Democratic gubernatorial candidate JB Pritzker continued to stand by a controversial campaign ad during a visit to Champaign on Friday. The ad attacks Governor Bruce Rauner for his financial interest in a company that provides healthcare to facilities holding immigrant detainees.
The ad released July 11criticizes Gov. Rauner for having a financial interest in Correct Care Solutions.
"Rauner is the owner of this company which is paid millions to keep children from their parents,” says an announcer on the thirty-second video spot. “Bruce Rauner, that’s a disgrace.”
But anAssociated Press analysis says that while Correct Care Solutions provides healthcare at some facilities holding adult detainees, it has no role in the Trump administration’s separation of children from their parents, and does not provide services at any facilities housing separated children.
And while the campaign ad names Rauner as the owner of Correct Care Solutions, the AP analysis notes that Rauner is only one of the investors in the company.
At a campaign stop to tour tech businesses at the University of Illinois Research Park in Champaign, Pritzker modified his language.
“He (Rauner) owns an interest in a for-profit company that has for-profit contracts that are benefitting from the separation of families and the detention of families,” said Pritzker during a brief news conference following the tour.
Pritzker also chided Rauner on moral grounds.
“He should not be profiting from the separation and detention of families,” said Pritzker. “This policy is immoral, it’s a human rights violation. The fact that he is an owner, I think is disgusting.”
Meanwhile, the Rauner campaign has waged its own campaign against JB Pritzker. The latest ad features clips from the Democratic Primary race of rival candidates Daniel Biss and Chris Kennedy, attacking Pritzker as the candidate of the status quo and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.