CHICAGO (WLS) -- Four Republicans are competing to be their party's nominee in the race for Illinois governor.
Last week, ABC7 spoke with Rick Heidner and Ted Dabrowski. This week, we heard from the other two candidates, former state Sen. Darren Bailey and DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick.
Mendrick has lived in DuPage County for more than 30 years, and since December 2018, he has served as sheriff there. He told ABC7 he has always been a financial crimes investigator.
"And I'll be honest with you, I've looked at a lot of the state budget, and I would apply those sciences to our budget, headcount. I think we need a global job task analysis in Illinois. I think we need to review how we're doing contracts, how we're doing budgeting, where we're spending all of our money," Mendrick said. "We do not have a revenue problem. Illinois is a fairly rich state. We have a lot of revenue sources, but we do have a huge spending problem."
On the issue of immigration Mendrick said, "When you say safety and sanctuary, they're monikered as positive things, but here's the truth, you know, let's take the raids, right, the ICE raids that everybody is so hot about, those are actually JB Pritzker's fault."
Mendrick continued, "If we did not have a sanctuary state, the raids would be unnecessary."
Baily is a former state representative and former state senator from southern Illinois, where he and his family operate a farm.
Baily was the Republican nominee for governor in 2022.
Baily says his number one priority, if elected, "It's finances, it's affordability. Property taxes have skyrocketed. And for our friends in Cook County and Chicago, as high as they are downstate, they surpassed us by far. People can't afford to pay their property taxes. They can't afford to pay their utility bills. These are issues that the state government should come together and meet. They should have started it last year and began to work on these issues."
Safety is another concern. Bailey cited the case of a woman being set on fire on a CTA train. And, he said, the state is failing when it comes to educating children.
Baily also said he tried to address immigration in 2019.
"I was told by many Chicago-area legislators, the process of becoming a naturalized citizen is just too difficult. And as a matter of fact, one thing that kept coming up was a $300 fee for the application process. And I stood up, in session, and I said 'Hey, I want less government, I want less spending, but if we have to do something, whatever we can do to help people become naturalized citizens, let's do that.' And that call went unanswered," Baily said.