More Top Picks Best Wet Dry Vacuums For Basement Flooding
player ready...Downstate attorney Thomas DeVore, who has led legal challenges to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s pandemic mitigation efforts, said in a video that he will seek the Republican nomination for attorney general.
DeVore filed the lawsuit that led the Illinois Appellate Court last week to rule as moot Pritzker’s appeal of a lower court ruling that lifted his mandatory school masking policy.
It was a rare legal victory for DeVore, who has solicited legal work from businesses, municipalities, school districts and parents of students in what have largely been unsuccessful court challenges to Pritzker’s pandemic orders.
Pritzker has appealed the appellate court ruling on school mask mandates to the Illinois Supreme Court.
DeVore, 52, of Sorento, a village of 429 people about 50 miles south of Springfield, had previously announced his candidacy for the downstate 5th Appellate Court. But in a Facebook video first reported by the Illinoize political newsletter, DeVore said he had changed his mind and will seek the GOP nomination for attorney general, citing the school mask-mandate court rulings.
“After the judge issued … her ruling, which we fought hard for and I watched people, all of you, fight hard for that, what did I see after that? It really kind of changed my perspective. I saw kids across the state, standing up for themselves,” DeVore says in the video.
“You know, we happen to have Gov. Pritzker right now who I thought failed miserably in governing over the last two years, because he didn’t govern. He ruled. How do we stop that from happening again? And what can I do to help that to not happen?” he says. “I made the decision that there’s only one way that I can help and that’s making myself available to the people of this state as attorney general.”
Pritzker and DeVore have exchanged sharp words, with the governor accusing the attorney of being a “grifter” in seeking legal business to go to court to try to undermine his pandemic mandates. DeVore has filed a defamation suit against Pritzker in Sangamon County court.
DeVore says in the video that Pritzker is appealing the school mask mandate in an effort “to save face because he’s politically taken a bath in the last month or two and he wants to get reelected” after “the ails that he’s been suffering at the hands of the people.”
Among DeVore’s previous clients was state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia, an ardent foe of Pritzker’s executive orders who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor.
A new client is Republican state Rep. Blaine Wilhour of Beecher City. DeVore filed suit in Bond County circuit court last week after Wilhour and several other Republicans were ordered removed from the House floor after a vote for violating the chamber’s masking rules.
DeVore contends he and other constituents represented by Wilhour “are currently left without representation” due to the “unlawful rule,” even though Wilhour can cast votes remotely under House rules.
Democratic House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside called the lawsuit “frivolous” and a waste of taxpayer dollars, and the courts have generally left to the legislature its ability to set and approve its operating rules as an independent branch of government.
Sign up for The Spin to get the top stories in politics delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons.
In his Facebook video, DeVore criticizes first-term Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul of Chicago for defending Pritzker’s actions in court rather than recusing himself or taking the side of “the people.”
“I don’t know if I’m the right guy for the job. Only you guys know if I’m the right guy for the job. But I do know that we have to have somebody in that position that is going to stand up for the people,” DeVore said. “When you have a choice between defending someone against the people, you always choose the people.”
DeVore, who said he will make a formal announcement about his candidacy on Feb. 28 in Springfield, becomes the second GOP announced candidate for attorney general. Attorney Steve Kim of Deerfield, who unsuccessfully sought the office in 2010, is running as part of a slate headed by Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin’s candidacy for governor. Billionaire Ken Griffin has given $20 million to Irvin’s campaign but none directly to other members of the slate.
DeVore reported $1,445 in his political committee at the start of the year as an appellate court candidate and loaned his campaign $5,000 on Feb. 15, state campaign reports show. Last year, DeVore loaned his campaign fund $3,500, records showed.
More Top Picks Best Jet Ski Accessories For The Money