When a southern Illinois Republican state representative got a court to exempt himself from the governor’s stay-at-home order, Gov. JB Pritzker didn’t have to get all mad. The governor played into Rep. Darren Bailey’s hands by calling the cheap political stunt a “cheap political stunt.” He then rushed the State of Illinois into appellate court to fight the ruling, a move guaranteed to make Bailey a household name far beyond his home in Clay County. A more experienced politician might have invited the court-immunized Bailey to care for the sick in nearby Jasper and Jefferson counties, which have experienced more than their share of COVID illness and death. Or Pritzker could have followed the lead of Harrisburg Mayor John McPeek. When Harrisburgers wanted to openly defy the stay-home order, the mayor urged them to write a letter to the governor instead. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and CEO
This article appears in Spring Home & Garden 2020.
