.

Uh, you know, these days, Republicans do have to, you know, declare some loyalty to the to the Trump brand.

Um, and again, that's not a recipe that's generally going to work in Illinois in the way the political world is set up here.

>> I yeah, I think they've got to figure out where they where they go.

Um, as we talked about, um, the state fair is going on this week.

We're recording on Wednesday.

Today is, um, Democrat Day at the fair.

The governor will be welcoming people to his party, and it'll be a chance for people to get to meet the candidates tomorrow.

Uh, Thursday is the Republican day.

Um, Dan, you were talking a little bit about that before we got got on here.

What what's what are these days do I mean, do they have an impact?

>> Yeah.

They're really a chance to bring members of the party from all across the state together.

Um, and, uh, you know, there's sort of a family reunion, um, sort of vibe sometimes.

And, you know, I think that comes along with a lot of the joy and also maybe sometimes the awkwardness and grudges and things that and cliques that can happen at a big family reunion, too.

Um, as you were saying, it's it's Wednesday morning as we're taping this right now, the Democratic County Chairs Association are having their big brunch at the convention center there in Springfield, I believe.

And, um, the keynote speaker was, uh, US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is, uh, in Springfield on Tuesday night and previewing a little bit of what the Democrats midterm election strategy is going to be, which is interesting.

Um, you know, really focusing on this idea of affordability and that America is too expensive, you know, food, rent, housing costs, healthcare, everything is too expensive.

And, uh, Donald Trump promised he was going to fix it.

And things have only gotten gotten more expensive.

Um, so it'll be really interesting to see if Democrats do coalesce around that message, both here in Illinois and nationally, uh, in next year's election.

Um, because I do think there are a lot of folks who who switched over to Donald Trump in the 2024 election because of concerns about inflation and other things.

And maybe the Democrats didn't have such a strong message on that.

Um, so that'll be interesting to see.

Um, you know, the governor, uh, will obviously, uh, address folks as well.

And, uh, you know, I think he's gearing up for his, his run for a third term.

So, um, I think that he's got the full support of the party behind him because he's, uh, you know, one of the major funders of the party these days.

Um, and then on Republican Day, I think what we'll be watching is just, you know, as I mentioned earlier, whether some more, uh, notable candidates enter some of these races for governor, for, uh, the US Senate, for the other statewide offices, um, that are, that are open, you know, um, the one aside from the Senate seat that's going to be open is the comptroller's office, with Susana Mendoza announcing that she's, um, uh, giving it up after this term.

Probably going to run for, uh, for mayor of Chicago in 2027, or at least heavily considering that option.

So it's going to be interesting to see who the Republicans field in some of these races and whether, uh, you know, as, as we said earlier, they can they can find folks who can appeal more broadly to voters and maybe, um, if not win some of these races at least narrow some of the, the margins by which they've lost these, uh, these races in the last couple of election cycles.

>> Um, Jason, you're there in Springfield.

Um, what, as a journalist and then also going to the fair.

What, like how do you do you avoid these days or personally or and as a journalist, what do you think maybe you would have your journalists expect in talking to the candidates these days?

>> Yeah.

As a journalist, this is, at least in Springfield, sort of the unofficial kickoff of campaign season.

You know, we start, you know, summer's winding down.

We're starting to think about fall and filing petitions to to appear on the ballot.

And, you know, this is our first chance to to see some of these candidates and to see them out in the wild, you know, not wearing a suit there.

You know, maybe wearing a t shirt and shorts to to deal with the weather out here and eating a corn dog and doing, you know, human being things instead of the stilted, uh, you know, important person wearing a suit things.

Um, so it's good to see them in that that that fashion.

Um, and, you know, politics is a, you know, national, at least a citywide pastime here in Springfield.

So, uh, there's a lot of interesting onlookers.

Not all the fair goers are interested in political days.

It sort of happens on a, you know, a side corner of the of the fairgrounds, not on the main drags where people are walking to get rides and foods and see concerts and things.

Um, but yeah, this is, this is, this is at the beginning of our, of our, of the playoffs, so to speak, for journalists.

And, uh, and we're watching what they're doing.

>> Okay.

>> Like you said, it is fun to see, you know, every once in a while, you'll see a state legislator or somebody walking around the fairgrounds after the event with their kids or whatever, and it's nice to to see them, um, you know, in that, in that more human element.

>> Yeah.

Or go down the big yellow, the giant slide is always the the good photo op to for politicians.

>> So it's good.

They are they are people.

And hopefully we can we can remember that.

And this does give us a chance to see that, uh, we have about 3.5 minutes left.

I wanted to touch on, um, one topic.

Um, Governor Pritzker has been signing bills.

Um, he had over 400 on his desk.

Um, and yesterday, Tuesday this week, he signed the bill.

Um, Sonia massey.

Bill.

Um, it was a year ago when she was shot and killed.

Um, and the, the one of the things that Bill does is, I guess what help require some more background checks and looking at the background of police officers.

Um, Jason, where does this how does this fix things, or will this fix things?

>> Um, yeah.

And just to set the background a little bit, it was July 2024.

Uh, Sonia masi was a Springfield woman.

Uh, she called the police.

She thought there was a prowler around her home.

Uh, two sheriff's deputies came to her home.

They went inside to talk to her about it.

Uh, she had a pot of boiling water on her stove.

Um, and she seemed to be having a mental health episode at the time, and she was becoming distraught.

Uh, the officer, uh, Sean Grayson, um, apparently thought he was in danger of some sort with the boiling water in play, and, uh, went ahead and, uh, um, unfortunately, fatally shot Sonya massie.

Um, as the investigation of this happened, we learned more and more that, uh, the officer Grayson, uh, sort of skipped around to different police departments in our area in the central Illinois area over the last few years.

Um, I think he had four law enforcement jobs, mostly part time over a six year period.

Um, looking at those employment records, we saw, you know, he had he had some discipline issues.

He had some DUIs in there.

Uh, some sloppy police work was was alleged at times as well.

Uh, so, um, uh, Senator Doris Turner, a Democrat from Springfield, uh, introduced this bill that, uh, increased the amount of background checks that police departments have to do before they hire an officer.

Um, apparently the, you know, going in depth and and looking at, uh, you know, Internal affairs investigations and things wasn't done, uh, you know, as thoroughly as perhaps it should have been to root out some of these things that, uh, that, that the officer had in his past.

Um, so this bill that the governor signed on Tuesday will require police departments to do these in-depth back checks, background checks.

They have to, you know, put in requests to the the officer's previous employers.

And those previous employers have to supply that information within 14 days.

Um, and it can't be redacted unless it's like personal information, like social security numbers or, or bank account information, but otherwise, uh, you know, anything about their work life, uh, is is an open record and fair game for those police departments so they can make, uh, you know, better informed hiring decisions.

>> Okay.

I saw and that was a bill that was passed with bipartisan support.

And then I believe I also read that Grayson's trial is scheduled to come in October.

Is that going to be.

We've got about 30s.

But is that there in Springfield then.

>> Or was that.

>> Um, I think.

>> I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but.

>> Sorry.

I think they've, uh, they've they've actually decided to move that to a different venue.

Uh, I can't remember off the top of my head, I think maybe Peoria.

Um, um, but, uh, but, yeah, it's, uh, obviously it's wherever the, the, the trial is, it's going to be, uh, well, watched with, uh, the Sony Massy family speaking out very much in support of these bills and wanting justice for their, uh, for for Sonia.

>> Yes.

Well, gentlemen, that's it.

We've reached the end of today's episode.

Thank you for joining us, guys.

That's it for this week's edition of CapitolView.

Thanks for watching.

I'm Brian Sapp.

Daniel, Dan Petrella and Jason Pisha.

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