Chicago City Wire

Activist Jeffrey Carter agrees with the Illinois Republican Party’s decision to sue Gov. J.B. Pritzker in federal court. But he does differ with it on one phrase.

The state GOP filed the lawsuit on June 15, saying Pritzker was violating the First Amendment by allowing progressive groups he supports to rally and hold meetings with large groups, while enforcing his executive order limiting gatherings to 10 people for organizations he dislikes. The Schaumburg Township Republican Organization, the Northwest Side GOP Club and the Will County Republican Central Committee also are listed as plaintiffs.

The Liberty Justice Center is representing the plaintiffs.

“Gov. Pritzker is ruling Illinois like an unaccountable king where only he gets to decide which violations of his executive order have his blessing,” Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider said in a statement.

Carter told Chicago City Wire that isn’t quite accurate.

“He is ruling like an unaccountable king,” he said. “Except he’s accountable to his boss, Michael Madigan.”

Madigan, the longtime speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, is the true power behind the throne, in Carter’s view.

Schneider said it’s clear that Illinois Democrats have established dual standards depending on whom is involved. That led to the lawsuit.

“The Illinois Republican Party will not sit idly by while the governor of Illinois applies one rule for himself and his political allies and another rule for everyone else," Schneider said. "We agree that peaceful protesters have just cause to exercise their First Amendment rights but they aren’t the only ones. The days of Gov. Pritzker picking winners and losers is coming to an end. The hypocrisy has to end. The violation of our First Amendment rights has to end.”

The Illinois Republican Party was forced to hold its quadrennial convention in a virtual setting, which was detrimental in an election year especially.

“The 2020 general election is five months away and the only opposition to Pritzker and Illinois Democrats’ control is indefinitely barred from meeting for normal party functions,” Schneider said. “This isn’t the first time Gov. Pritzker has played by a different set of rules. When restrictions barred travel to vacation homes and the governor lectured Illinoisans daily about not crossing state borders, Pritzker’s family was traveling to and from their equestrian estates in Florida and Wisconsin.

“And now, we see Pritzker continue to restrict funerals, weddings, festivals, youth sports — and political gatherings — at the same time he marches with thousands of protesters on a crowded street.”

Carter, a general partner at West Loop Ventures, co-founded Hyde Park Angels in 2007 and spearheaded the growth and development of one of the most active angel groups in the United States. He has consulted on the startup of several other angel groups and has advised the Group of Seven nations—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

He thinks politicians are unreliable and often make poor decisions based on inaccurate assessments of data. Pritzker’s executive orders during the COVID-19 crisis are a vivid example, as he wrote in his blog Points and Figures.

“We are in the midst of a soft reopening of America," he wrote. "Of course, the riots and protests make it a bit tougher along with the capricious policies of some politicians. What’s interesting to me is how many politicians were ‘following the science’ or ‘following the data’ and reject that same data now.

“Economists grind out data all the time. Sometimes it means nothing. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. I have said from the beginning of this whole thing in February that it not only was political but that the people in charge had no understanding or at least appreciation for the opportunity costs. Turns out I was right.”