Collin Corbett on His Independent Campaign for Illinois Governor, Cutting Taxes and School Funding
Illinois voters won’t only see JB Pritzker and Darren Bailey on the ballot as choices for governor.
Political strategist Collin Corbett is running as an independent candidate as he looks to fill a space he says has been created by polarizing political parties.
The Palatine resident describes himself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate who believes Illinois is ready for an alternative choice to lead.
Corbett joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss leaving the Republican party, funding local schools and more.
On why he wants to be governor of Illinois:
“Our political process has become one where the candidates snipe at each other, the parties snipe at each other and nothing actually gets done and working families right now are really, really struggling. And so I want to put the focus on that. How do we actually help make life more affordable for working families? How do we get the state growing again so we can raise everybody’s wages? We’re hyperfocused on that, not the partisan circus.”
On running an independent campaign as a former Republican:
Corbett is a former Republican and founder of political consulting firm Cor Strategies. The firm helped secure a spot on the ballot for Republican U.S. Senate nominee Don Tracy in the March primary. Tracy is running against current Lt. Gov. Julianna Stratton to fill the seat left by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin’s retirement.
“I’ve been frustrated within the Republican party going back to 2011, and I’ve been sharing those frustrations. I’ve worked really, really hard and we’ve invested most of the profit from our companies into trying to fix that party, but it became clear to me not only where the problems (were) unfixable in my own party, but also in the other party. I realized that it’s not the people in the parties, there are really good people on both sides. It’s the system itself that’s broken. And once I came to that realization it was clear I could spend another 50 years in one party, it wasn’t gonna fix it.”
On how he would make life more affordable for Illinois residents:
“Ultimately, we’ve got to lower property taxes. That has gotta be the first place we go because it hits everybody, even if you don’t own your property, you’re paying rent and you’re paying those property taxes. So we’ve got a whole plan, but it will take over a decade.”
On funding local school districts:
“Illinois’ evidence-based funding model has increased state money for schools by $3 billion over the last 10 years, but 63% of districts are still funded at less than 90% of their adequacy target. This means the state is not on track to meet its original goal of full funding by 2027.
“When JB Pritzker took office, the state provided 27% of the funding for local school districts. It’s now down to 24.5%. So we’re going the wrong direction right now on this. And the problem is, that causes two things. One, our schools aren’t getting what they need to adequately educate our children, but two, because those local school districts aren’t getting what they need, they have to turn to property taxes.”
On how he would work with the federal government:
Corbett has previously admitted to disagreeing with President Donald Trump on key issues like immigration enforcement, reproductive rights and gun control laws.
“I’ve been unhappy, and I’ve shared that unhappiness, but you’ve gotta have a relationship where you say ‘I will oppose you when you’re wrong, but I’ll have your back when you’re right.’ I think (Zohran) Mamdani actually does this quite well in New York. He’s the president of the United States. I will happily work with anyone in Washington who’s gonna work with me to make people’s lives better in Illinois.”
On keeping the Bears in Illinois:
“The Bears are willing to pay $15 million a year in property taxes. Why aren’t we saying ‘let’s take that revenue to our schools and our local communities?’ That tax burden that they would pay would be among the highest of any NFL stadiums in the country. Let’s capture that revenue. There’s a plan to do it, but we’re playing games simply because Chicago still wants a seat at the table.”
