I've been seeing commercials for Richard Irvin. How is this guy? Any good on guns? Is he the best candidate to beat Pritzker?

I am leaning toward Richard Irvin and away from Darren Bailey.

I think Irvin has the best chance of displacing a Democrat from the  Governor's office.

In my opinion we would be trading a democrat for a democrat.
I haven't seen anything in Irvin I like...As a mayor, he didn't have to declare party affiliation but, he has voted democrat in the last several primaries.  He is the first primary candidate to start slinging mud lies. Illinois Review...A Take On IL Republican Gov. Candidates  

His running mate Avery B has gone to the dark side.  When we were in Springfield, she was a good Republican.  However recently she was shouting the F-bomb when the down state Republicans did a protest against the democrat mask mandates on the floor and she is involved in the madigan legal shenanigans doing his bidding when he was trying to force sale of public property for one of his cronies.  She voted for the huge gasoline tax that we all suffering through and will get worse automatically for ever.

We are supporting Bailey.  It will be difficult to get a conservative elected in this state but, if it can be done, he will do it.  As our Senator, he introduced a bill to do away with the FOID but, the democrats wouldn't let it be heard.  He has been working for over a year mostly in the North where all our state wide elections are decided building strong support...Will it be enough???  Time will tell.

He is the mayor of Aurora.
We went to the same high school but I belive he was a few years ahead of me. He use to run for different offices and lose back before finally win one. He kind of reminds my of how oberweis use to run for office and always lose.

Legislation proposed by Bailey, that would adversely affect the pensions of state employees who are already retired, will scare off a considerable number of pro 2nd Amendment voters.  He'll have more than a tough time getting enough support to displace Pritzker.

If not Bailey or Irvin, who would be a viable candidate?

Months back I rec'd a call from a poll taker asking me questions about Irvin.  She would read a statement and ask my opinion.  Several of the statements revolved around irvin being the descendant of a slave.

That right there turned me off.  I got the impression he was plying for the black vote by claiming to be a descendant of a slave.

So what?  Does this somehow make him more qualified to be governor?  No it doesn't.  It shows that he is just another typical politician who will say/do anything to garner votes.

I see him no different than pritzker

met someone campaigning for Irvin, they pulled the race card on me when I asked for Irvin's qualifications.

Darren Bailey for the win.  I understand he is ahead in the polls.  He is committed to 2A.

Darren Bailey posting about his speech from Capital steps at poorly attended ISRA IGOLD event today:

"I had the privilege of speaking at the Illinois State Rifle Association rally outside of the Capitol for their Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day. As I told them, no one in this race is a stronger defender of the Second Amendment.
I support eliminating FOID cards. I support constitutional carry. I support every law-abiding Illinoisan being able to defend themselves and their families. And as I’ve stated several times, I would die on my porch before I give up my guns. You can count on me stand up for you and your freedoms and never back down under pressure."

Meanwhile Democrat running as a Republican Irvin:
Pushing for federal anti-gun legislation

If the ISRA is backing Bailey, I have serious concerns.  Don't forget that it was the ISRA that was instrumental in writing and passing the current FOID legislation that further restricts our firearm rights.

If not Bailey or Irvin, who is a viable candidate?

While the ISRA leadership definitely needs to go, having the only Senator that has introduced a bill to abolish the FOID will not taint him.  That is just silly, look at his words... Someone can look for another weaker Republican to lessen the chances of beating the state killing democrats but that isn't what we need.

Irvin is a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns and has backed anti-gun legislation. Let's not forget the city where he is a mayor has strong gun control ordinances. There is a zero percent chance I vote for this candidate.

Bailey really does seem to be the most pro 2A of all the candidates, but it is easy for us to see his voting record on gun issues. I understand people's hesitation because the ISRA is backing Bailey. The ISRA doesn't have the best track record on gun rights issues if you ask me. Strictly speaking from the point of view of firearm freedoms, Bailey does seem to be the best choice.

While the ISRA was busy writing and passing their anti-gun bill, we (IllinoisCarry) were working through Bailey to get changes to the bill.  At one point, the sponsor was agreeing to our changes but, he never followed through and just ran the clock out on end of session and passed it with the bad parts in it.  The "Republican Leadership" was wanting Bailey to "not be vocal about the "Republican" senators that might vote for it.  With that threat, we were able to peal off most of the "Republican" support for the bill with his help.

When considering a candidate, I like to take into account any obstacles or issues that will cost them tens of thousands of votes.  I want a Republican candidate who has a decent chance of beating Pritzker.  

Darren Bailey sponsored SJFCA0010, which will drive a lot of pro 2nd Amendment retired state employees toward other Republican candidates.  This particular piece of legislation, along with comments Bailey has made, may be a deal breaker.

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=110&GA=102&DocTypeId=SJRCA&DocNum=10&GAID=16&LegID=135771&SpecSess=&Session=

While public money should be spent conservatively, how much public money a candidate received should also be taken into account when determining the electability of a candidate.  Darren Bailey has received over $84,000 per year in subsidies totaling over $2,100,000.  

https://farm.ewg.org/persondetail.php?custnumber=A03129520

Darren Bailey might be a good man, but is he electable?

Then you have to ask WHO is electable? You can't please everyone. I've already been told by pro-gun union boys that they would rather vote democrat than vote for Rabine.

Who is the most electable Republican candidate in your opinion?

This is one example of how the democrats get their strong union support: Dems support at taxpayer expense

And this is just a drop in the bucket of what the democrats give us:Democrat legislation passed last year

We can't afford to let a democrat or a democrat posing as a Republican get back in the Governor's seat.

Obviously, it will be a VERY VERY hard to get any good person in the IL Gov. seat.  Bailey is our guy.  He was our Rep., then Senator, and not Gov. hopeful.  He has been running hard for nearly a year and a half with heavy concentration in Cook and North where the battles are won.  He has major recognition and support throughout the state.  I know him very well.  if it can be done by a good man, he will do it...Question is, can he overcome all those voters that get taxpayer funded handouts from the dems.?  On the current path, the state will definitely crumble...The underfunded retirements, the increasing taxation and shrinking tax paying resident numbers will continue the state's spiral down till things collapse.  It may be too late already.
I wish I could post about something good some time but it is just hard to come up with anything!

I attended a rifle match, a pistol match and a gun show last weekend.  Republican candidates and support for the 2nd Amendment were discussed.  I did not have the opportunity to talk with any teachers, but they generally vote Democrat.

Bailey has some ground to make up.  Quite a few of the people I had a chance to chat with are retired state employees, relatives of retired state employees or close friends of retired state employees.

Retired state employees who fear he will greatly reduce the amount of money they receive for their pensions are 100% against Bailey.  The number of years the state employees paid into their pension funds ranges from 32 years to 44 years.

I can understand their concerns.

Voting Bailey after reading the replies. Thanks guys.

I will also vote for Bailey but I just want to warn you downstate folks that I have seen zero commercials for him up here in Chicago burbs.

Every commercial is either Irvin, Sullivan,  or Fat Bastard.

Any "republican" from IL is a moderate democrat at best. Especially one from Aurora, no less.

Bailey is yet another pull your nose and throw the lever for in this glorious Demokrat state.

Bailey was our State Rep., and Senator.  We know him as a friend and worked through his office to try to get some of the crap out of the ISRA's FOID modernization bill...

He is as conservative as they come and dedicated to his principals.  It will be hard to get a good man in the IL Governor's office, but there will be no holding my nose when I vote for him.

I should have worded that better. I will have no issue pulling mine for him either. You just have the usual suspects, both on this forum like above and even family/friends who may feel that "holding their nose" is as good as they think they will get.

I get that...especially with unending barrage of blatant lies the Irvine campaign are pumping out.  These are evil folks.

Here in Lake Co the only ads I'm seeing are for Sullivan, Irvin, and Jabba

It appears a major donor is stepping up for Bailey in the next few days...That should help with Northern advertising.

Republican candidates are wasting money advertising in Cook, DuPage and Lake.  Any democrat candidate will mainly campaign in cook and win the office due to population density.

ALL politicians become self serving eventually

Personally I am fed up w/ the spam political texts from all of them.  Block one number, same asshole candidate spams me again from a different number

Bailey gained Trump's endorsement the other day.  Should help in the primary.

I am active in two gun clubs and keep politically active locally.  The prevailing theme I am hearing among those who will vote in the Primary Election is "Not sure, Not Bailey."

Why would gun people not want Bailey.  He is the most pro-gun candidate standing.  I suspect those folks are union and will be supporting Pritzker because the demcrats pay off unions with tax payer dollars.  They just gave teachers extra "mental health" days and ISP and others 5 years earlier retirement here just before elections.  The unions are putting these demcrats in office and then everyone suffers from their policies.  We worked beside union lobbyists in Springfield we have seen them in action...
A judge in one of the court cases said IL doesn't have a union pension under funding problem, they have an over promising problem.  It isn't sustainable.

I know a lot of union folks that do not support their leadership and vote according to their concience not based on dictates and propaganda put out by decrats and union leaders.  

It is a hot button issue but, it has to be dealt with some day  

Illinois households owe $110,000 each for state's $530 billion pension debt, Wirepoints says

View Quote

The people who I have interacted with while circulating petitions, attending public meetings, chatting with potential voters, encouraging people to register to vote, etc., are a mix of union members, non-union people, retired people and small business owners, so your union angle is not going to wash.  Most of these people are non-union and they're white, black, hispanic, asian American, straight, gay, etc.  

They do not trust Bailey.  They will not be supporting Pritzker or Bailey in the upcoming elections and neither will I.  

Bailey is not the only candidate who has proposed legislation to eliminate the FOID card or other legislation to support firearm owners. There are other Republican candidates who are pro 2nd Amendment.  

Even if Bailey's ideas about how to solve problems in Illinois are 180 degrees from what a lot of other people are thinking, he could have earned the trust of more registered voters had he been more forthcoming.  It would have been in his best interest to not dodge questions about important issues, other than firearm rights, when asked direct questions and spoken his mind about what needs to be done truthfully.

We need a candidate who we believe can beat Pritzker, and who we can trust.

You have failed to articulate what issues people are lacking trust on?
What issues has he refused to respond on?

Name the Republican candidates that have introduced a bill to do away with the FOID.

Latest polling has Darren within the margin of error with Lying Irvin which is remarkable considering how many more millions he has spent.  Bailey's campaign pockets are about to get much deeper in the next few days so he should close that gap once the money kicks in.  The others running aren't even on the radar of pollsters.

Darren addressing some of the Irvin lies... 2-minutes

Bailey needs to answer directly when people ask what his plan is to help small businesses thrive in the future in Illinois.

Many in Illinois would like to know why a lot of the state funded work done on highways and infrastructure is being performed by out of state contractors who use materials sourced from out of state and who do not employ Illinois residents.  What is Bailey's position on this issue?

Bailey needs to answer directly when asked about all the tax increases on Illinois residents he has supported in the past.

Bailey needs to answer directly when asked if he would consider signing legislation to tax pensions of all Illinois residents regardless of whether they are state employees, self employed or were employed in the private sector.  If this is being considered, it needs to be discussed openly.

Bailey needs to answer directly when asked questions about Critical Race Theory being taught in state funded public schools.  He also needs to answer questions about future pension and benefits packages for teachers that will no doubt make many of the teachers unhappy.  Terminating tenure for teachers that do not meet minimum standards needs to be discussed.

Bailey needs to answer retired state employees directly when they ask if they give up part of their pensions, what will Bailey demand from people living off the system who never worked a day in their lives.

Bailey needs to answer directly when asked what he would do to pressure the legislature to pass legislation that stops them from not putting the money deducted from state employees checks for pensions into the pension funds.

Bailey needs to answer more directly why he has accepted over 2.1 million dollars of subsidies, yet criticizes people who expect the state of Illinois to keep it's promise to people who have paid into the the pension funds for 30 to 50 years.  People who are not retired state employees expect a direct answer.

Terms limits is an important issue and many in Illinois do not think anyone who has served in the legislature should be entitled to a pension, or medical benefits, that exceeds what people have access to in the private sector.  This issue needs to discussed openly by Bailey.

Some of these issues may appear to some to be concerns of only  state employees, but a lot of other people in the private sector would also like to know Bailey's position.  I would guess about one third of the people I have had a chance to chat with about these issues were state employees and the other two thirds are not.

Many of the people I've had a chance to meet over the past several months don't want someone who is running for office to tell people what they want to hear or to give a vague answer on a serious issue, they want someone to give a direct answer.  Even if a member of the public does not agree with the candidate on a particular issue, being honest and direct would earn them their vote.

Being a pro 2nd Amendment candidate is a plus, but being a single issue candidate won't earn the trust of most of the voting public.

Boy, that is a lot to unpack.  I'm surprised that Bailey has anything to talk about at his events with "not answering" any of those questions...and being untrustworthy.
I may be able to "out" him on some of it, but I don't have time right now.  We are getting ready for our first Lincoln Day Dinner here in white county and Valinda & I are Volunteer Bailey county coordinators so we have a lot going on...

In the mean time, since you must have a candidate who is honest and you trust, please share who that is and explain where they are on all of these issues you listed...

Mike

These questions were not asked of Bailey all at once.  They were asked over a period of time at different events.

So far, I have not heard anything negative about Paul Schimpf.  Several people I know downstate and a few people who live between I-72 and I-80 had a lot of positive things to say about him.  I don't believe he has the media budget that other candidates have at their disposal, which is hindering his ability to educate the public about his background.

Like him or not, trust him or not, Republican candidates are going to have a tough time beating Richard Irvin.

We like Schimpf also.  We dealt with him on guns when he was in Springfield and he was always good.  But, he has no game and lacks salability.  He already ran for AG and lost in the past.  His polling is nearly non-existent.
But, is he trustworthy by your standards?  How has he answered each of your questions you claim Bailey failed to disclose making him untrusted?  

Bailey just got $2.5 million dropped into his campaign with more to come.Bailey $2.5 Million

The only thing Irvin has had working for him is donor $$$.  He is not liked and he seldom does pressers.  When he does, it doesn't go well.  He is a Democrat running as a Repbulican and a complete lier in his attacks on Bailey.
Irvin Presser

We had a Republican Candidate Dinner in White County last Sat.  To commemorate the nearly daily Lying Irvin fliers everyone is getting in the mail, I made up some "Not a Fan of Irvin Fans" and passed them out at the event.  Here locally, everyone is sick of these mailings. Not a Fan of Irvin Fan  

Also, Darren just came out with a couple of new ads:Bailey #1
Bailey #2

No one that I have engaged in conversation in our area have had any direct contact with Schimpf or attended public speaking events where Schimpf was the primary speaker.

I shot at a rifle match last Saturday and another firearm event yesterday.  Even though Schimpf is well liked, no one I've spoken to in the past week thinks that he has any chance at all of winning the primary election.  Only one person mentioned Bailey and wasn't sure whether or not he was going to vote for Bailey.

I receive flyers from the Irvin campaign at least twice a week.  I get at least two texts from the Irvin campaign every day.  Every time I block a number, another Irvin ad pops up on a different number.  I am guessing that somehow Irvin got our telephone numbers from the Republican party.

I also frequently receive flyers from the Democrats explaining how terrible Bailey, Sullivan and Irvin are.  I can't remember the last time I saw anything referencing Schimpf.

As I stated...Schimpf is a good and capable guy.  But, he has no campaign and really lacks charisma.  We lose good people to the folks with money buying influence and groups getting their investment back in tax payer dollars.
It is a very flawed system but, it is the system we have.

I've been seeing Bailey ads lately on tv on Chicago television. Pro-life, pro-2nd.

I've also seen ads against Bailey calling those things "too conservative" for IL.

I believe Irvin to be another snake in the grass. He was buddies with Zero the hero, JB, and BLM. Hard pass for me.

I've seen that commercial.  In what universe are "fighting for unborn babies and gun rights" a negative??? Only in a democrat run state like IL!!!!

I do not trust Irvin.

I am definitely sick of the constant attack mailers (2-4x a week) and texts(at least 1 a day) I get from his campaign. If I didn't know anything else I wouldn't vote for him based on the constant spam of bullshit.

I'll vote him in the general if I have to, but Bailey gets my vote in the primary (hear that Irvin campaign you can save a few bucks and stop mailing me now).

so do I but I feel that all of them are just shitty moderate dems posing as conservatives.....

Irvin is a bad excuse for democrat that he is.  He has lied about everyone including himself.

Bailey and Schimpf are both solid conservatives.  I've known them both for years and never seen any variation from conservative principals.

One of the others is a dem backed liberal not sure about the rest.

This year would have been a great year for an independent.

I agree with theory of independents but in this climate, it is just an excuse to throw away your vote.  I understand the frustrations of the two party system but, in major races, it will always be one of the two.  It is time to start trying to turn the ship and we will never get it done if people don't start doing what is right.  Dems are destroying us and those that vote for them are copeable.  The only hope we have is that the Republicans get a nad and moral compass and start acting like Republicans.  Let the democrats cater to the special interests...woke...baby killers...greenies...gun banners...freeby folks...plump border crossers...cop haters...criminal lovers...military weakeners...college debt forgivers...and the unions that help vote them into power...It is time for the good people to stand up and unite...just do what is right!

I’ve not yet figured out who I like. All the ads are pissing me off though.

So what do you consider "doing what is right"?

I'm done being told to vote for the lesser of two evils. Done.

I'll vote Bailey in the primary then sit home when the general is between prickster and Irvin. Or I'll vote for an independent.

doing what is right is voting for the best candidate.  If you want to waste your vote in the general in order to get Pritzker elected, that is your business.  Doing what is right comes down to your reason for helping Pritzker win.  
What part of the democrats agenda do you support?