Editorial: Tribune Editorial Board endorses Paul Schimpf in GOP governor primary. But tactical voters might choose differently.

At our endorsement session for the Republican nominee for governor, all six candidates in the primary said that supporting law enforcement was a crucial part of fighting the wave of gun crime that afflicts Chicago and elsewhere in the state. But Paul Schimpf said that his support went beyond mere rhetoric.

He pointed out he was a Marine Corps veteran who rose to lieutenant colonel and served in Iraq. He noted that he was the chief American attorney adviser to the Iraqi prosecutors of Saddam Hussein. He argued, in essence, that when he says he stands with law enforcement, his record will ensure that he will be believed. We saw no reason to argue with that characterization.

You might well be wondering why you’ve barely heard of the 51-year-old downstater Schimpf, who was a state senator for the 58th District from 2017 to 2021. You might point out that, so far, he is far behind in what has been looking more and more like a two-horse race between Richard Irvin, mayor of Aurora, and Darren Bailey, a sitting state senator from the 55th district.

But that’s because both of those leading candidates have been infused with outside cash. The billionaire hedge fund founder Ken Griffin, determined to defeat Gov. J.B. Pritzker, has injected the Irvin campaign with more than $45 million, enough to buy so many TV ads as to make his preferred candidate ubiquitous on the airwaves. Meanwhile, Richard Uihlein, founder of the privately held Uline office supply business, has given at least $3.5 million to Bailey — hardly Griffin money, but not exactly chump change.

As politically engaged Illinoisans, Griffin and Uihlein are entitled to spend their money as they see fit. But we see troubling issues with both of their preferred candidates.

When we asked Bailey if there was “any daylight at all” between himself and the actions of former President Donald Trump, whom this editorial board long has regarded as pernicious to the future of the Republican Party, he answered “none.” Given Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the last election, that’s problematic. And, frankly, it is hard to imagine level-headed Chicago Republicans voting for someone who called their city “a crime-ridden, corrupt, dysfunctional hellhole,” all of our self-evident problems notwithstanding. Especially not when the candidate has supported what he calls a “New Illinois” movement, arguing that the rest of the state should separate from Chicago.

“Those of us in rural Illinois have different values and a very different way of life,” Bailey told the political reporter Rich Miller in 2020.

We reject that kind of dangerous, divisive talk and we argue it disqualifies Bailey. Illinois must remain unified. Chicagoans are not different creatures from the rest of the state. Our values have far more in common than Bailey seems to think.

Which brings us to Irvin, our preference of the two leaders in the polls. We’ve been impressed with some of his achievements in Aurora, where he has been a decent mayor. We acknowledge his powerful personal story, growing up in public housing and rising to public office. And we reject political attacks on his character when he was only doing his job as an attorney.

But we’re troubled by what occurred when Irvin arrived on the scene while officers were arresting his then-girlfriend, accused of hitting a security guard at a marijuana store last year. According to a police report, he said that the charges would be “taken care of.” He’s insisted he meant that the woman would be afforded an attorney but we’ve heard phrases like “taken care of” a few too many times before in Illinois politics and we need a better explanation.

We’re similarly troubled by Irvin’s frequent reticence when it comes to being frank with the media (although he did show up for us and answered our queries), his sometimes prickly temperament in the face of fair questions, and by a lack of a consistent worldview that could appeal to moderate Democrats and Republicans looking for a common sense candidate they can trust to safeguard their economic futures and solve some of the state’s problems.

If Irvin is willing to separate from Trump and appeal to moderate, common sense voters, including centrist Democrats, he should find the courage to say so, clearly, without weaving and dodging, flip-flopping and hedging his bets.

And while we admire Jesse Sullivan’s intellect, faith and moral determination, Max Solomon’s achievements and Gary Rabine’s sense of public service, we find Schimpf has the right combination of ethical past actions, a history of public service involving working with a Democratic majority and a raft of interesting and creative ideas when it comes to fixing Illinois’ ongoing pension crisis, painfully high taxes, troubling talent drains, government bloat and the state’s existential struggles with violent crime.

We find him of lively intellect. We deem him to be a straight talker. And we consider him potentially capable of unifying our state.

At our endorsement meeting, Schimpf did not dodge tough questions and wasn’t afraid to acknowledge the pragmatic compromises needed from any governor of a state with such a divided landscape and populace. In our view, he won’t hate the city of Chicago, and will work effectively in Springfield to help fix its problems.

Is Schimpf electable? He surely has a tough road against the money men and all those fancy ads. We understand the appeal of a tactical vote for Irvin, who may well improve as the election moves past the primary stage.

But we urge our Republican readers to take a closer look at a candidate from rural Monroe County with a keen brain and the closest profile to a traditional GOP leader who stands for limited government, personal freedom, tolerance for different points of view and many of the state’s other traditional values. The Schimpf slogan is, “Hope is not a plan. Anger is not a solution. Outrage cannot unify our state.”

He’s right on all three counts. We think he and his lieutenant governor, Carolyn Schofield of Crystal Lake, are the most likely to listen to Illinoisans and offer credible, reasoned GOP opposition to Pritzker, who does not have credible primary opposition and whom we endorse on the other side of the ticket. We admire Schimpf’s level-headed honesty and frankness, even if he doesn’t have the fanciest commercials.

We think a debate between Schimpf and Pritzker, two determined public servants with different visions, allegiances, priorities and personal trajectories, would be a healthy autumnal conversation for Illinois.

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