A spokesperson for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s reelection campaign says the ad was not indicative of a shift in any previously held position, or a prioritizing of economic development over environmental protection.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker in his "Cargo Load" ad touting the expansion of Rockford Airport. have been inundating Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office with emails, petitions, texts, tweets, phone calls and old-fashioned letters, pleading with the governor to broker a deal that would save a patch of ancient prairie from demolition by the Greater Rockford Airport Authority, which plans to rip up the prairie as part of a major expansion of the airfield’s cargo operation.
In the ad’s emphasis on job creation and the airport’s importance as an economic engine, Leigh distinctly heard echoes of the talking points the airport authority has used in its ongoing battle against the Save Bell Bowl coalition, by portraying the conservationists as anti-development and anti-commerce.
Though representatives from the Save Bell Bowl coalition have met with staffers from the offices of U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth — who’ve both funneled funding to the Rockford Airport — they’ve never been granted an audience with Pritzker or his proxies. If they had been, they would have outlined their proposal for a compromise solution of “airport and prairie,” Leigh said, but “his office is impenetrable.
If “Cargo Load” isn’t explicitly anti-prairie, there’s been no pro-prairie ad either, which has implications beyond Bell Bowl, environmentalists say.