Illinois GOP governor candidates trade accusations, attacks during televised debate

For the first time all six Republican candidates for governor gathered for a candidate forum on Thursday night. While the candidates articulated policy ideas, the forum featured several episodes of personal attacks.

The forum was hosted by ABC 7 in Chicago and the League of Women Voters of Illinois.

During the debate, state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, turned to Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin.

"I want to let you know something. I'm not interested in defeating you just because you're a Democrat," said Bailey. "I'm interested in defeating you because you are a corrupt Democrat."

Bailey was referring to accusations about an improper relationship between Irvin and Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO and founder of Citadel, a hedge fund based in Chicago that does business in Aurora.

Both Griffin and Irvin have denied accusations of impropriety.

Griffin has donated $50 million to Irvin's campaign, according to state board of election records.

Bailey has also accepted donations from billionaire megadonors, most notably accepting $5.5 million from Richard Uihlein in May.

Irvin said his campaign's resources are a strength, allowing him to be a major player in supporting Republican politics in Illinois.

"I'm gonna use our resources, I'm gonna use our infrastructure, I'm gonna use our ground game, not to just help myself and my running mate Avery Bourne, but to help every Republican up and down the ballot."

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Jesse Sullivan who himself has received $11 million from just three people – Silicon Valley billionaire Chris Larsen, Asurion CEO Kevin Taweel and philanthropists Robert and Dorothy King – quickly jumped on this as a chance to attack Irvin's character.

Sullivan was participating in the debate remotely after testing positive for COVID-19.

"Richard said his greatest and his only strength is he has a whole lot of money he has to throw around," said Sullivan. "Well money cannot buy you character. Money cannot buy you a conservative record."

Irvin has accused both Sullivan and Bailey of supporting Democratic presidential candidates such as Joe Biden and Barack Obama in ads paid for by his campaign.

Bailey was a delegate for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election and has visited Mar-A-Lago in recent weeks.

Irvin also was the subject of criticism from onstage after he was asked by Sullivan to directly say whether he supports overturning Roe v. Wade, a subject he avoided answering in the last debate he appeared in.

"My opponents are attacking me and I understand. I get it," said Irvin. "They're threatened by the fact that I'm violating their political aspirations, I'm hurting their political aspirations."

"Let me tell you why I'm a Republican," he added before sharing an anecdote about his grandfather.

As he was saying this, his opponents started to talk over him.

"Has he answered the question yet?" one off-screen candidate said as others also interjected.

Irvin also fought back, questioning Bailey's electability.

"The reason JB Pritzker supports Darren Bailey is because he knows Darren Bailey can't win," said Irvin.

The Democratic Governor's Association, which has received millions of donations from Pritzker, has put out several ads attacking Irvin. Pritzker has also directly paid for ads attacking Irvin.

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Though Irvin and Bailey are the frontrunners of the race, it is still close. The most recent polling for the GOP primary was between May 6 and May 8 and was conducted by Emerson College Polling.

That poll, which was taken before debates began, showed Irvin with 24% of support among likely Republican voters, with Bailey behind at 20%.

The largest share of voters were undecided at that point, with 37% of voters yet to pick a candidate.

The other candidates in the race, businessman Gary Rabine, attorney and pastor Max Solomon and former state Sen. Paul Schimpf, R-Waterloo, all polled under 10%.

Rabine and Bailey also engaged in a heated back and forth over their respective records on mask mandates as well as their respective ability to tell the truth.

"Excuse me, excuse me, it's my turn," said Rabine, raising his voice over Bailey, who was interrupting him.

"Well you're not telling the truth, sir" said Bailey.

Solomon stressed that his positions are rooted in his Christian conservativism.

"Evil is here and they are attacking our children. I will protect our kids," said Solomon, who added that his priorities are making sure kids are not "indoctrinated," lowering taxes and reforming Illinois' pension system.

Schimpf stressed his disconnection from the Republican establishment Thursday night.

"The candidates come and go but things stay the same," said Schimpf. "That's because it's the same megadonors, the same political operatives, the same special interest groups."

Solomon and Schimpf have the smallest campaign war chests of any Republican candidates. Solomon has an estimated $5,600 and Schimpf has an estimated $64,000 of cash on hand as of June 3, according to Illinois Sunshine, a database of campaign contributions maintained by the nonpartisan group Reform for Illinois. All other candidates have more than $1 million of cash on hand.

Contact Andrew Adams: aadams1@gannett.com; (312)-291-1417; twitter.com/drewjayadams.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Illinois primaries: GOP governor candidates spar in televised debate