Drinks and interruptions: Pritzker, Bailey meet in only governor debate of election cycle

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican Darren Bailey spent an hour talking over and accusing each other of stretching the truth in their only planned meeting of the campaign Tuesday night.

The WTTW forum was supposed to be a question-and-answer session, but Bailey quickly revealed his strategy to interrupt Pritzker on nearly every question, launching the event into a full-blown debate.  The candidates were asked about their plans on a variety of policy issues and Pritzker often listed his previous accomplishments while Bailey used his time to slam Pritzker’s leadership.

“I wish you’d stop interrupting,” Pritzker said midway through the debate. “I do think people ought to hear what we have to say.”

The pair met for two debates in 2022 ahead of Pritzker’s 12-point victory. Four years later, many of the positions for the two candidates remained the same, and the relationship remained heated.

The candidates sparred on state spending, education funding, safety net hospitals, the SAFE-T Act, the Chicago Bears, Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center and more.

But much of the debate centered on the relationship between the federal government and the state. Bailey urged the audience to “fill up your glass of water or your iced tea or your lemonade” and “take a drink” every time the governor mentioned President Donald Trump. He reminded them to do so each time the governor invoked the president.

Bailey, who has spent the campaign trying to appeal to moderate voters in the Chicago area, tired of several federally focused questions.

“I think we’re all ready for the tariffs to end. I think we’re ready for the war in Iran to end,” Bailey said when asked how he’d respond to Trump’s tariffs. “But these questions, this sounds like this is a debate about the presidency of the United States with President Trump. That’s something the president deals with. We need to be focused on what we can do here in Illinois.”

Bailey, a farmer, also punted on a question about what he’d like to see in the next federal farm bill, saying “I’m not running for president like JB Pritzker is.”

“I’m flattered that you think I could get elected president of the United States,” Pritzker retorted at one point.

Instead, Bailey said Illinois lawmakers should lower the estate tax. When challenged by Pritzker to endorse the Family Farm Preservation Act that would cap that tax, Bailey said “I need to read it,” pointing out that Democrats haven’t passed it despite controlling all levers of state government.

Budget issues

The candidates spent considerable time debating education funding. Pritzker listed Illinois’ improvement in various rankings of test scores and public school funding. But he said more money is still needed, despite the fact Illinois has increased funding education funding by about $3 billion in his tenure under the Evidence-Based Funding model.

“The very question from Jackson County schools suggests that we’re not up to par like JB just said that we were,” Bailey said in reference to a southern Illinois reporter’s question. “The point’s made clear: Evidence-Based Funding is not working because Evidence-Based Funding suggests that more money is the answer.”

“More money is not always the problem,” he said, instead suggesting the state should reduce unfunded mandates. He also pledged to replace the entire State Board of Education if he’s elected.

Pritzker wouldn’t commit to meeting Chicago Public Schools’ demand more funding during this fall’s veto session.

“We can’t just magically come up with $150 million when one school district or another asks for it,” he said.

More broadly on the budget, Bailey has pledged to institute a DOGE-style (Department on Government Efficiency) review process if he’s elected.

“At two in the morning, you’re given this budget, 5,000 pages, and you’re told to pass it,” Bailey said. “Even the Democrats themselves don’t know what’s in there. It’s time for a forensic audit.”

Pritzker sidestepped a question about putting a millionaire’s tax on the ballot and instead criticized Bailey for voting against the budget when he was in the legislature.

“If we continue to tax the rich, that’s a socialist mentality and we can’t afford to do that,” Bailey said.

Public safety

The candidates also dove into public safety issues. Bailey said Pritzker’s decision to significantly reduce available care at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in Anna will limit mental health services in southern Illinois and put pressure on law enforcement.

Pritzker defended the decision for the abuse-plagued facility.

“I said at the very beginning-that if we could not fix it because the personnel weren’t fixing themselves, or being fired, or laid off, then we needed to close that facility,” Pritzker said. “And I followed through on my promise.”

The SAFE-T Act, the 2021 law that included the elimination of cash bail in Illinois, also got another vetting four years after it was a dominant issue in the governor’s race.

Pritzker said he is “always open” to amending the law, which puts the onus on state’s attorneys and judges to determine whether a defendant is jailed while awaiting trial. but the governor didn’t elaborate when asked to assess how the law is working and instead brought up Bailey’s support for lessening gun restrictions.

Bailey pointed to recent crimes in Chicago involving people on electronic monitoring. The law allows people on monitoring to have two free roaming periods each week, which Bailey said needs to change. Democratic Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke has also called on lawmakers to amend electronic monitoring laws.

But Bailey also said the whole SAFE-T Act should be repealed, prompting Pritzker to retort that Bailey’s solution was returning to a cash bail system “where the most violent criminals can buy their way out of jail.”

Bailey also criticized Pritzker for having an Illinois State Police security detail.

Bears and other issues

There was only brief discussion about the Chicago Bears’ stadium plans. Pritzker reiterated how the Bears are a private business and the state isn’t in the business of subsidizing them, though it could fund related infrastructure projects.

“I’m just glad I’m not going to be known as the governor that lost the Bears,” Bailey said when asked to explain his plan to facilitate their move to Arlington Heights. He accused Pritzker of delaying engagement with the team until Indiana stepped in with a massive subsidy package.

On housing, Bailey suggested Illinois needs to lower property taxes before he ripped Pritzker about the state’s lackluster population growth.

On lowering utility prices, Pritzker repeated he will push lawmakers to pass the POWER Act in November — a bill many advocates believe will help reduce energy costs by requiring data centers to supply their own power.

Bailey criticized the state’s two major climate and energy bills passed under Pritzker, which aim to take fossil fuels offline by 2045. Critics say that deadline disincentivizes coal and gas plants from investing in the state, driving up prices and reducing available production.

“We’re phasing out reliable energy far too soon,” he said. “I have no problem with bringing on what we suppose is clean energy, but we all know the wind doesn’t always blow, and the sun doesn’t always shine.”

Pritzker’s latest energy plan has focused on battery storage as a means of increasing reliability.

On Medicaid funding and struggles many Illinois hospitals are facing because of federal funding cuts, Bailey suggested lawmakers “reprioritize spending” while Pritzker called for universal health care and faulted cuts at the federal level — prompting Bailey to call for a “drink.”

Independent candidate Collin Corbett was not on the stage Tuesday night, garnering only a brief mention.

“The good news is there is an alternative to the two party circus you saw on display tonight,” he said in a statement. “My running mate, Carolyn (Schofield), and I have developed common sense plans to get our state moving in the right direction. Send a message to the broken two party system by voting for a mainstream Independent for Governor.”

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