The more I read it, the more skeptical I became of
the racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the J.B. Pritzker campaign by
10 current and former field-level workers last week.
The initial demand for $7.5 million in one business
day along with personal recommendations from Pritzker himself in exchange for
their silence really hurts their claims in my eyes. The suit itself seemed
hastily and sloppily drafted. The lawyers even spelled “Pritzker” wrong. Beyond
that, other things look fishy.
Only one of the field organizers who sued has been
on the campaign longer than two to five months (one was on staff just a few
days). And yet the lawsuit complains about their lack of promotions and
advancement in the campaign. That’s really odd. Who gets a job promotion after
a couple of months knocking on doors and putting events together? Heck, who
even expects one?
A Democratic family in Peoria was apparently so
enthusiastic about supporting J.B. Pritzker that they offered to put up a campaign
staffer in their home … only to reject that staffer because she was black? That
sounds highly unusual.
And then the staffer had to sleep in her car until
the campaign found her a hotel in “an unsafe part of town.” The campaign (which
has broken a national campaign spending record, mind you) then wouldn’t move
her because of a tight budget, so she quit? That appeared improbable to me.
The Pritzker campaign provided receipts to the Peoria Journal Star showing the campaign
and a local party official paid for five different hotel rooms for that staffer
over just seven days, and more than one room on some days. She then went to a
staff retreat for two days in the suburbs, she was provided a room in a Peoria
supporter’s home the day after that, and she quit the campaign the following
day “effective immediately.”
The lawsuit claims that when the plaintiffs “asked
why J.B. Pritzker did not visit their office, they were told that ‘he’ll visit
when they stop shooting.’” The campaign kept records of Pritzker’s 10 Chicago
field office visits, however, and they show he visited every one of them a
total of 31 times, except the two which opened in September, which his running
mate visited. He visited the office listed in the lawsuit four times.
The lawsuit also alleges that a regional field
director was “given a shiny new job title and pay raise,” but was “strongly
encouraged” to cut off his dreadlocks, “therefore, he no longer comes across as
crass and was the least offensive African American that could be put in that
spot.”
Recognize that language? It’s a paraphrase of what
Pritzker told Rod Blagojevich on those FBI surveillance tapes when he was
trying to get him to appoint Secretary of State Jesse White to the U.S.
Senate.
The dread-less staffer in question issued a
statement on his Facebook account angrily denying that anyone had told him to
cut his hair and even denying that he’d received a promotion and a raise.
But aside from all the very real problems and even
sketchiness with this lawsuit, something must’ve happened. It’s not every day
that 10 campaign staffers sue their employer for discrimination and retaliation
a few weeks before an election. In fact, I don’t think anything like this has
ever happened before in the history of American elections.
Would these young people really take a drastic step
like this over absolutely nothing? I find that hard to believe.
Whatever the case, this should serve as a learning
experience for Pritzker if he’s elected governor. A bomb unexpectedly exploded
underneath him. As tempting as it is to just hire people, devise goals and
metrics and then go focus on other things as long as everybody hits all their
marks, he needs to make sure that the manner in which his managers are reaching
their goals is also important.
If staff is being mistreated by middle and upper
management, the responsibility ultimately falls on the big boss. And this time
it fell on the top dog like a megaton of bricks. He’s got a double-digit lead,
so he’ll likely survive it, although the plaintiffs’ lawyers are saying more
people could be added to the suit.
But not paying close enough attention when you’re a
governor can get people killed. Pritzker ought to know this because he’s been
blasting Gov. Rauner’s “fatal mismanagement” of the Quincy veterans’ home for
months.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2018.
