IVCA Provides Updates for State Legislative Issues – 06/22/22

Illinois Venture Capital Association Illinois Legislative Report
David Stricklin / Stricklin & Associates
Wednesday, June 22, 2022

BAILEY SURGES TO LEAD FOR REPUBLICAN NOMINATION
 
Downstate State Senator Darren Bailey by all accounts has consolidated a base of support in a multi-candidate field and is poised to be Republican Party choice to face Governor JB Pritzker in November. Bailey is arguably the most conservative candidate in the field and has been aided by ads run by Pritzker against former front-runner Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin. Irvin was the choice of Citadel billionaire Ken Griffin and much of the legislative and political establishment. It is possible he might now finish in the middle of the pack behind Bailey.
 
BAILEY PROFILE 
45 COMING TO ILLINOIS FOR MILLER – BAILEY?
 
Former President Donald J. Trump will be in Quincy, Illinois Saturday to campaign for Rep. Mary Miller in her Congressional primary vs. Congressman Rodney Davis. It’s possible the endorsement could extend to Senator Bailey in the gubernatorial primary.
 
BAILEY-TRUMP 
LEGISLATIVE PRIMARY FIGHTS
 
Voters in both parties are experiencing spirited contests for state house, state senate and statewide offices, as well as the contests for party leadership positions. Governor Prtizker has aligned himself politically with a slate of primary candidates in legislative races and with candidates for the state central committee as he looks to exert even more influence across the landscape. The governor, while not on a campaign swing to New Hampshire PRITZKER – PRESIDENT?, has been going door-to-door with his preferred candidates.
 
One of the races to watch for Tuesday night is the Democratic primary in a district near Midway Airport. State Representative Mike Zalewski is chairman of the House Revenue Committee and the son of a former Chicago Alderman. He is being challenged from the left by Abdelnassir Rashid, who plans to run ads on broadcast TV in Chicago in the coming days. The Revenue Committee is one which the IVCA plays close attention to and therefore this contest is of specific interest.
 
ZALEWSKI PRIMARY 
 
SENATOR SENTENCED, COMED TRIAL AWAITS
 
Formers State Senator Tom Cullerton was sentenced this week to one year in prison for his guilty plea to charges related to a no-show job for a Teamsters Union. And the legal battle continues for defendants facing corruption charges in the ComEd case which precipitated the resignation of former House Speaker Michael J. Madigan.
 
EMBEZZLEMENT 
ComEd 
CORPORATE HQ
 
Boeing announced it was moving its headquarters out of Chicago to Washington, D.C., and Caterpillar is moving its leadership to Texas. The discussion is whether those choices signal anything specific about doing business in Illinois.
 
ILLINOIS EXODUS? 
Caterpillar’s departure, even more than Boeing’s, is a tacit statement that Illinois, in this Fortune 500 company’s judgment, is no longer the best place to run a business. A lot of people, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, will tell you that’s nonsense—that Cat will still have a major presence here, that other companies are choosing Illinois, that homegrown small businesses represent the economic future of this state, that headquarters don’t matter as much as they used to in the work-from-home era anyway. And all those assertions have a certain amount of merit, but they don’t undo the sense that something important is slipping through our fingers: Chicago’s standing as a headquarters town, a place where decision-makers at some of the most important companies in the world want to be, knowing they can tap the best-educated, hardest-working talent in the nation, take advantage of global transportation connections, partake of world-class cultural amenities and have a voice in the civic conversation, all while enjoying a comfortable lifestyle in a dynamic place to live and raise a family.
 
Kellogg then announced it would locate a headquarters office in Chicago.

Michael Fassnacht, CEO of World Business Chicago, the city’s public-private economic development agency, echoed Cahillane’s comments on the city as a center of food innovation.
“It just reconfirms Chicago’s position as the global capital of food innovation,” he said. “I think it’s the result of all of our focus on food and (agriculture). It’s one of our key industry sectors.”
Expect these decisions to be held up in the campaign this fall as examples of either why the person in office now is doing a great job or needs to be replaced.