GOP governor nominee Darren Bailey apologizes for comments after Highland Park parade shooting but struggles to move past controversy

CHICAGO — A week after becoming the Republican Party nominee for governor, state Sen. Darren Bailey sought Thursday to pivot from his bungled response to the mass shooting in Highland Park by declaring more gun control laws weren’t necessary, saying state funds needed to be better directed for mental health services and trying to cast blame for violence throughout Illinois on his opponent in the fall, Gov. J.B. Pritzker. But Bailey’s efforts to move past the controversy ran into problems of their own as the Downstate Republican conflated state gun control laws, misidentified a neighborhood in ...