The first debate for Illinois governor took place Thursday night at Illinois State University when incumbent governor JB Pritzker took on challenger Darren Bailey.
Taking place in ISU’s Braden Auditorium, democrat Pritzker and Republican senator Bailey debated on a variety of topics surrounding Illinois politics. These topics included budgeting, abortion access, the recently past Safe-T act and more.
When the topic of the state’s budget came up, Pritzker noted how the state has received a bump in credit score under him as well as having a budget surplus under him over the last couple of years.
“I want to be clear, I have balanced four budgets in a row, and I have paid off all the state’s overdue bills. I have 1.8 billion in tax recovery,” Pritzker said. “If we keep balancing the budgets, if we keep doing it we can make tax cuts.”
Bailey on the other hand was asked about his strict plans for cutting Illinois’ budget without a government shutdown which is what happened with the last republican governor Bruce Rauner.
“Reprioritizing our spending and a zero-base budget is our goal,” Bailey said. “When there is a problem JB happily throws cash at the problem with no transparency or accountability. Our biggest problem is that people don’t know what is available to them.”
Over the summer the federal courts determined that states had the right to choose. After this law was passed Pritzker quickly passed a law ensuring that citizens of Illinois would have their abortion rights in place.
“I think the law we have in place right now, is what we should keep in place,” Pritzker said. “Bailey wants to take away a woman’s right to choose. I have spent my life fighting for women’s rights and as long as I’m Governor we’re going to protect them.”
In their follow-up question, the moderators noted how Bailey had stated in a FaceBook live that he intended to ‘I think we’re going to end this abortion thing.’ But when asked about this Bailey refuted his past claim.
“Illinois has the most permissive abortion laws in the nation,” Bailey said. “Nothing is going to change when I’m governor, I couldn’t if I wanted to. Pritzker stays up at night trying to dream up new abortion laws. Those issues are dividing us, my focus today is crime, taxes and education.”
In the past, Bailey has stated if he wins the election he intends to roll back everything done by Pritzker in his first term. The moderator cited Pritzker’s push for a $15 minimum wage, which Bailey was against in the past.
“I think I was talking about a lot of his tax hikes, The safe-t act – that is what is killing our state,” Bailey responded. “People have made their adjustments to the $15 minimum wage.”
While Bailey claims he will not touch minimum wage, Pritzker does not believe he will keep that promise.
“Senator Bailey is once again lying he has said he wants to eliminate the state minimum wage,” Pritzker rebutted. “He says he can’t get it done. I worked hard to raise wages in the state. Creating jobs and raising wages is the job of a governor and apparently, Darrin Bailey doesn’t understand that.”
Taking place on a college campus, naturally, the topic of higher education came up. In a segment that featured questions from voters, one Illinois student questioned how each governor would help support the rising cost of higher education.
“I feel for the young man asking the question because many of our children are being pushed out of state because of the high cost of education,” Bailey said. “Administrative bloat is what is causing this. Unfunded mandates are what is causing this. The president of the University of Illinois is making close to $1 million – tell me in what world does that make sense?”
Despite Bailey’s concerns, Pritzker shut it down in his rebuttal statement citing new grants he has formed.
“In fact, I’ve increased state scholarship MAP grant by $200 million,” Pritzker said. “Everyone that is eligible now gets a MAP grant. As a result, we have the highest freshman enrollment across the state in the last six years and the highest at ISU in the last 35.”
After a handful of other topics, the candidates gave their closing remarks. Pritzker opted to note all the things he has done since becoming governor while Bailey choose to use his time to speak on what he would change.
The second and final debate between Pritzker and Bailey will be at 7 pm, Oct 18 in the WGN-TV studios in Chicago. The event will be broadcasted across the state.
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