Illinois candidates focus on crime during governor's debate

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Crime in Chicago generated the most heat in Thursday's debate for Illinois governor Tuesday, with Republican challenger Darren Bailey suggesting that fighting lawlessness should start outside the city — with a tighter U.S.-Mexican border and an end to Chicago's “sanctuary city” status.

After a rough-and-tumble encounter Oct. 6 in which each spent time tossing claims and counterclaims of “liar" at the other, the second and final Nexstar-sponsored debate continued the less-than-stately decorum while breaking little new ground with three weeks before the Nov. 8 election.

One area where Bailey pushed further than before was suggesting that crime has worsened in Chicago partly because of lax enforcement of undocumented immigrantion and the sanctuary city status Chicago has adopted which has made it a target in recent weeks for Texas to ship out asylum-seekers, in the U.S. legally, because of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's dispute with President Joe Biden.

“We need to deal with our southern border and we need to get that under control and stop the inflow of illegal activity because what that is bringing, it’s bringing gang violence, it’s bringing sex trafficking, it’s bringing drug trafficking,” Bailey said. “It’s a mess.”

Despite talking over each other regularly, neither Pritzker nor the moderators pressed Bailey on that statement.

Bailey, a 56-year-old state senator and farmer from the southern Illinois town of Xenia, 96 miles (154 kilometers) east of St. Louis, has like many Republicans nationally this fall pounded crime in campaigns. Bailey has fielded criticism for his oft-criticized nickname for Chicago, “hellhole." The Republican on Tuesday proposed a new moniker.

“I’m gonna call it ‘Pritzkerville’ because every one of Gov. Pritzker's extreme...