Prairie State Wire

In the eyes of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Curran, the more Gov. J.B. Pritzker tries to flex his political muscle the more his disconnect with the people he’s supposed to represent becomes evident.

“He may be worth billions, but he’s totally disconnected from small business owners and the impact many of his policies have proven to have on them,” Curran told the Prairie State Wire. “He’s hurting a lot of people and it’s as if he doesn’t know or doesn’t care about it.”

Running against Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Curran points to the governor’s latest crusade as a prime example.

As part of his battle against the coronavirus, Pritzker recently announced he is pushing a rule that paves the way for businesses to be fined up to $2,500 for failing to enforce regulations for face coverings and social distancing. The governor is defending the new proposed as tools that will aid law enforcement, local boards of health, school districts and the general public in enforcing the use of face coverings and social-gathering restrictions.

Curran sees it all as just overkill.

"Historically, no such legislation has been enacted, so I don’t know where his authority comes from," Curran said. "It's questionable at best if he has authority."

Back in May, Pritzker tried enacting similar legislation, but withdrew it before a planned Joint Commission on Administrative Rules hearing amid much criticism.

“What does it stand to do for all the small businesses that are already barely holding on,” he said. “If this were to become law, I don’t think many of the downstate sheriffs would be enforcing it because we really would be putting people out of business.”

Curran doesn’t expect the reaction to be any different this time around.

“Many people question if he even has the authority to do something like this,” he said. “If it goes any further, I definitely think we’ll be seeing legal challenges to the validity of it.”