Lake County Gazette

An Illinois state senator said he wants Gov. J.B. Pritzker to adhere to his own advice when handling the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I see where the governor recently told a local leader to follow the law after he said he wouldn’t be enforcing one of his shutdown orders,” Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) told the Lake County Gazette. “At the same time, the governor seems to truly believe his edicts are the law when the last time I checked, laws have to go through the [state] Legislature before he’s able to sign them into law.”

With the stakes so high, Wilcox said he isn’t surprised to see more residents taking a stance against the governor. Among these residents is McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally, who is vowing not to enforce the ban on indoor dining the governor recently enacted across the region.

“A lot of people resist government telling you what you shall and shall not do,” Wilcox said. “But the governor has chosen this path. That’s a leadership issue, where if you don’t involve people in the process, you’re going to face a bit more resistance. You have to have buy-in, and this governor has never done well in convincing people what he’s doing has the force of law.”

Wilcox also said he sees the governor’s growing threats about stripping businesses of state licenses that violate his orders as more of the same flawed thinking.

“He’s always made threats like that,” he said. “The questions will come down to if he truly tries to make good on the threat and if it would hold up in court. For him to have that fight, I think, works against what he’s trying to do and would only breed more abandonment from his message. I can’t believe he wants to be seen as the governor who took retribution on those who tried to stand up to him in the name of trying to survive.”