West Cook News

Recall Gov. J.B. Pritzker?

It’s about time, said Dr. Jeffrey Leef of the effort to recall the Illinois governor, adding that the are a lot of other politicians who should be shown the door too.

“I only wish that failure at your job was grounds for dismissal at all levels of politics,” Leef told West Cook News. “Were that the case, we wouldn't have suffered through the worst post-recession recovery since World War II, further erosion of our health care system, soaring numbers of unfunded entitlements, and overall blindness of the rule of law.”

The Pritzker recall effort is the brainchild of state Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) who announced it May 22 and has posted a recall affidavit on his website. Signatures cannot be collected until at least 29 other legislators, including members of both parties sign on.

Skillicorn said Pritkzer’s failure to correct ongoing problems with the Illinois Department of Employment Security website and call center, as well his threats to criminally charge business owners who defied his closure owner, sparked his recall drive.

“The governor has had ample time to fix this website,” Skillicorn said in a statement. “I called him out on it, and nothing has been addressed nor has there been a plan presented to fix the problems. Enough is enough. The incompetence cannot continue.”

Pritzker said the state could not be expected to have been prepared for the huge onslaught of people applying for unemployment assistance.

It’s not easy to recall a governor. The current law, approved by voters in 2010, makes it especially challenging. It was passed following the resignation of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was the latest Illinois governor to end up behind bars.

The law requires 10 state senators and 20 state representatives — with no more than half from each house from a single party to sign a recall affidavit. The State Board of Elections then approves signature-gathering.

Leef said he knows it’s a long shot to remove the Democratic governor

“Unfortunately, for the most part, the Republican Party in Illinois can only make symbolic gestures, nothing more,” he said. “This is yet another example. The problem is far greater than the failing Illinois Department of Employment Security website or even than the most current inept and dishonest governor of Illinois.”

Skillicorn said Pritzker declined help from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“In typical Chicago Democrat fashion, the governor decided the best way to fix the website was to hand out a lavish no-bid contract,” he said. “Now secure data has been unleashed into the public domain. It is an epic failure.”

The state signed a pair of contracts worth more than $22 million with Deloitte Consulting LLC in April to try to deal with the onslaught of applicants. Calls for assistance in filing for unemployment skyrocketed from an average of 6,500 from March 2-11 to almost 370,000 by the end of April. Pritzker said people need to file online.

“I have constituents who tell me they have dialed in hundreds of times a day for weeks without getting through,” Skillicorn said. “Governor, it’s not the claims you’re processing, it’s the calls you’re missing.”

The state created the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program but the state representative said it has been a failure as well.

“Hybrid workers who may have had some W2 wages with the bulk of their earnings from contract work are denied PUA because they have had some regular earnings,” Skillicorn said. “The self-employed find themselves caught in appeals processes for weeks on end because of confusing guidelines poorly understood and implemented.”

None of this surprises Leef. He has experience in the Illinois political process.

Leef ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, failing to obtain the GOP nomination for the state’s Seventh District seat. He said he ran to serve as a citizen-legislator in the original spirit of the Founding Fathers.

Leef, 59, is a board-certified interventional radiologist and associate professor of radiology at University of Chicago Medicine. He has been practicing for 34 years.

Leef lives in River Forest with his wife Teresa. They have three children, Ellen, Connor and Mae.

He said Democrats in the Legislature, especially longtime Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, are the real problem.

“For decades both Republican and Democratic Illinois lawmakers have bowed at the feet of the Satan of Springfield,” Leef said. “Democrats not only long ago literally sold their souls to the devil but recruited many quisling ‘Republicans’ to follow suit, the most recent of course being [former Gov.] Bruce Rauner.”

Skillicorn said Pritzker also deserves to be recalled for threatening people for opening businesses, “authority he does not have constitutionally.”

The governor, citing concerns about COVID-19, freed 4,000 inmates from prison, 64 with murder convictions.

“The rights of honest business owners are being taken away while our governor releases murders from prison,” Skillicorn said. “The constitutional rights of the people have been usurped long enough. It is time to recall Gov. J.B. Pritzker.”

Leef said the path to fixing the problem is a long and difficult one to traverse.

“To reverse this decades-long disease, it would require the support of the Republican Party at the national level, strong local candidates, and the ability for Illinois voters to see that they have been the enablers of the most corrupt political system in the country,” he said.

“So, as Governor Dumbo awaits his inevitable spot in a minimum-security facility, we ask ourselves: ‘Can what ails Illinois and its one-party system be cured?’ I answer, ‘When I see an elephant fly.’”