Metro East Sun

Former Republican state House candidate Mike Babcock is singing the praises of state Rep. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) for having the courage to face off against Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“Everyone knows that the governor was overstepping his bounds with the way he enacted his stay-at-home order, but thankfully Rep. Bailey was willing to say it out loud and act on it," Babcock told the Metro East Sun. “We need more courage like that in Springfield.”

A Clay County judge recently ruled the governor exceeded his powers by extending his stay-at-home as a way of mitigating the spread of COVID-19 beyond 30 days without convening with the state legislature. Bailey filed suit in April, charging that the governor had no authority to extend his executive order, which effectively shut down the state’s small businesses. The judge who ruled in the case originally granted Bailey a temporary restraining order applying only to himself, exempting the veteran lawmaker from the governor’s stay-at-home order.

“I think it’s a great verdict and win for the people,” Babcock added. “There might be more to come, but right now things are as they should be with this ruling. I think we need to keep all our safety precautions in place, but we have to open up and move businesses forward.”

Babcock said his reasoning is simple and comes down to a simple case of survival.

“Being a small business, you typically have a loan that has to be repaid and anyone that has a small business has employees that have to be paid,” he said. “The idea of having to shut down your business for any length of time simply makes that burden that more to carry. The fact is we have to reopen and give businesses the latitude to operate as they see fit and in a way they can make money.”