Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

Tonight, Chris Kennedy claimed that his campaign staff have received sexual harassment training, but just yesterday the Kennedy campaign admitted it had failed to hold such a training. The Kennedy campaign needs to tell voters the truth.

 

REALITY CHECK:

• On Monday, Chris Kennedy’s campaign released a sexual harassment prevention plan that required “all employees [to] receive sexual harassment training by a third party provider.”

• Two days later, Kennedy’s campaign then admitted that it had not held any sexual harassment training for its own staff.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

JB Pritzker believes that supporting Illinois Veterans means supporting opportunities for their families to build better lives. JB is the son and grandson of Navy Veterans, so he understands the sacred obligation we have to those who risk their lives for our country. JB’s plan to support Illinois Veterans will increase education and employment opportunity for Veterans and their families, guarantee safe, stable, and affordable housing options, improve healthcare, and better manage and coordinate Veterans’ services.

 

REALITY CHECK:

• JB will increase funding for Veterans’ educational services, incentivize businesses to hire Veterans and their spouses, and open access to professional licensing and higher education.
• JB will address unsafe living conditions for Illinois Veterans and increase access to affordable housing to reduce Veterans homelessness.
• To improve healthcare options for Illinois Veterans, JB will increase nursing staff in Veterans’ homes and expand access to mental healthcare, particularly in rural areas.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

Dan Biss claims to be a bold progressive, but his own voting record tells a very different story. Biss helped write and pass unconstitutional pension cuts for downstate teachers, university workers, and state employees. He voted for $1.6 billion in Medicaid cuts, limiting collective bargaining, and hundreds of millions in tax breaks for businesses. Biss also voted to increase funding for charter schools by diverting money from public education and to let state government go after people’s wages if they fell behind on their student loans. Dan Biss’ bold hypocrisy shows he’s far from the squeaky-clean progressive he wants voters to think he is.

 

REALITY CHECK:

• Dan Biss “helped write” and led efforts to pass the pension bill that was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it cut pension benefits promised to over 467,000 state workers.
• Biss voted for $1.6 billion in cuts to Medicaid and to strip some public employees of their collective bargaining rights.
• Biss also voted for $216 million in tax breaks for businesses, including $85 million alone for the LaSalle Street financial exchanges that he assails.
• Biss voted to increase charter school funding in Illinois at the expense of the state’s public schools.

• Biss also voted to let state government go after people’s wages if they fell behind on their student loans in 2012.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

In 2013, Biss wrote the unconstitutional bill that cut pension benefits for 467,000 state employees, including teachers and nurses. This followed a 2012 vote where Biss tried to slash healthcare benefits from nearly 80,000 state retirees and retired suburban and downstate teachers. Both of those efforts were opposed by the Illinois AFL-CIO and ruled unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court.

 

REALITY CHECK: 

• Dan Biss “helped write” the unconstitutional pension bill that cut pension benefits promised to over 467,000 state workers, including teachers and nurses.
• Biss also voted to cut 80,000 state retirees from health insurance coverage, which was later ruled unconstitutional.

• Biss’ attacks on working families in the General Assembly earned him the lowest lifetime rating from the IllinoisAFL-CIO of any Democratic State Senator.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

Bruce Rauner stripped critical social services from over one million Illinoisans, stood on the sidelines as Donald Trump attacked immigrant families, and failed to call former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke a racist. But Chris Kennedy thinks he should be “applauded,” and said Rauner “is trying to do what he thinks is best for the state of Illinois.” Following a wave of criticism, Kennedy doubled down, refusing to say if he regretted praising the failed governor.

 

REALITY CHECK:

• Chris Kennedy said Bruce Rauner should be “applauded” for “trying to do what he thinks is best for the state of Illinois.”

• Following a wave of criticism, Kennedy stood by his praise for the failed governor.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

While Dan Biss campaigns on a LaSalle Street tax, his record tells a different story. In the General Assembly, Biss voted for millions in tax breaks for financial exchanges like the ones he assails with the LaSalle Street tax. Explaining his vote, Biss noted that it is because an exchange is a “fundamentally extremely mobile business” that could easily pick up and move out of the state. That hasn’t changed, but it appears that Biss’ stance on the issue has.  

 

REALITY CHECK: 

• In 2012, Dan Biss voted for a bill with $216 million in tax breaks for businesses, with $85 million going directly to tax breaks for financial exchanges.
• Defending his vote, Biss said he supported the tax breaks for a “fundamentally extremely mobile business” like a financial exchange to keep the tax-generating business from leaving the state.
• Financial exchanges are still “fundamentally extremely mobile,” so when and why did Dan Biss change his mind?

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

While Chris Kennedy campaigns against the cost of college and the exodus of college-bound students from Illinois, a closer look shows that his record and his rhetoric doesn’t add up. As chairman of the University of Illinois’ Board of Trustees, Kennedy oversaw five consecutive tuition hikes and plummeting in-state enrollment, with the percentage of in-state freshmen dropping to a “new low.” During his tenure, African-American enrollment also plummeted by nearly 14%. Despite the student exodus under Kennedy’s tenure, he balked at the university’s decision to freeze tuition after five years of consecutive hikes, calling it “a big mistake.”

REALITY CHECK:

• From 2010-2014 Kennedy presided over five tuition hikes at U of I, raising tuition by nearly 30% in total.

• While Kennedy was chairman of the University of Illinois’ Board of Trustees, in-state enrollment plummeted, dropping to a “new low.”

• African-American enrollment dropped from 2,472 students in 2009 to 2,126 students in 2014, a nearly 14% decrease while Kennedy was board chair.

• Kennedy called the university’s decision to freeze tuition after five years of consecutive hikes under his leadership “a big mistake.”

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

JB Pritzker has spent more than a decade creating thousands of jobs throughout Illinois, including in 2004 when he helped create the Midwest Venture Summit. JB has played a critical role in making Chicago one of the top tech hubs in the world. JB was named co-chair of ChicagoNEXT, a council aimed at creating tech jobs in 2012, and that same year he founded 1871, which has helped create over 7,000 jobs in Illinois. In 2014, JB spearheaded the first Chicago Venture Summit, aiming to connect venture capitalists with Chicago’s promising tech startups.

 

REALITY CHECK:

• JB Pritzker was pivotal in creating the Midwest Venture Summit in 2004, which showcased local startups seeking investors.

• JB founded 1871 in 2012, creating more than 7,000 jobs and turning Illinois into one of the top tech hubs in the world.

• That same year, JB was named co-chair of ChicagoNEXT, a council tasked with creating jobs and boosting digital technology investment in Chicago.

• As chair of ChicagoNEXT, JB spearheaded the creation of the Chicago Venture Summit, aimed at connecting venture capitalists with Chicago startups.

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Thursday, March 1, 2018

 

Chicago, IL – A claim that spurred backlash from Cairo students themselves landed Chris Kennedy in hot water with fact checkers. The Better Government Association rated Kennedy’s claim that “zero percent of kids in Cairo are college-ready” as false.

BGA: Fact Check: Chris Kennedy Flunks Data Interpretation 101 With Cairo College Readiness Claim

Kennedy tried to make a point about inadequate state school funding when he declared “zero percent of kids in Cairo are college-ready.”

But school officials in that deep southern Illinois community report a majority of current seniors have already received acceptance offers from at least one college.

Kennedy backtracked on his original statement when news media sought clarification, though he did not admit error. In the second go-around, he pointed to slightly better numbers from a different set of state-collected test data. […]

The confusing set of numbers and assertions reeled out by Kennedy to bolster his comments about Cairo students make it clear he didn’t do his homework before claiming initially that no members of the graduating class of 2018 were prepared for college. For that reason, we rate his statement False.

“Chris Kennedy should get his facts straight and take time to understand the needs of the communities he’s so thoroughly insulting from the campaign trail,” said Pritzker communications director Galia Slayen. “Public education is the lifeblood of the Illinois economy and students are the future of this state, but Kennedy seems intent on badmouthing them instead of bringing people together to move Illinois forward.”

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