Darren Bailey, playing to downstate crowd, resumes calling Chicago a ‘hellhole’ at state fair’s GOP day

SPRINGFIELD — Darren Bailey, who had tempered his criticism of Chicago since winning the Republican nomination for governor, returned to calling the state’s largest city a crime-ridden “hellhole” Thursday in playing to a downstate crowd during the GOP’s annual day at the Illinois State Fair.

“Our legislators are going soft on criminals to the point where they’ve made Chicago a hellhole, friends,” Bailey, who is challenging first-term Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, told an audience of several hundred people at the director’s lawn at the state fairgrounds.

“Chicago, that once great city, well it didn’t become a hellhole just because of (Mayor) Lori Lightfoot and (Cook County State’s Attorney) Kim Foxx. Starting with J.B. Pritzker, our leaders are all in cahoots. They’re knee-deep in corruption. And they don’t care about the working people like you and I. They’ve proven that,” Bailey said.

Bailey first used the derogatory description for Chicago in a televised debate with his primary opponents in late May, when he called the city “a crime-ridden, corrupt, dysfunctional hellhole.” He doubled down on the label days later on the way to winning the GOP nomination.

In an op-ed he wrote for the Chicago Tribune this month, Bailey called Chicago a “great city” but one in “decline” and “crisis” due to a lack of accountability under the political leadership of Pritzker, Lightfoot and Foxx, while citing concerns over educational quality and crime.

On Thursday, the state senator from Xenia, a village of 378 people in southern Illinois, went back to making sharp attacks on the city, a frequent target in a longtime game of regional politics that once saw Bailey co-sponsoring legislation to separate Chicago from the rest of Illinois.

Asked by reporters later Thursday if he thought Chicago residents believed they lived in a hellhole, Bailey said, “I believe they do because it’s unsafe. But it’s going to change. Chicagoans deserve better. I call it out, friends, and you know that.”

Bailey has sought support in Chicago and its suburbs. But his latest remarks rekindled questions of how successful he will be in trying to attract voters beyond his downstate Republican base.

Some Republicans have privately expressed concerns that Bailey will hurt the chances of GOP candidates in races for the legislature and other offices by denigrating Chicago as well his remarks that the Holocaust pales in comparison to deaths from abortion, and his comments urging people to “move on” and “celebrate” the Fourth of July even as the gunman who killed seven people in Highland Park remained at large.

Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said he supported the GOP ticket, but when asked by reporters earlier Thursday he would not specifically say that he supported Bailey. Durkin and other party members said voters will look at individual candidates rather than a full Republican slate under Bailey.

“People are going to make decisions on Election Day based on the person who is on for state representative, state senator. It’s not going to be for the ticket,” said Durkin, who has been hopeful the GOP can pick up seats to reduce its 73-45 disadvantage to Democrats in the state House.

“This is a state where we have a large, large growing independent voter (bloc) who are going to be able to make decisions not on the party. It’s going to be on the person,” Durkin said.

State Rep. Tom Demmer of Dixon, the Republican challenger to Democratic incumbent Treasurer Mike Frerichs, said he believed many voters split their ballot between Democrats and Republicans.

But he also acknowledged that informing voters about down-ballot candidates is more difficult when much of the attention is devoted to major contests such as the one for governor.

“Even people who want to be very engaged and involved, they only have so much time to think about these races,” Demmer said.

State Rep. Dan Brady of Bloomington, who’s running against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias to succeed longtime Secretary of State Jesse White, didn’t directly address Bailey’s affect on his candidacy.

“I don’t have the crystal ball that says who helps or hurts me,” he said. “Dan Brady helps me because I’m the best choice for secretary of state and I’m the one that’s working the hardest and I’m the one that can bring both Republicans and Democrats together for secretary of state.”

Even Don Tracy, who on Wednesday was reelected as state GOP chair by the Illinois Republican State Central Committee, sounded noncommittal about Bailey’s affect on the party’s ticket.

“It depends a lot on turnout and it depends on whether he wins,” Tracy said Thursday. “If Bailey wins, it’s obviously going to help everybody. If he loses, he’s not going to help as much. But either way, I think Bailey is going to turn out voters like we have never seen before.”

Bailey’s latest comments on Chicago came a day after Democrats used their state fair rally to lash him and other Republican candidates as too extreme for Illinois, particularly on social issues such as abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Bailey’s criticism of Chicago crime was echoed by Tom DeVore of Sorento, the party’s challenger to Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who also singled out Foxx as a target.

DeVore said “criminals laugh” because “if they’re in Cook, they’re like, ‘Ain’t nothing going to happen to us.’ What does Kwame Raoul do? Nothing.”

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Earlier in the day, Bailey revealed potential campaign problems when he asked county Republican chairmen who gathered for a joint meeting with state central committee members for their contact information — data a well-oiled political operation already would have in hand by this stage of the race.

At that meeting Tracy also acknowledged difficulty in party fundraising.

“Used to be the Democrats were the party of the people and the Republicans were the party of the fat cat donors, the big money. My how times have changed,” Tracy said.

“Now Democrats represent woke corporations, other elites and special interests that have the money that dominates in places like Illinois, and we have become the party of working families,” he said, sidestepping the fact that Pritzker’s predecessor, GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, was a wealthy private equity executive who during his single term bankrolled the state party organization.

Pritzker, a billionaire businessman and an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune who is self funding his campaign, has helped fund the state Democratic Party.

In the three months ending June 30, the state GOP reported raising $464,262 with all but about $50,000 coming from state GOP legislative fundraising committees.

Bailey, a wealthy farmer, sought to use the state fair rally to wage class warfare as well as cultural warfare against Pritzker.

“On Tuesday, I milked a cow. Last week, well J.B. Pritzker, he took a picture with the butter cow,” Bailey said to laughter from the fairgrounds audience, referring to the fair’s iconic cow sculpted from butter.

“Now don’t get me wrong. The butter cow is amazing. It is incredible work. It’s a work of art. But J.B. and his soft billionaire hands were safely on the other side of that protective glass, far from the work. Kind of like in his billionaire bubble,” he said.

Bailey also confirmed he will take part in two scheduled televised debates with Pritzker — Oct. 4 in Normal hosted by WMBD-TV of Peoria, AARP Illinois and Illinois State University and on Oct. 18 in Chicago on WGN-Ch. 9.

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jgorner@chicagotribune.com