Rich Miller: Bears deal while data centers wait looks bad for Democrats

A few weeks ago, Gov. JB Pritzker told reporters that negotiators are closer than they’d ever been to a deal with the Chicago Bears to stay in Illinois. The Bears are threatening to decamp to a wasteland in Northwest Indiana’s dirty energy and industrial corridor. As you’ve probably read before, Illinois’ offer is to create a privately funded local sports stadium authority to build and operate a new stadium surrounded by an entertainment complex. The state would still be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in public infrastructure spending for the Bears-owned Arlington Heights site, and nobody knows how much that could be if the Bears decide to stay somewhere in Chicago. As of this writing, the Bears have not yet committed to anything. The legislature and governor understandably don’t want to pass a bill and still watch the Bears leave, so until the Bears give the go-ahead, nothing will happen. But other major issues have been vying for attention during the mid-to-late Nove