Democratic Party of Illinois Deputy Director Jake Lewis and Executive Director Abby Witt released the following statements regarding the latest candidate announcement from the Ken Griffin ticket:

Jake Lewis: “Today, another Republican pawn joined billionaire Ken Griffin’s ongoing fantasy to bring back the Bruce Rauner days: Tom Demmer. Demmer’s radical views make him unfit to serve in statewide office. He has voted against increasing the minimum wage, against increasing education funding, against ending the Rauner budget impasse, against the Equal Rights Amendment, and against holding life insurance companies accountable.

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“But Demmer’s extremist record doesn’t seem to bother Ken Griffin, apparently the only Republican whose opinion matters in 2022. Griffin has set out to rig the entire Republican primary for his Rauner Reboot slate and he appears to have found willing puppets in Demmer, Secretary of State candidate John Milhiser, and rumored gubernatorial candidate Richard Irvin. Unfortunately for Griffin and his pawns, Illinois voters remember that the original Rauner experiment ended in disaster, and they have no interest in the sequel.”

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Abby Witt: “We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? In 2016, Bruce Rauner‘s handpicked comptroller candidate was roundly rejected by voters after helping the ‘worst Republican governor in America’ drive the state’s finances into a ditch. Now, Ken Griffin is running the Rauner Reboot, revealing his slate of puppets in a desperate bid to pull Illinois back to the Rauner days of budget impasses and months-long bill backlogs.

“Thankfully, Illinois voters elected Susana Mendoza to fight the Rauner agenda during his disastrous term in office and re-elected her to help clean up the financial mess Rauner left behind. Now, we’re balancing our budget, actually paying our bills on time, and upgrading our credit for the first time in decades.

“No matter who Ken Griffin picks for his latest political game, Illinois voters won’t be fooled — the Rauner Reboot is destined to be a flop.”

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