Lake County Gazette

State Sen. Craig Wilcox (R-McHenry) agrees with the findings of a new Brownstone Institute study that grades Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis as “worse than an F” and a “complete fail.”

“He has been a one-man island, which means it’s just his way and it’s been a tyrannical operation,” Wilcox told the Lake County Gazette. “There’s no reason the legislature shouldn’t have been involved, but he would have had to have debated and answer questions about his actions and maybe that’s what he didn’t want.”

The Brownstone study compared data from every state from March 2020 through April 2021, with researchers concluding “there’s a special place for governors that locked kids out of classrooms for a year and a half, ordered sick COVID-19 patients back into nursing homes, did not practice their own orders, shut down tens of thousands of businesses and still couldn’t beat the U.S. average in COVID-19 deaths or excess all-cause deaths.”

Wilcox said it's an example of how little regard Pritzker has for the people he’s entrusted with serving.  

“There is no doubt he doesn’t understand my district, and he really hasn’t tried,” he said. “You have to talk to people, and from that you get views that help you make decisions that are best for everyone.”

Wilcox said it says a lot about Pritzker’s leadership that even his wife and daughter spent parts of the pandemic in Florida.

The Prairie State Wire reported Theodora “Teddi” Pritzker spent New Year’s Eve in the Bahamas in a nightclub environment without a mask after her father urged residents to stay at home.

“Hypocrisy is alive and well,” Wilcox said. “People in America just can’t be told what to do.”

Wilcox said he can’t see how many people in his district are better off under the governor’s leadership.

“I’m not sure anyone is better off, other than the pharmaceutical companies,” he said.