McHenry Times

Longtime state Rep. Allen Skillicorn (R-Crystal Lake) argues Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis proves just how disconnected he is from the people of Illinois.

“The governor is drunk with power and is completely insensitive to what his policies are doing to average people,” Skillicorn told the McHenry County Times. “He can retreat to his horse farm and lavish Florida homes, but the rest of Illinois is left under his tyranny and bad decisions.”

Skillicorn argues the governor’s threats to strip the federal funding of counties and prosecute small business owners that move to defy his statewide stay-at-home order by prematurely restarting their economies is just more of the same.  

“We can’t stay in lockdown forever,” he said. “Yes, there is terrible disease out there, but the shutdown of our economy is hurting a lot of people. Other states have found a way to protect the most vulnerable of our population while also finding a way to open up.”

In Skillicorn’s mind, it all leads to one irrefutable conclusion.

“Gov. Pritzker is a coward incapable of making tough decisions,” he said. “We elect leaders to make tough decisions and to look at the whole picture and consider what is best for the entire population. His macho man bravado toward people who simply want to take care of their families is a joke. And now he wants to put people in jail for just trying to feed their family?”

Skillicorn said several groups have stepped up to offer viable plans to the governor, but all of them have been basically ignored.

“Gov. Pritzker’s pathetic attempts to make himself relevant on the national stage is only serving to expose the buffoonery that sadly has been the hallmark of Illinois government for far too long,” he said. “We need real leadership in Illinois, not the lunatic rantings of yet another power-hungry politician like J.B. Pritzker.”