DABROWSKI MAKES HIS CASE: Capitol News Recap | Saturday, Feb. 7
We’re unveiling the first of our Republican governor’s race features with an interview and story on candidate Ted Dabrowski.
Brenden Moore has the biographical deep dive below, and in the coming days we’ll publish our full video interviews and stories on the other three GOP candidates — 2022’s nominee Darren Bailey, gambling mogul Rick Heidner and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.
Dabrowski asserts that he’s the most electable candidate to face Gov. JB Pritzker, as he’s drawing donations from GOP megadonors and is a suburbanite, which he says will help the party make the headway that it needs to there.
He told us he doesn’t think President Donald Trump’s unpopularity here will be a problem, and he thinks most of Illinois agrees with most of his positions, such as repealing the SAFE-T Act and the TRUST Act that blocks local law enforcement assisting the feds in civil immigration enforcement.
View our interview with Ted Dabrowski. We’re interviewing all four GOP candidates for governor and will publish videos and stories in the coming days.
On the issue of taxation, Dabrowski’s policy proposals are reminiscent of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s — freezing the property tax rate that local governing bodies can levy while reducing the income tax rate to 3%.
In 2015, lawmakers allowed a temporary 5% tax rate to revert to 3.75%. When Rauner took office, he and Democrats failed to agree on a budget for two years, leaving the rate at 3.75%. During those two years, the state drastically cut social services as its backlog of unpaid bills ballooned to over $16 billion. Lawmakers raised the rate back to 4.95% in 2017, and as of Friday, that number sat just over $2 billion, fitting into a standard 30-day billing cycle.
“We should target where we were before the tax hike. We should be targeting the 3%,” Dabrowski told Capitol News Illinois. “You’ve got Missouri already saying they’re going towards zero. You’ve seen Kentucky, Indiana, they’ve all lowered their flat tax rates. They’re all lowering rates. We’re the only one that is not lowering our rates and we’re raising all the other taxes, like the gas taxes, like the property taxes. So we have to compete.”
In related news: The governor released another somber fiscal report this week, a court issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration’s child care funding freeze, and early voting began in much of Illinois. (We launched our 2026 Election Guide to help you navigate the process, find the link below).
In other news, Marimar Martinez can release the video evidence related to her shooting by Border Patrol, including the text messages from the agent who shot her and bragged about how many holes he left in her body.
You can also find stories about the state winning its first-ever civil hate crime case and new manufacturing training academy grants.
Dabrowski feature
Conservative policy wonk Ted Dabrowski gets off sidelines with run for governor
For years, Ted Dabrowski wielded influence behind the scenes in Illinois Republican circles, serving as a go-to source for conservative research and commentary through his stewardship of thinktanks Wirepoints and the Illinois Policy Institute.
With Republicans largely relegated to the policymaking sidelines in Democrat-dominated Springfield, Dabrowski’s efforts have mostly proven an academic exercise. That could change this year.
The 62-year-old conservative policy wonk is stepping out from the background and into the political limelight, placing his name on the ballot for the first time as one of four GOP candidates vying to deny Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker a third term.
Election Guide
How to vote in Illinois in 2026
Wondering how to register to vote in Illinois, what’s on the ballot, what your voting options are and how to contact your local election authority? Visit our easy-to-use Election Guide by clicking the image above to have your questions answered!
Read more: Early voting begins this week for most of the state
Martinez evidence
Judge rules to release evidence in Border Patrol shooting of Marimar Martinez
Marimar Martinez, the Chicago woman who survived being shot five times by federal Border Patrol agents last fall, received permission from a judge Friday to share certain evidence from her case with the public.
Although the case brought against Martinez was dropped by the federal government in November, evidence from her trial has remained sealed under a protective order.
Attorneys for Martinez argued that the order has prevented her from being able to defend herself against a “pernicious misinformation campaign” by the federal government, which has repeatedly referred to the Montessori school teacher’s assistant as a “domestic terrorist.”
Read more: ‘My own government attempted to execute me,’ Chicago woman shot by Border Patrol testifies
Budget update
Pritzker’s new budget report could set tone for conservative 2027 spending plan
With Gov. JB Pritzker’s annual budget address less than two weeks away, a new report from his office is setting the table for a speech that’s likely to be bleak in tone. And it’s likely to serve as a warning to lawmakers and advocates that the state doesn’t have room for new spending programs in the upcoming 2027 fiscal year.
Read more: Pritzker sticking to proposal to fully fund pensions
Other news
Judge blocks Trump’s $10B child care funding freeze that targeted blue states, including Illinois
A judge on Friday granted a preliminary injunction in the case concerning the Trump administration’s freeze on $10 billion in child care and family planning funding to five blue states, including $1 billion for Illinois.
Illinois attorney general wins state’s first civil hate crime lawsuit
Amid a flurry of lawsuits filed in federal court against the Trump administration, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office won a historic first in Illinois last month by successfully trying the state’s first civil hate crime lawsuit.
State looks to expand manufacturing training at community colleges
As the U.S. sheds manufacturing jobs, Illinois is accepting applications for $24 million in grant funding to establish training facilities at community colleges aimed at bolstering the state’s manufacturing labor pool. The funding is for six “manufacturing training academies” at downstate community colleges that will add to two existing academies that opened in 2024.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
