Thomas McCullagh | Contributed photo
Thomas McCullagh | Contributed photo
Republican state Senate hopeful Thomas McCullagh has proudly received the endorsement of the Will County Deputy Sheriff’s Union in his 49th District campaign against incumbent state Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (D-Shorewood).
“I’ve been doing all the police rallies trying to make sure that officers know they will have a representative that cares about them,” McCullagh told the Lake County Gazette. “Anybody that knows me knows I’m going to stand up for law enforcement and against this defund the police movement. I believe in and am a big fan of all our first responders.”
McCullagh points to his position as yet another way he hopes voters will come to distinguish him from Bertino-Tarrant as they prepare to go the voting booth in November.
“My opponent is in support of the defund the police movement and seems to believe that the police are inherently racist,” he said. “I think it’s an unfair tag to simply put on all officers.”
McCullagh stresses that’s not to say he doesn’t think there are ways departments across the country can make improvements.
“I would love to see more de-escalation training for officers,” he said. “Absolutely, further training and less-lethal force would be good, but I don’t believe that to be a race problem, especially in Illinois. You look around and we have one of the most diverse departments in the country. I think mandatory body cameras would be another good standard. That way both sides can tell their side of the story and the cameras would be there to verify it all.”
McCullagh has made much of his campaign about taking on the most critical issues. He recently blasted Gov. J.B. Pritzker over his move to slap stricter restrictions on some parts of the state but not others when COVID-19 infections ticked up in both places.
“I think it’s a double standard,” he said of the tighter restrictions placed on Will and Kankakee counties but not the Metro East. “He needs the Metro East to vote for his progressive tax, while he wants to suppress voters in these other counties.”
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