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CHICAGO — As the Illinois gubernatorial race heats up, Governor JB Pritzker called out a suburban paper for helping a partisan political PAC. As for Darren Bailey, families impacted by Chicago violence call on the Republican candidate to better connect with the city’s brown and Black communities.

The Chicago City Wire and West Cook News papers have shown up at homes throughout the Chicagoland area. 

In a letter from the ‘JB for Governor’ campaign,’ spokespeople allege that Paddock Publications Inc., the company overseeing The Daily Herald, has shared its postage permit with Local Government Information Services. The Pritzker campaign says that’s the organization led by conservative activist Dan Proft, who they say is behind the mailings. 

In the letter to the Paddock Publications, the Pritzker campaign writes:

“These mailers are specifically designed to mislead readers into thinking they are legitimate journalism when in reality they are unlabeled ads attacking political candidates. Many residents who’ve received these pink slime reports shared that they never subscribed to LGIS and had no interest in receiving them in the first place.” 

Paddock Publications released a statement, saying, in part: “The company does not endorse the content of any of the print jobs it does for vendors, including many newspapers. It neither embraces nor condemns them. It merely prints them.”

The publication goes on to say, “As a result, Paddock Publications has made the decision to cancel commercial printing jobs with LGIS. As an independent newspaper publisher, we want no part of the flame-throwing accusations taking place between Gov. JB Pritzker and LGIS.” 

In a portion of a statement, Proft responds to Pritzker’s campaign, stating:

“If he doesn’t like a television ad, it must be taken off the air. If he doesn’t like a newspaper, it must not be printed of circulated,” Proft stated. “In short, he is a bedwetting, spoiled brat who thinks an election is about his ambitions rather than Illinois families’ aspirations.”

Republican challenger Bailey is getting heat from Father Pfleger and the organization ‘Purpose over Pain,’ a group of parents who’ve lost children to violence. The group led a small Thursday rally outside the John Hancock building, where Bailey rents space.

“The John Hancock building doesn’t represent Chicago, it represents the elite,” Pfleger said. “If Mr. Bailey wants to immerse himself, tell him to give me a call and I can find you an apartment on 79th Street.” 

Currently, the Bailey campaign isn’t running any television ads. But Pfleger and others are disturbed by advertisements that show multiple acts of violence. The ads in question are run by the ‘People Who Play By The Rules PAC,’ also led by Proft.  

“Stop running and condoning comments and commercials that continue racist stereotyping of the Black and brown community,” Pfleger said.  

 A spokesman for the Bailey campaign shared in a statement:  

“We have no communication with or control over this PAC, but Pritzker and his pal Lightfoot have control over the skyrocketing crime in Chicago, but sadly they don’t care about the more than 500 people murdered this year in Chicago or the fact they’re creating new victims every day with their soft-on-crime policies. Pritzker has turned his back on law enforcement and left these communities behind. Darren Bailey’s focus is making Illinois safe and affordable for everyone.” 

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