Jim Dey: Ideological litmus test doing state GOP no favors

Feb. 26—It's time once again to dive in to another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:

Appetite for destruction

Demonstrating an insatiable appetite for alienating Illinois voters, two prominent Republicans in downstate Illinois are engaging in a bitter primary campaign.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey is challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost in the March 19 primary.

Bailey's campaign is premised on the notion that he is a more pure ideological conservative than Bost, a traditional GOP conservative.

If that poisonous theme sounds familiar, Bailey/Bost is a rerun of the 2022 Mary Miller/Rodney Davis 15th District primary contest that saw Miller, endorsed by former President Donald Trump, defeat Davis.

Bailey was hoping for a similar endorsement, and, based on his past public associations with Trump, he had a reasonable basis for thinking he would get it.

But Trump last week endorsed Bost, a blessing for Bost in the primary but one that pushes him further out of Illinois' political mainstream.

In his Bost endorsement, Trump spent nearly as much time praising himself as he did Bost. Among other things, the Modest One called Bost a "stalwart supporter" of "my record-setting administration."

Thanks to Democratic Party gerrymandering, the winner of the Bailey/Bost primary is virtually guaranteed victory in the November general election.

More broadly speaking, however, the primary fight over who's a more politically pure conservative is toxic on a statewide basis.

Illinois has become a knee-jerk Democratic state, and no Republican can hope to win on a statewide basis without attracting votes from Democrats and independents.

That requires a willingness to compromise, something ideologically extreme liberals and conservatives simply cannot do.

That's why Bailey was crushed in his challenge to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The Trump factor certainly didn't help, but the prospects for a future GOP victory in statewide races are nil unless and until the GOP wises up.

Big splash

Local Democratic state Rep. Carol Ammons is throwing her weight around in Springfield.

After Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave his budget address last week, Ammons announced that the Legislative Black Caucus she heads has big plans for the ongoing budget process and in the re-making of Illinois.

Ammons' caucus is expected to release in the near future a report titled "Leveling the Playing Field: Using the General Fund Budget to Invest in Building an Equitable State and Eliminating Structural Racism."

She described the report as historic, calling it the "first of its kind."

At the same time, Ammons fired a shot across the governor's budget bow on behalf of minority members of the state House and Senate.

She made it clear that if their social welfare priorities are not met in Pritzker's budget, his spending plan will go nowhere.

"This year, we will be negotiating from a position of strength. Our community and our members are the value-add in the General Assembly, and nothing can be passed without our members," she said.

It will be interesting to watch what happens if Ammons & Co. play hardball with fellow Democrat Pritzker. He's proposed a $52.7 million budget plan many uber-progressives consider inadequate in the pursuit of social justice.

If Pritzker fails to get enough Democratic votes for his budget plan, he might be forced to do the heretofore unthinkable — stop ignoring super-minority Republicans.

While Ammons was tooting the horn of the Black Caucus, Hispanic state Sen. Celina Villanueva made it clear that Hispanics also intend to be increasingly assertive.

"I want everyone to know as they're hearing this, our community is growing and our community is young. We aren't going anywhere. We will be here," she said.

Movement at Mizzou

There was a surprise move at the University of Missouri-Columbia last week when Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois took the same job at the University of Arizona.

Not only does Reed-Francois have the most alluring name in college sports, she was highly regarded for her performance at Mizzou.

So why the move to a lesser conference (SEC to Big 12) for less pay, especially when she has a son on Mizzou's basketball team?

University administrators, generally, are deceitful when it comes to addressing forthrightly moves like this. So a full understanding requires a bit of sports Kremlinology, the study of politics and policies of secretive organizations through the interpretation of "indirect clues."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Ben Fredrickson noted there have been "clear signs curators (trustees) wanted more influence and involvement" in Mizzou's sports department. In other words, they want to look over the AD's shoulder and re-examine her decisions.

They recently established a "new oversight committee" focused on the sports program, one supposedly calling for "more accountability" from the AD and members of her court.

In the past, curators pressed a former AD to hire head football coach Eli Drinkwitz. Over Reed-Francois' opposition, they pressed for a contract extension for Drinkwitz prior to last season, when she preferred to wait and see how it turned out.

(Mizzou's football team had a great 2023, defeating Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29.)

There was also friction over Reed-Francois' plan for what was called an "unprecedented transformation of Mizzou Sports Park." Her plan later was downgraded to football stadium improvements.

Those slights and oversights apparently were enough to persuade Reed-Francois to look elsewhere, and she wasn't picky.

UA's athletics department is in deep financial trouble — a $177 million debt — and leadership there looks shaky. Reed-Francois' predecessor was fired after he hired a new head football coach.

Football Scope called Reed-Francois' action "a move so rare, it might have a membership of one."

No comment

High-powered businessmen have nothing but disdain for questions from the news media, even when foraging for public money.

Why? They're used to obsequious subordinates and find the notion of being asked — and expected to answer — embarrassing questions completely foreign to their experience.

Preferring to describe just how great they are, they blanche when asked if they are still beating their wives and mistresses.

That's why no one should be surprised that the gazillionaire owner of the Chicago White Sox — Jerry Reinsdorf — was disdainful when he visited last week with state legislators in Springfield to discuss public support for a new stadium.

Crain's Chicago Business recently reported that Reinsdorf will be "seeking $1 billion in public funding for the stadium."

When asked by reporters why he needs a taxpayer subsidy for his stadium, Reinsdorf responded unequivocally.

"I don't want to talk about that," he said, explaining, "now is not the appropriate time."

Pressed for details, Reinsdorf further explained, "Come on, fellas, that's enough" while claiming that "I don't mean to be evasive."

Illinois taxpayers helped pay for the current Sox stadium, which opened in 1991. Its lease expires in 2029, and there has been speculation Reinsdorf may move the team to Nashville, Tenn.

At least, that's the unstated threat behind Reindorf's affable conversations with legislators, too many of whom are clueless about issues related to taxation, budgets and economics.

Unreal estate

Realtor.com, a market website, recently issued a list of states and their median housing prices that provides something of a consumer's guide.

It identifies states with expensive housing but also cites locales that are the "least expensive" for homebuyers.

The median price for single-family homes in Michigan is $280,000, with Saginaw having the state's lowest median price: $149,000.

Illinois' median house price is a staggering $310,000. That's a far cry from the lowest median price in the state — $69,900 — found in Macomb, home of Western Illinois University.

Among the states with the highest median prices are Arizona ($494,000), California ($750,000), Idaho ($574,900), Montana ($660,000), New York ($639,945), Utah ($619,900) and Washington ($649,000).

The median housing prices of the states, besides Michigan, surrounding Illinois are: Wisconsin ($374,900), Indiana ($299,900), Missouri ($300,000), Kentucky ($299,950) and Iowa ($315,000).

Taking a dive

Rivian, the McLean County electric-vehicle manufacturer whose dramatic hiring has reshaped the local economy, is having a hard time.

The company announced last week that it intends to lay off roughly 10 percent of its salaried workforce and expects its production to fall short of expectations.

That's one reason why its stock price, which once approached nearly $200 a share, fell last week to about $10 a share.

The Wall Street Journal indicated production costs remain too high. It said Rivian "lost $43,373 for every unit it delivered to customers in the fourth quarter, worse than the $30,648 per vehicle it lost in the third quarter" of 2023.

The market for electric vehicles, widely considered the future of the auto industry, is not yet what non-expert experts predicted for a variety of reasons.

Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe attributed challenging production issues to "macroeconomic conditions" that include higher interest rates.

Rivian is not alone in experiencing EV woes. So are GM and Ford. But unlike those two behemoths, Rivian produces only EVs.

Rivian is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., but its major manufacturing location is in Normal at the site of the old Diamond-Star facility.

Scaringe voiced long-term optimism about his groundbreaking venture, stating the company hopes to achieve a "gross profit" by the end of the year. But that is premised on how successful the company is in lowering operating costs and redesigning its RIT pickup truck and R1S SUV to "make them cheaper to build."