TKR Tuesday: Primary Season Heats Up and a 'W' for Female Sports
A third candidate emerges in GOP governor's primary race and legislation bars transgenders from competing as women
Happy Tuesday! To the fisherman who the newsletter…did you hear about the 660-foot stingray? A Cambodian fisherman caught what is believed to be the world’s largest recorded freshwater fish.
Weighing in at 661 pounds, the urogymnus polyepis stingray takes the title.
Happy line castin’ this summer.
On with TKR Tuesday:
ILLINOIS GOP PRIMARIES NEAR FINISH LINE
One week from today, Illinoisans will go to the polls for – extremely late – Primary Day. Early voting’s been available for a while now but June 28 is the official voting day.
All state House districts are up for re-election. On the federal level, all 17 Congressional seats will be voted on. Throw in state Attorney General, Treasurer, Secretary of State (Jesse White is not running again) and the many Supreme Court and Appellate Court judges, there’s a lot of decisions for voters to make this summer.
Those races and seats, while important, don’t have the benefit of the widespread media attention the GOP governor’s primary is receiving.
In the print version of this past Sunday’s Chicago Tribune (still a subscriber, enjoy reading the hard copy Sunday paper with coffee and bagels), longtime political writer Rick Pearson wrote a lengthy piece on the state of the Republican party in Illinois. He interviewed former governors, congressional leaders and party insiders, none of whom seem to be enthused about the current direction of the GOP.
As for this year’s GOP Republican Gubernatorial nominee, recent polling reveals a two-horse race: Richard Irvin and Darren Bailey.
Irvin, the mayor of Aurora, was thought to be the front-runner in early polling. But strong performances in televised debates – as well as Irvin’s overall dodginess – catapulted Bailey, a farmer and state congressman from downstate Xenia, into the lead one week out of final voting.
Would a Bailey nomination be best for the Republican Party and give incumbent J.B. Pritzker a real fight come November?
Voters may not be sure, but it appears Pritzker does know the answer to that question.
From the Tribune article:
When Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the Pritzker-backed Democratic Governors Association weighed in to the GOP primary with ads promoting Bailey as “too conservative for Illinois” in an effort to hobble Irvin’s better-funded candidacy, it’s a line Irvin might have wished he could have uttered publicly to claim that Bailey was too extreme to win a general election. But in today’s GOP, Irvin would find himself under attack for such criticism and, indeed, might embolden Bailey’s candidacy.
Irvin’s modified effort is to try to paint Bailey as unelectable against Pritzker, for reasons not directly stated.
Bailey is arguably the most uber-conservative of the candidates based on his stances on issues such as abortion and gun control. Inarguably, he has taken the most extreme positions on certain issues – in 2020, he co-sponsored a bill that would split the state in half. He also referred to Chicago as a “hellhole” during a debate last month. His unabashed support of former President Donald Trump makes swing voters uneasy.
The Tribune article quoted former Illinois Republican Governor Jim Edgar. He may as well be talking directly about Bailey’s candidacy:
I think if we move too far to the right, we run the risk of being a permanent minority party in Illinois. Long term, and even short term, I don’t think that (far-right) positioning of the party is going to mean positive results for us because I just don’t think that’s where the vast majority of Illinoisans are today.
Pritzker understands all of this and with a multi-million dollar war chest, is spending money on ads labeling Bailey as “too conservative” for Illinois. With Bailey polling as well as he has this month, and as the incumbent, Pritzker gets a head start on primary election ads while GOP candidates duke it out.
All of the infighting and confusion amongst the rank and file raises an important question about the GOP: could a slightly more moderate third candidate emerge, one that voters believe has a better chance at defeating Pritzker in November?
And could primary voters rally behind a candidate whom they may be not completely aligned with ideologically, but believe has a better chance to win a general election?
That ‘winning’ candidate might be Jesse Sullivan.
Sullivan, a businessman from Petersburg, has consistently polled in third or fourth place behind Bailey, Irvin and in some cases, Gary Rabine, a McHenry County businessman.
Monday morning, Sullivan appeared on Fox News Monday morning and took an indirect jab at Bailey on the topic of school curriculums.
Also in the interview, Sullivan again fired back at Bailey’s extremism when asked about his popularity in the city of Chicago:
I’m the only candidate that can bridge this divide between Chicago and the rest of the state. My other opponent…co-sponsored a bill to separate Chicago from the rest of the state. We need someone who can really lead with our conservative values but also win around Chicago and that’s what I can do.
There is momentum behind Sullivan’s candidacy.
According to Politico, a slew of GOP politicians are lining up behind Sullivan.
One of those is Rep. Ryan Spain, who flipped his support from Irvin to Sullivan and is hosting an event for Sullivan tonight in Peoria.
If history is any guide, we can’t underestimate the power of television in these party machinations.
When matched in a debate with the bland, roly-poly Pritzker, which candidate provides the most striking visual counter?
When voters go to the polls, issues should matter over optics. But electability also counts.
One week out of the primary, the electability factor for Sullivan gains steam.
INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING SHOWS LEADERSHIP IN WOMEN’S RIGHTS
We are on the cusp of the 50th anniversary of one of the more groundbreaking pieces of civil rights legislation in the history of our country, that of Title IX.
Fifty years ago, President Richard Nixon signed a law to forbid sex-based discrimination at all federally-funded educational institutions. Many advocates believe Title IX, after the right to vote, the important piece of legislation in the history of women’s rights.
Although not as transformative as Title IX, another essential prescription protecting women’s rights was passed over the weekend.
FINA, the governing body for swimming, voted overwhelming to restrict transgender persons from competing against biological females.
From Reuters, FINA Sports Medicine Vice Chairman David Gerrard said:
I would respectfully suggest that the transgender community look at the research, and the figures are unequivocally clear in the advantage young males have over mature women in sport.
Garrard went on to say that he hopes FINA’s decision will now make it easier for other sports governing bodies to do the same.
Data and science backs this decision, but quite frankly, it’s a matter of common sense.
Elite male athletes are stronger than elite female athletes. Elite male athletes are faster than elite female athletes. We have centuries of documented proof.
What’s happened with this ‘controversy’ is it’s become feed chow in our nation’s culture wars.
Smart people know biological men should not be competing as women and vice-versa. But they are worried about trends where they must get away from basic facts and stick with ideology. If an individual says what they actually believe but that belief isn’t part of the approved orthodoxy, then they get hated/piled on and that terrifies people.
So they abandon science because it’s ideologically inconvenient, and quite frankly, safer. They are scared of going against the mainstream and being chastised and attacked on Twitter or another social media outlet where we now know the algorithms are skewed towards ideology – not science – based arguments.
When challenged, those arguing for “equality” on this issue haven’t really thought it through. All they have is emotion and feelings and well, that’s not a mature answer in a world run by grown ups.
Happy 50th anniversary to Title IX. And happy future days to young women athletes all over the country who get to train and compete – appropriately – against their gender peers.
THEO EPSTEIN LEAVES CHICAGO
Almost two years after quitting the Cubs, Theo Epstein is finally leaving Chicago.
Epstein was hired by owner Tom Ricketts in late 2011 to rebuild the franchise and win an elusive World Series. He accomplished that goal in 2016. He resigned as the Cubs top baseball executive in 2020 but remained a Chicago resident.
According to the Tribune, Epstein is moving his family back to the east coast.
Friday, Epstein was spotted all over the city as part of a “Lost Weekend” final pub crawl before jetting off. He spent a few hours in the afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Doesn’t this look like a guy enjoying retirement?
On behalf of all Cubs fans, thank you Theo for your duty and service.
May you find future glory with another franchise.
We’ll never forget 2016.
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