By Ray Hanania Illinois has never had a more dishonest governor than JB Pritzker. Why is he so dishonest? Because he can afford to be. He inherited billions from his daddy; and when money is no object, neither is truth. Pritzker is using Illinois tax dollars to bolster his re-election bid, claiming that taxpayers will…

By Rich Miller The labor union and trial lawyer-backed All for Justice independent expenditure committee has so far reported raising $3.5 million, with, I’m told, at least another $5 million in pledges. The committee’s sole purpose is to back the two Democratic candidates running for the Illinois Supreme Court: Appellate Justice Mary K. O’Brien and…

By Ray Hanania Governor JB Pritzker, the Daddy Warbucks of political hypocrisy, attacked several legislators this past week, demanding that they resign from office. One is State Senator Emil Jones III, a Pritzker critic, who is facing federal bribery charges. The charges against Jones are similar to charges filed against several other legislators, but Pritzker…

By Rich Miller Far-right activist Dan Proft has proved time and time again that he is very effective at calling attention to himself and getting under Gov. JB Pritzker’s skin in the worst way. Proft’s newspapers have, for instance, published several articles with photos of Pritzker’s daughter. Sometimes the stories were wrong, like when a…

By Ray Hanania I was on a business trip to meet my Middle East editors in Las Vegas this past weekend, and the questions about Chicago crime and even the Safe-T Act were coming at me from every direction. The cab driver wondered if all hell had broken loose in Chicago under that “alien-looking mayor…

By Rich Miller Four distinct attacks have been launched against Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic legislators in the past couple of weeks. “The Scream”: If you watch Chicago TV, you likely saw a striking TV ad called “The Scream.” The ad featured surveillance camera video of a white woman being mugged in broad daylight by…

By Ray Hanania Jeremiah Joyce was always a complicated but brilliant and astute politician. I had the privilege as a community and City Hall reporter of getting to know him during a tumultuous political time in Chicago’s history. So I always saw him as a factor influencing the political events that swirled around the city…

By Rich Miller I was looking for something else recently on Scott Kennedy’s Illinois Election Data website and noticed he had voter turnout numbers from statewide races since 1990. We all know that Downstate has lost a significant amount of its political importance, but the numbers really help illustrate this decline. In 1990, 42% of…

By Rich Miller Way back in 1996, I spent a few minutes walking around the Chicago-based Democratic National Convention with then-House Minority Leader Michael Madigan. Madigan at the time was working to regain his chamber’s majority after the 1994 national Republican wave combined with the Republican-drawn legislative district maps to knock the Speaker’s gavel out…

By Marty Walsh On Labor Day we honor the achievements of America’s workers, and in 2022 we have a historic victory to celebrate. Our nation’s working people have come all the way back from the depths of a global pandemic, regaining every job lost and more. This milestone seemed impossible to reach on Labor Day…