>> Welcome to Capital View on WSIU, I'm Brian Sapp.

The 2026 elections are upon us.

The four leading Republican candidates for governor introduce themselves to voters at a recent candidates forum.

We'll talk about that.

And last week, the Illinois Senate met for the first time of this spring session.

This week, it's the House's turn.

And they're doing some meeting this week.

We'll talk about the legislative agenda this spring.

Joining us this week to talk about these topics are Brendan More of Capitol News, Illinois, and Jeremy Gorner of the Chicago Tribune.

Brendan and Jeremy, it's good to see you again.

Thanks for being here.

>> Glad to be here.

>> Always a pleasure, Brian.

>> So we'll start early.

Voting starts really soon, a couple weeks away.

Um, the Republican Party is coalesce have been kind of quiet through the the fall and now we've got some action going.

The candidates met at a forum last week.

Jeremy, let's start with you.

You kind of wrote an article.

What did you talk a lot about?

Mr.

Hytner and his, um, coming to the forefront and starting to make himself seen.

>> So Rick Hytner, this was his debut before the public.

Really?

Um, this was his first public forum with, uh, his fellow, uh, Republican gubernatorial candidates.

Um, so he made his debut.

And, you know, basically, it's kind of like an introduction to himself.

He's a, um, you know, he's he's a successful businessman.

Uh, he's branded himself on his campaign website as somebody who's essentially gone from rags to riches, um, becoming an entrepreneur owns a bunch of businesses, including, um, you know, including a A video game, a video gaming video gambling operation.

But, you know, he's come under some scrutiny before from the Illinois Gaming Board.

Uh, he's had purported ties with, um, with, uh, businesses who had connections to, um, alleged connections to organized crime.

He, um, basically was, um, you know, slated to construct a horse racing track and casino, um, on a state, state owned property in southwest suburban Tinley Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago, where there was a, um, mental health center and Governor Pritzker, um, in 2019.

This was days after the Tribune did an investigation, uh, kind of documenting Mr.

Hayden's ties to these businesses who had alleged ties to these mob figures, um, basically scuttled the project.

And, um, so ever since then, you know, but, um, since then, there were hearings, and he's basically said that he was kind of vindicated from all of that.

Um, it's kind of a long story.

Um, you know, to kind of get into.

But in so many words, um, he did express a little bit of that disdain during the forum.

He said he talked about how he wanted to bring horse racing to Tinley Park, but because of optics, I think that was his word.

It didn't happen.

Um, so he's he's he kind of comes from that angle as far as his disdain for Governor Pritzker and why he wants them out, but he also was trying to make the best case for why he thinks he'd be the best candidate.

Um, you know, in terms of, you know, like all candidates, he was talking about public safety and how that's kind of waned under Pritzker, even though crime stats show otherwise crime stats are going down, especially gun violence since the, you know, but, um, he was still trying to kind of hammer away at the fact that people don't feel safer.

Um, he was also kind of talking, decrying high taxes about kind of bringing, you know, if you bring new businesses in Illinois that could kind of resolve some of that.

Um, talked about wanting to have a conversation over with, um, unions over pensions.

Um, you know, a lot of this, you know, all that basically, you know, kind of decrying the, the sanctuary state, like a lot of these other candidates were, um, but he was also the only candidate on the stage who got attacked, um, by one of the other candidates, Ted Dabrowski, who is a conservative policy analyst.

He was a former head of the advocacy group, the conservative advocacy group Wire Points.

Um, basically, um, called out because he's accepted campaign donations from Democrats, progressive Democrats like Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and former Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, who've been frequently targeted, um, by Republicans, um, on numerous fronts.

Um, but with Fox, um, you know what?

While he was trying to give an explanation about don't giving $25,000 to Brandon Johnson's campaign.

Mhm.

Um, saying he was doing it as a favor basically.

And to a friend and you know, and basically in exchange he could get face time with Mayor Johnson since he does a lot of business in Chicago.

But as far as Kim Fox goes, he did not have an explanation.

And he literally apologized to the crowd, which was pretty ironic because in his campaign ad, he brands himself as a Trump Republican for governor.

I mean, when have we ever heard Donald Trump apologize for anything?

So that was kind of his introduction to the crowd.

Um, and then, of course, you had the broski.

Darren Bailey, of course.

Was there, um, former state senator, this is his second bid for governor.

And then, um, DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.

So those were the other three who, um, uh, you know, spoke at this forum in, in Washington, which is outside of Peoria.

>> Okay last week?

>> Okay.

And then Brendon, you were you were there as well and had an article with Capitol News Illinois.

What what stood out to you or it sounds like maybe not much stood out.

>> You know, Brian, there were not as many fireworks as I thought there might be.

And, you know, Jeremy alluded to it a little bit.

There was some with Ted Dombrowski calling out Rick Heiner for some of those campaign donations.

Uh, there was also he did also call out Darren Bailey, uh, about his performance, uh, in the election in 2022, basically saying that we need somebody that is electable, somebody that can compete in the Chicago suburbs.

But overall, I mean it, you know, I had it in my my, my my lead graph.

Uh, Bailey was joking at the end of this forum that, um, you know, he thought he was going to be a punching bag at this, uh, at this forum.

He's the front runner.

He he has a polling lead.

Uh, he hasn't raised a lot of money, but he has a lot of that name recognition from his last run.

But he really wasn't.

And there really was.

I don't even want to call it a camaraderie, but I think there was an acknowledgement among the candidates that no matter which one of them is the nominee, Republicans have to come together.

They have to unify.

Uh, you know, over the past several years, there's been so much infighting within the Illinois Republican Party.

Uh, and frankly, not a lot of winning.

Uh, the party has been locked out of power in Illinois for, uh, they haven't won a statewide election in over a decade.

And so, uh, you know, Bailey made the point, and a few of them made the point.

But Bailey said, you know, last time, you know, when when he won the nomination, uh, you know, you had, um, uh, most of the candidates that his primary opponents kind of just went away.

Uh, they didn't really help him, you know, in the general election, uh, you know, with, with with 1 or 2 exceptions.

And he said that has to be different.

Uh, you know, no matter who the nominee is, uh, if they want a chance to win, um, you know, and, and I think that was a big focus was that electability message of, you know, how do we win again in Illinois?

And, uh, I think that there's going to be a very robust debate about what a winning candidate looks like on the Republican side.

Um, you know, there was a lot of talk about immigration, about Illinois, uh, sanctuary policies, uh, and about the need to repeal those.

Uh, there was talk about crime.

Um, you know, there's a little bit of talk about affordability, about cost of living, which is the number one issue facing voters are telling pollsters, at least that is on their minds, the top issue on their minds.

Uh, and so, uh, but we'll see if there's more of an emphasis on that.

Um, I, I think that, um, you know, there there was also kind of a wrestling, if you will, of, you know, who is a candidate that can win in the Chicago suburbs but also stays true to conservative values.

And Dabrowski was trying to thread that needle of, you know, I'm you know, I can we're all going to win votes downstate, but I can win votes in Cook County and in the collar counties.

And I'm also a true conservative, again, trying to differentiate himself from Rick Hayden, who maybe branding himself as a Trump Republican, but does have that track record of donating to Democratic candidates.

So it was a very interesting debate.

Uh, you know, not a lot of fireworks.

But again, the first time they were all on stage together.

Early voting begins in a few weeks.

So, uh, we'll just have to see, uh, kind of how it shakes out.

Some of the ads have started running.

Dabrowski and Heiner have some ads on air now.

So, uh, the race is really, uh, really starting to to develop.

>> I wanted to just one kind of wrap it up with you, Jeremy.

You and I ran into each other when Darren Bailey made his announcement down here.

And even then, That was almost five months ago.

Um, there was that talk about that, uh, getting the Democratic voters.

Is that going to be in addition to policy talk?

Like, is that going to see that guiding how the Republicans do try to vie for this chance to go against JB Pritzker.

>> Certainly moderate Democrats and independents?

Brian.

I mean, I think that that's, um, you know, like Brendan said, um, and Ted Dabrowski, by the way, he was at he spoke to the Tribune editorial board yesterday and kind of hammered away, um, at this again, really, um, you know, he looked at Darren Bailey's past performance.

So Darren Bailey in this WGN channel nine poll, um, is way ahead of the other candidates.

I think he had like 34%.

Dabrowski was second place with 8%.

This was earlier this month.

But you have 46% of undecided voters.

Now, the case Dabrowski is trying to make is saying, like, Darren's been through this before.

He's a farmer, I love farmers, but he's he doesn't know how how things go in Cook County in Chicago.

And it showed he lost by a lot.

Not not just in the last election in 2022 against Pritzker.

He lost a lot big time in Chicago and Cook County.

Ted Dabrowski's trying to say, hey, I'm from Cook County, my running mates from Cook County, we know how it is here.

We can court voters.

And, um, he thinks that he would have a better chance really trying to kind of, um, court, um, moderate Democrats and independents and bring them his way than someone like Darren Bailey could, um, you know, on issues, you know, on, on really a lot of these social issues that he's talked about.

Um, but, uh, but yeah, I mean, I think, you know, he's basically trying to brand himself, if anything, as having the geographic, the geographical advantage, really, because he's from the Northern Illinois and knows how it is here.

Um, I'm in Chicago right now, by the way.

Full disclosure.

Um, more than someone like Darren Bailey.

But, um, obviously the polls so far show otherwise.

>> Okay.

The tall hill, uh, the there's plenty of campaigns.

Uh, one of the biggest ones, in addition to the governor's race, is Senator Durbin announcing that he's not running.

That's caused, like, up and down in all the political emails and the political coverage.

I see all these candidates trying to fill in now that we have the Senate race and it's Raja Krishnamoorthi came out really strong, and he was really pushing, um, being aggressive.

Uh, lots of campaigning, lots of he's the first one to start with ads, and he's been out there for a while.

And Juliana Stratton, well, she didn't release it, but there was a ad that came out for Juliana Stratton this past week.

And, um, and so starting to make some moves there.

Um, Brendan, you talked a little bit this past weekend about that.

Can you kind of tell us your reporting on the Senate race there here in Illinois?

>> Yeah, this was this was long anticipated.

So, uh, Senator Durbin announced in May or April that he was retiring.

Uh, Juliana Stratton was the first candidate that got into the race the day after, uh, but, uh, but her campaign has, has, has struggled a bit, uh, hasn't raised a lot of money.

Um, you know, she has the endorsement of governor JB Pritzker of Senator Tammy Duckworth, but, uh, she kind of struggled to find her footing.

Whereas, uh, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi started the race with $18 million in his campaign account, has continued to raise a boatload of money.

And he's basically been on television running ads nonstop since July.

And, uh, Lieutenant Governor Stratton and Congresswoman Robin Kelly just have not had the resources to compete.

Well, that appears to have changed last week with the entry of a new superPAC into the race on behalf of Lieutenant Governor Stratton.

So this is called Illinois Future PAC.

It's run by a former top aide to Governor Pritzker.

Uh, and it started running an ad, I believe, statewide, but definitely in the Chicago market.

Uh, kind of a biographical ad, uh, introducing Juliana Stratton to, uh, voters, uh, across the state.

And, uh, basically, this is one of the few ways that she can compete, uh, with the, you know, the resource deficit that her campaign is at, uh, you know, super PACs can can raise and spend unlimited amounts, uh, whereas there are pretty severe restrictions on actual, uh, campaign committees.

So, uh, this is a way, uh, many, many view this as a way for Governor Pritzker to to influence the race more so than he has with his endorsement that he can, you know, actually throw some money into the race.

Now, we don't know for certain if Governor Pritzker is the one donating to this PAC, but the tea leaves are there.

And, uh, and, you know, they said that this is a seven figure buy, uh, so they're spending, uh, you know, millions of dollars over the next several weeks, uh, with the goal being to, to increase her, her name recognition.

You know, lieutenant governor, you're a statewide elected official, but it's kind of a sleepy office, and it's kind of.

You're invisible by design, in a way.

You know, you're you're you're the number two.

Uh, so a lot of people don't necessarily know who she is.

And, uh, kind of similar to what Jeremy was saying with the, uh, with the Republican GOP, uh, the governor's race, uh, in the Democratic primary for Senate, there's a lot of undecided voters, uh, in, you know, that recent WGN channel nine poll.

Uh, you know, Krishnamoorthy had a pretty large lead.

I believe he had about 32%, uh, you know, and Stratton and Kelly were in single digits, but the largest the winner was undecided.

Uh, it was about 45%.

So a lot of folks close to Stratton and close to Pritzker believe that if they get her name recognition up, that people, you know, learn about her, that, you know, she can she can, uh, rise quickly and compete with Krishnamoorthy.

Um, you know, the race has been kind of heating up a little bit in recent weeks.

Uh, there's kind of been a war of words between the two campaigns.

A little more as Stratton tries to differentiate herself.

Um, there's been some reporting about, uh, campaign donations Krishnamoorthy's campaigns received from, uh, Ice contractors or, uh, you know, in some folks that are tied with Trump, um, and Stratton has tried to, uh, exploit that.

But it's it's been limited in its effectiveness because you need money to back up a message.

And she hasn't had it to this point but appears now again camp these uh, this PAC and the campaign can't directly coordinate, but, uh, it is pretty clear that that they are trying to help her.

And, uh, you know, the question is going to be, is it too late?

Because, again, Krishnamurthy's been on television since July.

People know who he is.

Uh, you know, and, you know, again, early voting starts in a few weeks.

Uh, is it going to be enough to close?

Uh, is there still time to close that gap?

Uh, and I guess we're just gonna have to wait and see.

>> Okay.

Yeah, I think, uh, we got a few weeks left, and we'll see what this ad buy does.

And if it's able to to make that impact, I wanted to keep on moving.

Um, we're almost done.

Or actually, we are done with last year's, um, Movements out of the General Assembly.

Governor Pritzker just signed the Clean Slate Act last week.

Um, Jeremy, can you kind of review for us?

This seemed to have quite a bit of support, but there's still some concerns out there.

Can you kind of just walk us through what this act is and what it does and how it's going to help?

>> And basically what the Clean Slate Act does is, um, it deals with this issue of the automatic sealing of criminal records.

Now, to be clear, um, you know, if somebody is in prison or convicted of an otherwise serious felony, um, there are there are, um, felony cases, felony convictions that can be sealed.

There are there are cases that you're convicted of that can be sealed.

Doesn't mean the case goes away.

Law enforcement still has access to those records.

But the whole idea from advocates for this kind of legislation is.

So, um, people can get a second chance.

So, you know, if they're, um, incarcerated for something, um, you know, really a lot of mostly nonviolent felonies, um, you are eligible to get your record sealed.

I mean, there's, um, I don't have the exhaustive list in front of me on what's what's out and what's in.

I mean, there are certain cases where you cannot get your record sealed, but, um, this time around, um, you know, this has really been 5 or 6 years in the making.

Advocates have really been kind of complaining about how, um, it takes a really long time for this process to play out like you have to in Illinois.

I believe you have to wait three years from the completion year sentence, and then you got to go through this lengthy petition process in order for that to happen.

Um, and, and, you know, you have to get a drug test, I believe, if you've had, like, a drug conviction.

But, um, now under automatic sealing, you don't have to get a you don't have to get drug tested if you've had a past drug conviction.

And basically what this Clean Slate Act does is that it accelerates the process.

It basically makes it so there's, um, people who want to get their records sealed to find jobs.

When I say second chance, I'm talking about to find employment.

Um, you know, uh, they can get a second chance that way and that the automatic sealing would basically accelerate that process.

Now, there have been, um, people who, uh, you know, opponents of it, a lot of Republicans, law and order types, um, they're concerned for.

And I'll give you an this I'll give you an example.

Say somebody is convicted of a felony for like, financially exploiting a senior citizen.

Okay.

That's that's a case that would be eligible for automatic sealing here.

But the concern is, is that, say, the person who's convicted wants to get a job working with senior citizens or working in the financial sector.

Mhm.

Um, employers aren't going to have access to those records.

And that's something that, um, you know, law enforcement will.

The record will not go away.

But the concern is that, according to opponents, um, you know.

These employers are not going to have access to those records.

So basically, what the what the debate is, is that you have one side saying this accelerates, um, the process for people to get a second chance at getting good employment, getting good jobs.

But at the same time, you have opponents basically saying that it limits what prospective employers can know about somebody that they're trying to hire.

>> Okay.

It's an interesting topic.

I actually have an interview next week with a local agency here that is looking forward to how they can use this to help people here in our area.

So I look forward to talking with them on that.

We have just just under about 4.5 minutes left I wanted to hit.

There's not a lot going on yet at the state House.

Um, Brendan, what are you seeing as some themes for this year's UN General Assembly session.

We got about 4.5 minutes.

>> Big word being thrown around is affordability, affordability, affordability, affordability.

Uh, that is on everybody's minds.

Uh, it's the top issue when you ask voters whether it's at the doors or it's in polling, it's showing up.

Uh, and, you know, House Speaker Chris Welch told my colleague Ben Zelinsky, uh, in a story that came out earlier this week, that that is going to be their laser focus this session.

Uh, now, the fine details remain to be seen.

Uh, you know, it remains an open question of what they can do to address some of those concerns.

Uh, there's only so much that a state legislature can do.

Uh, four years ago, uh, you know, the last time we had an election year where Governor Pritzker was on the ballot, uh, the legislature passed a bunch of one time tax relief, uh, you know, the suspension of the gas tax of the grocery tax.

Uh et-cetera.

I don't know if we're going to see something like that this time around, just because there are some pretty significant budget constraints.

Uh, but, uh, there there may be some efforts, uh, around, for instance, insurance reform.

Um, that was something that that Governor Pritzker has really emphasized.

Um, you know, there was a bill, uh, that didn't get through last year that would have reformed homeowners insurance, uh, after some pretty big rate hikes by State Farm.

I would not be surprised to see the legislature go back and try to pass some version of that.

Um, every year they've also tried to, uh, expand the, uh, the state's earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, trying to put some more money in the pockets of working people and middle class people.

Uh, and, uh, so I think there if there's room in the budget, we could see something on that.

Um, but, uh, but it's an election year, so I think it's going to be more, heavier on politics and lighter on policy.

That tends to be the general rule, uh, when, uh, when, when, when, uh, legislators and in this case, the governor are going to be on the ballot.

Um, I think they, they, they got a lot off their plates last year in terms of the mass transit, uh, funding and reform bill and the energy bill.

There's been some talk about addressing data centers about the energy, uh, that they use, uh, perhaps making them, um, uh, those that are building these big data centers supply their own energy.

Uh, I'm not sure if that has enough legs to, uh, to get through, but it's at least a discussion.

Um, obviously, uh, you know, the the bears unfortunately lost, uh, last weekend against the Rams, but, uh, there will still be a lot of talk about, uh, about their about their new home, but, uh, stadium and what the state might do to help, They're moved to Arlington Heights, especially now that Northwest Indiana might be on the table.

At the very least, it's a leverage play for the bears.

Um, so I would expect there to at least be discussions about that, uh, happening in the capital.

Um, but, uh, but yes, the affordability is number one, uh, and obviously passing a balanced budget, which is going to be even more difficult now with, uh, um, you know, some of the existing structural issues facing the state, but also some of the uncertainty from the federal government.

Uh, you know, what types of grants the state is, uh, is going to get, uh, the types of, um, you know, cuts that might be coming from the one big, beautiful bill act Medicaid to Snap benefits.

Um, there's a lot of uncertainty right now.

And I think that's going to be reflected in some of these discussions that we have that are had in the capital in the next few months.

>> Yeah, there's there's that the budget.

And then, you know, all the impacts of the national races and the cuts that are, as you said, the one big beautiful bill and Medicaid.

And, you know, Peter Hancock reported on that rural hospitals.

And I think we're just going to have to wait and see what shapes up this year.

Well, gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

That's it for this week's edition of Capitol View.

Appreciate you joining us.

On behalf of Brendan Moore and Jeremy Gorner, I'm Brian Sapp.

Have a great day.