With three Black women among those being mentioned to replace retiring U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, only one–Loren Underwood–has won in a formerly Republican area.
Now comes a Friend of McHenry County Blog with some perspective on the race:
Underwood allies attack Pritzker and Stratton
314 Action says its mission is getting more people with science backgrounds into office.
They released a poll in April [before Durbin announced his retirement and before Pritizer announced his support of Julia Stratton] showing Lauren Underwood leading the field for Senate
UNDERWOOD LEADS ILLINOIS SENATE PRIMARY IF DURBIN RETIRES – 3.14 Action
A new poll commissioned by 314 Action Fund shows that Representative Lauren Underwood (IL-14), a nurse and public health expert, leads the Illinois Senate ballot in every test, should Senator Dick Durbin retire. In a potential four-way race, a three-way race, and after introducing each candidate’s biography, Representative Underwood stood above the rest to Illinois voters.
Now comes a tweet (scroll down to bottom of page to see it) where they insinuate JB Pritzker and Juliana Stratton are trying to buy the Senate seat that Dick Durbin is retiring from.
The group says that the seat is not for sale.
The line takes on a double-meaning because not only is the billionaire Pritzker trying to clear the field for his handpicked candidate, Stratton, but also because Pritzker was on phone calls with Rod Blagojevich that were wiretapped by the FBI.
Blagojevich is often accused of trying to “sell” the Senate seat that Barrack Obama once occupied. This is perhaps an oversimplification; however, Blagojevich has acknowledged he wanted to make a “political deal.”
One person who wanted to make a deal for the Senate seat was JB Pritzker. His pitch to Blagojevich was that the treasurer at the time, Alexi Giannoulias, should be given the Senate seat. This would cause the treasurer’s office to be vacant.
Blagojevich asked Pritzker if that was the one he was interested in. Pritzker confirmed that was the one he wanted.
As treasurer, he would have been in charge of investing the state’s money: billions of dollars.
That is what Pritzker would have gotten, but I am not sure what, if anything, Pritzker wanted to give to Blagojevich that would have been part of this deal — either it is in the tape and I don’t remember or it is in part of the tape that has not been released (which, according to Blagojevich, more than 90 percent of the recordings have not been released).
Blagojevich ultimately did not make that deal with Pritzker — and he later got sent to prison where he remained for over 8 years until Trump released him.
Roland Burris was appointed, although he did not run for reelection because Democrats pressured him not to. Democrats believed Burris was damaged goods because of the Blago scandal and he would lose the general election. Alexi Giannoulias got the nomination for Senate but, ironically, lost the general election to Mark Kirk.
Because Giannoulias decided to run for Senate instead of seeking reelection as treasurer, someone else had to run for treasurer. Pritzker did not have the courage to run even though he wanted to be appointed.
(JB Pritzker, governor of Illinois) (Rod Blagojevich in prison.)
It was Robin Kelly who won the primary for treasurer (she ended up losing the general election to Dan Rutherford).
Kelly’s opponent in the primary was a man named Justin Oberman who was backed by none other than JB Pritzker.
(Screenshot of Google search showing a result from the Chicago Tribune)
Since then, Pritzker and Kelly have often butted heads.
In 2018, Kelly endorsed Daniel Biss for governor, not Pritzker.
In 2021, after Mike Madigan left in shame, Pritzker and Senator Tammy Duckworth endorsed Michelle Harris for Illinois Democratic Party Chair against Kelly who had her own high profile endorsements including Senator Dick Durbin and Cook County Circuit Clerk Iris Martinez.
Kelly won, but the next year Pritzker got his revenge when his favored candidate Lisa Hernandez won.
(C-SPAN footage of Robin Kelly)
Pritzker was able to solidify support for Hernandez through implications that those who went against his wishes would face problems. This was the same carrot and stick bullying tactic that billionaire Bruce Rauner used to keep people in his party in line, albeit less successfully.
(One of the people Rauner unsuccessfully tried bullying using this tactic was Sam McCann, but then years later Sam McCann went to prison — although to be fair, buying a new pickup truck with campaign funds was probably not a wise decision.)
Anyway, Pritzker was accused of racism for forcing out the first black female chair of the Illinois Democratic Party.
So, when 314 Action mentions a Senate seat that “is not for sale” they are saying a lot if you understand Illinois’ political lore, especially JB Pritzker’s sketchy history.
They also point out that Underwood has won in a red district which was touched on in this article.
Stratton has not won in a red district, so the tweet can be seen as an attack on her in that regard.
(From X, formerly Twitter)
314 Action explicitly endorsed Underwood in 2018 so whether their polling is accurate is subject to debate.
They are not the most objective source on this topic, however, what really got my attention was how the tweet went against Pritzker and Stratton.
(Screenshot from 314 Action website)
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This is the first time I have seen a nurse characterized as a scientist.
