Posted by Rick Pearson and Ray Long at 3:25 p.m.; updated at 4:13 p.m.
The day before he’s expected to accept the Republican governor nomination, state Sen. Bill Brady today tried to take a swing at Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn and hit nothing but air.
At a Capitol news conference, Brady suggested that a man accused of a Springfield murder was part of Quinn’s now-infamous secret early inmate release program that almost doomed the governor’s primary nomination in February.
But Brady didn’t check available public records, including a list of inmates who had been granted sped-up “good time” off their prison sentences, or speak to Sangamon County prosecutors about the circumstances surrounding Jonathan Phillips’ release.
Phillips, sentenced to six years in August 2007 for aggravated vehicle hijacking with a weapon, served about 27 months in prison. He received routine day-for-day good time credits awarded to inmates. He also received 60 days of meritorious good time credit, but that was before Quinn became governor, prison officials said. He was on parole when he was arrested following the December murder. He was charged with murder last month.
Brady contended the Quinn administration had placed “at risk the people of Illinois and their public safety” under the now-ended inmate early program known as “meritorious good time-push.” Brady also sponsored a bill requiring the online posting of names, photos and other information about an estimated 1,700 inmates released early under the program.
But Brady did not know about an online list of those inmates already made available by the Quinn administration and later said that his legislation was needed to tell if Phillips had gotten out of prison early under the program.
Informed by reporters that a list already existed, Brady responded: “There is?”
Brady’s news conference, in which he was joined by the GOP leaders of the legislature, came a day before tomorrow’s certification of the results of the Feb. 2 Republican governor primary by the State Board of Elections. Brady held a lead of about 200 votes over fellow state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale.
Barring any dramatic change, Dillard is expected to announce tomorrow that he will not seek a recount in the contest—for which he would have to pay more than $1 million. Dillard has previously said he would not move forward to challenge the results unless the differential between Brady and himself was less than 100 votes.
But Brady’s news conference today was the latest in a string of controversies for the presumptive leader of the Republican effort in November. Following the primary, Brady, a staunch social and fiscal conservative, introduced legislative proposals to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions, loosen the law that prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in hiring and to allow the mass euthanasia of companion animals.
Brady has since taken his name off of those proposals and transferred them to a colleague.