PolitiFact

The leading candidates for Illinois’ top office squared off in four debates in recent weeks, repeating misleading attacks and defenses on policy issues and personal scandals.

The governor’s recent campaign ad ignores the fact that property tax levies are set at the local level in Illinois, meaning not even the powerful House speaker gets to pull the strings.

Chicago’s mayor says Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago all declared Chicago Public Schools “the best” among its peers. The reports he cites highlight the district’s growing strengths but don’t go that far.

Pritzker’s ad suggests Illinois’ protracted budget stalemate held up state aid for K-12 schools and left local property tax payers to pick up the tab, all thanks to Gov. Rauner. But that argument doesn’t quite add up.

The governor’s recent ad claims taxing miles driven is part of Pritzker’s tax plan. But Pritzker has only said he’s interested in exploring the idea.

As a teenager, Erika Harold allegedly told beauty pageant judges she opposed gay adoption. Now, as the Republican attorney general candidate, Harold says she favors it. Kwame Raoul, her Democratic opponent, says present day Harold is not to be believed, but his argument is flimsy.

Erika Harold’s accusation about Democratic state Sen. Kwame Raoul ignores the broader aim of a bill he and House Speaker Michael Madigan sponsored to overhaul two ailing Chicago pension funds.

Rauner overlooks nearly a dozen states with graduated systems that tax middle-class earners at lower rates than flat-tax Illinois.

Rauner campaign ad selectively quotes — rather than misquotes — newspapers in attack on Pritzker’s tax plan.

Days after Chicago’s most violent weekend this year, the first-term senator points out what she sees as a gaping loophole in federal gun laws.