Lies require commitment. – Veronica Roth
The late great Tribune columnist Mike Royko always said his biggest regret was “peeling a grape with an axe.” In his later years he lamented going after “nickel and dimers” after he realized their corrupt bosses were the real target.
My biggest regret? Working with candidates solely on the basis of my disdain for their opponent. Of those regrets, Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin is, by far, the greatest. And I fear Illinois billionaire Ken Griffin is walking into the very same trap as his blind hatred for Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker has seduced him into embracing a deeply flawed candidate who can’t possibly win that race.
You see, it’s one thing for an incumbent alderman to pull the wool over Aurora voters’ eyes, but it’s another thing entirely to fool the downstate conservative voters so critical to any Republican gubernatorial effort. They know a RINO when they see one.
Having been there myself, I can tell you exactly what happened. Griffin and his team heard all the same rumors, and when they sat Irvin down to determine his electoral viability, he looked them straight in the eye and lied through his teeth.
I wouldn’t exactly call him a pathological liar, but Irvin’s capacity to obfuscate the truth is incredibly effective because he fully believes in whatever’s he’s telling you at the time. As George Constanza once advised Jerry, “Remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it.”
And that mendaciousness starts with the obvious reality that Irvin isn’t nearly a Republican. He’s a demonstrable Democrat. The best evidence of that assertion is Republicans don’t win Aurora city council races, his record 2022 Aurora City budget added up to a whopping 20 percent increase over the previous year’s – during the plague era no less – and he has profusely praised Governor Pritzker in public.
That video of Irvin standing at the dais while he adamantly refers to his potential gubernatorial rival as “a great leader” will most certainly come back to haunt him. I don’t understand how Griffin’s people didn’t catch this campaign killing complication right off the bat. It wasn’t very difficult to find that footage.
Then there are the Irvin scandals too numerous to note here. Suffice it to say that his greatest hits include undermining an FBI investigation into political crony and Aurora CIO Michael Pegues’ shakedown of a City vendor. It wasn’t for a political contribution, either! Pegues was soliciting a sponsorship for his private entertainment company. You can read the full reports on this torrid tale of corruption here and here.
Now Irvin’s suddenly claiming he alone saved Aurora from being burned to the ground during the George Floyd protests. He even went as far as claiming he called in the National Guard, which is very odd because no mayor has that power – it’s the sole purview of the Governor.
The truth? Despite receiving stellar FBI and Kane County Sheriff’s Office intelligence regarding known organized looters heading to Aurora to incite violence, Irvin let the APD twist in the wind by doing absolutely nothing to stop it. He didn’t even bother to visit the damaged businesses the next day, nor did he offer them any recovery assistance.
Then there’s my personal favorite. In a fit of personal pique, Irvin contrived to place a “playground” within 500 feet of the Wayside Cross Ministries so he could force 20 well-supervised sex offenders out onto the Aurora streets. And he did this despite that Ministry helping out a close Irvin family member – twice.
Let’s not forget that by shamelessly misapplying COVID mitigations, Irvin similarly tried to force 100 Hessed House homeless residents back on the streets in the middle of winter. If it weren’t for Sheriff Ron Hain’s swift intervention, he would’ve succeeded, too. Then, just for good measure, he tried to stick the Sheriff’s Office with that temporary housing bill.
Irvin’s propensity to hire former girlfriends to six-figure city jobs has become the stuff of legend, as has his capacity to father children with a variety of different women. Then he puts his “families” on the City of Aurora insurance plan. And let me tell you, the whole “black baby daddy” thing will not play well with conservative Republican voters.
The lies just keep coming, too. In his newest “tough on crime” campaign commercial Irvin declares that “crime is down in Aurora because the police budget is up.” Nothing could be further from the truth! Minor crimes are slightly down due to the pandemic, but Aurora’s major crime numbers have exploded under Irvin’s tenure.
Per a Tribune report on 2020 Aurora crime statistics:
- Shootings were up 40 percent
- Domestic and child abuse cases were significantly up per the police chief
- Arsons increased by 88 percent
- Aggravated battery and assault cases shot up by 40 percent
I don’t know about you, but those absurd increases clearly indicate that the Mayor isn’t tough on anything. And the ease with which this man lies about statistics set in stone is all you really need to know about the man.
Here’s what I don’t get. With the exception of the crime numbers, there’s nothing new here. It’s all been covered before. So, it’s particularly baffling that Griffin’s people either missed everything or they chose to ignore it, because Irvin’s opponents will use this weighty political baggage against him and even Griffin’s billions won’t save this sad excuse for a politician and even sadder example of a man.
Perhaps, like me, Mr. Griffin will have to learn about the perils of blindly running a candidate against a political enemy the hard way.
