State Week

In the final days of the 2018 elections, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic nominee J.B. Pritzker are making their closing arguments. National politicians like President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden were also in Illinois in the last week, mostly to stump for Congressional candidates as Democrats and Republicans vie for control of the U.S. House.

Gov. Bruce Rauner gained attention — and generated outrage in some quarters — for an ad that used both profanity and a mock same-sex marriage to attack his Democratic opponent, J.B. Pritzker. Plus an update on the state of the race heading into the final week of campaigning.

The Democratic candidate for Illinois governor is facing a racial discrimination lawsuit against his campaign — from 10 of his own campaign workers. With early voting underway and less than three weeks until Election Day, he denies the allegations and is pushing back hard.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his Democratic challenger, J.B. Pritzker, met in Quincy Thursday for the third and final debate of the 2018 elections. Did voters learn anything about either man’s policy preferences? Plus, Illinois Democrats are trying to pick up as many as four Republican-held seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. And a new report says Chicago’s racial divides are holding back the city’s economy.

This week, major-party candidates Governor Bruce Rauner and his Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker engaged in their second televised debate, which excluded the other two candidates on the ballot. WBEZ Public Radio's Dave McKinney joins the panel.

The race for Illinois Governor is heading into the home stretch, and the #MeToo movement continues to impact politics nationwide and in Illinois. Dave Dahl of WTAX joins the panel.

All four candidates for governor shared a stage this week for the first of three televised debates. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and his Democratic challenger, J.B. Pritzker, picked up right where their mudslinging TV ads left off.

Gov. Bruce Rauner attempts to reset his campaign with a speech to a small group of supporters. Will it be enough to overcome the 14 percentage points that separate the Republican incumbent from his Democratic opponent, J.B. Pritzker?

A big surprise this week - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced he's dropping out of the upcoming election. Amanda Vinicky of Chicago's WTTW and A.D. Quig of The Daily Line join the panel.

Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed several bills in the past week. One would have raised the cap on how much money people wronged by state government can recover — Illinois’ relatively low cap of $100,000 came to light after the deaths of more than a dozen residents of the Illinois Veterans’ Home in Quincy. Other vetoed bills would have raised the age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21, sought to improve relations between immigrant communities and the police, and set a minimum salary of $40,000