The four Republican Party candidates for Governor of Illinois told a Central Illinois audience Thursday evening they favor property tax caps, pension reform, ending Illinois’s status as a ‘sanctuary state,’ and rolling back the SAFE-T criminal justice reform act which ended cash bail.
About 500 people heard from former state Sen. Darren Bailey, the party’s 2022 gubernatorial nominee; Ted Dabrowski, former president of conservative think tank Wirepoints; two-term DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick; and Barrington Hills real estate developer and Gold Rush Gaming owner Rick Heidner.
The Tazewell County GOP hosted the forum in Washington, Illinois.
Immigration
Immigration was a major theme for all the candidates. They spoke out against so-called sanctuary cities. Ted Dabrowski said his immigrant parents supported assimilation.
“I don't like this, teaching kids in Spanish in our schools. That doesn't make sense. We're in America, so you have to get rid of that. That's got to go,” said Dabrowski.
Darren Bailey and Rick Heidner blamed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker for the unrest over ICE raids.
“If we would have opened our doors for ICE to come in, they would have been in and out of here in probably six to eight weeks to get the worst of the worst out of here,” said Heidner.
Bailey said if he’s elected, he will flip the script and take a page from President Trump’s playbook to pressure immigration friendly cities to obey federal immigration agents.
“We will begin implementing ideas and holding back money until from cities who continue to refuse to follow the law, much like JB Pritzker, President Trump's doing with him right now.”
State law prevents law enforcement from assisting federal officers with immigration enforcement. Sheriff Mendrick said when state law and federal law compete, federal law should prevail.
“This could be taken care of in one day with an executive order saying, Mr. Trump, this is Gov. Mendrick, and I'm going to give you access to our jails again,” said Mendrick.
Mendrick claimed there are about 700,000 undocumented immigrants in the state and ICE is getting perhaps 15 people a day in raids. He said gaining access to the 92 jails in the state would increase the tally to 200 people per week. A recent study by the Pew Research Center said there are fewer than Mendrick estimated. Pew estimated there are 550,000 undocumented immigrants in Illinois.
State economy
All the gubernatorial candidates think property taxes are too high in the state.
Rick Heidner wants to grow taxes by building new businesses as a way to take pressure off homeowners. Bailey wants an “Illinois DOGE,” referring to Tesla-owner Elon Musk’s efforts to slash spending early in President Trump’s second term. He said homeowners should not be paying more for real estate taxes than for their mortgage.
“Last year, $2.5 billion was spent on people who are here illegally, giving them free housing, free insurance and free food. $1.5 billion was just pulled from the gas tax fund to bail out Chicago Transit Authority. Friends, where is the accountability?” said Bailey.
Unpacking part of that, Bailey was apparently citing a Heritage Foundation study when he mentioned spending $2.5 billion on undocumented immigrants. The figure is also nationwide, not Illinois alone. And various sources question the Heritage claim, noting that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid.
Heidner also pointed to school vouchers as a way to lower property tax rates.
“Maybe let people have choice, and then maybe give them 50% of what we're spending on the children in public schools and make the public schools accountable for how they're teaching our children. I think that would go a long way and we would be able to save money and lower real estate taxes,” said Heidner.
Dabrowski looks to Indiana for inspiration.
“What they've done is they put a 1% tax cap on the property value of your home, and that way there's a limit. Now 1% is a pretty good number because it happens to be the national average. We're closer to 2%,” said Dabrowski.
Dabrowski did not mention that Indiana also has a different tax structure that includes county by county income taxes.
Dabrowski did acknowledge that if property taxes go down and nothing else goes up, government will have to cut spending.
“You all know we have the most units of government in the country, the most units of government. It's amazing. Florida has 74 school districts. Seventy-four, that means 74 superintendents. How many do we have in Illinois? 850,” said Dabrowski.
Dabrowski also wants to eliminate the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. He said he does not want governors picking winners and losers by offering incentives.
Pension reform
Pension reform also figured in candidate comments. They varied on how much of a pension to offer to new state employees. James Mendrick suggested current employment patterns mean most people don’t stay in the same job their entire careers. He said one way to lower pension liability is to allow workers who move to different state jobs covered by a different pension fund to purchase pension credits with their own money.
Dabrowski wants to move to a portable 401K style, defined contribution fund for all new state workers.
Darren Bailey does not support that idea.
“I used to think the 401K plan was the answer, but it's not. It actually ends up costing you more. So that's not going to work,” said Bailey.
Bailey criticized past lawmakers for kicking the can down the road and using state money that should have gone to pensions on other things.
Bailey said “the men and women who are earning these pensions, who are living off of these, they're going to have to come to the table, and we're going to have to cut a deal that we can live by.”
Heidner said new hires might have to work longer or get less in a defined benefit pension plan. Heidner shied away from trying to change anything for current state employees.
Winning in a blue state
Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker won handily against Darren Bailey in the last election. The candidates acknowledged they will have to do something different to unseat Pritzker. Bailey emphasized overall turnout, noting President Trump received more Illinois votes in the last Presidential contest than Pritzker did two years earlier. Dabrowski, Mendrick and Heidner also emphasized their Chicago and collar county ties as a path to improving GOP results in the most populous section of the state with independents and other groups. That’s a veiled knock on the viability of Bailey, who comes from southern Illinois.
“It's important to be from there to get those votes,” said Dabrowski.
He highlighted his Polish and Latino heritage as a way to appeal to constituencies that have gone heavily for Pritzker in the past.
“You've got lots of people who are really upset in the Black community with illegal immigration. They are ripe. Pritzker has become so extreme that we have an amazing opportunity,” said Dabrowski.
Sheriff Mendrick told the audience he thinks law enforcement is likely to resonate with potential swing voters in Chicago and the collar counties.
“Crime SAFE-T Act, that is the other part of it. The Democrats were on board with that in the beginning in Chicago, no way. I mean, now they're getting 42 people shot on a weekend. They're getting people released 72 times from a crime and then burning up a lady on a train. It's getting all too often,” said Mendrick.
Bailey applauded his opponents for not taking direct shots at him, since he's leading in the polls. Bailey said he expected to be a punching bag. The only direct hit during the evening, though, was when Ted Dabrowski questioned campaign contributions businessman Rick Heidner made to Chicago Democrats. Heidner said he regretted one of them, but the others were in aid of his and a friend's business.
There was also a call for party unity from Darren Bailey….no matter who wins the Republican party Primary.
“The day after the primary in 2022, all of my co-competitors, they got up and they walked away. They were not seen again. Gary Rabine stayed and helped. And we've got to make sure that we commit ourselves right here, that on March 18, we stick together, and we work together," said Bailey.
The GOP candidates said their party has internal challenges and faces a supermajority in the state House and Senate.
