IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 9/3/2025
Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR EMERGES
He hasn’t yet publicly declared a gubernatorial bid, but conservative activist Ted Dabrowski sure looks like a man running for the state’s highest office.In recent weeks, Dabrowski, a Republican from Wilmette, formally created a campaign committee and filed paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections indicating that he’ll self-fund the organization. He also lent the campaign $250,000 and then an additional $100, state records filed Tuesday indicate. Also Tuesday, the Wirepoints nonprofit research and media company announced Dabrowski has resigned as its president and no longer will write columns for the organization. Wirepoints research director John Klingner resigned to join Dabrowski’s campaign, too, the company revealed. Wirepoints founder and executive editor Mark Glennon also resigned. Other candidates for the GOP nomination include DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick of Woodridge and former congressional hopeful Joe Severino of Lake Forest.
ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICAN TAKES ON OPEN SENATE SEAT
In a sign that the Illinois Republican Party at least has a pulse, the party’s likely candidate for the U.S. Senate seat now held by retiring Democrat Dick Durbin has put $2 million into his campaign. In an announcement today, Don Tracy, a Springfield lawyer who formerly served as chair of the Illinois Republican Party, said he has donated $2 million to his budding Senate campaign. “This shows how committed I am to winning this race so all of Illinois has a leader working for them to lower the cost-of-living and defend our Midwestern values,” Tracy said in a news release. “I’ve spent my career fighting for Illinois working families and I’m ready to take that fight to Washington.” According to his campaign, the $2 million is a loan, which means it may or may not be paid back through other contributions. Tracy previously had signaled he was prepared to help his campaign get going financially, but much more would be needed.
PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR DISPUTE CHICAGO’S NEED FOR GUARD TROOPS
* Capitol News Illinois | As Trump declares ‘we’re going in,’ Pritzker says ‘terror and cruelty is the point’: Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday he expects Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to employ the same aggressive strategies they used in Los Angeles earlier this summer after President Donald Trump said he will deploy the National Guard to Chicago. The information, Pritzker said, was not directly communicated to him, but rather gleaned from anonymous sources in the federal government, military and “well-sourced” news reports. He said he’s been told members of the Texas National Guard are being readied for deployment to Chicago and many of the same federal ICE and Homeland Security groups that worked in L.A. are being relocated to Chicago.