A consensus seemed to form Friday that Republican state Sen. Darren Bailey won Thursday night’s televised debate with incumbent Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

A poll conducted by TV stations throughout the state that asked who won the debate had Bailey leading Pritzker 54% to 46%. Pundits and analysts seemed to agree Bailey made the better impression.

“First debate IMHO goes to Bailey,” veteran Chicago TV journalist Mary Ann Ahern wrote on social media, using shorthand for “in my humble opinion.”

I watched the hourlong debate, held on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, on television Thursday night. Then I watched it again Friday morning. The second time I did my best to fact-check many of the claims the two candidates made.

More people thought Bailey won, I concluded, because he came across as more brash and aggressive. Pritzker leads Bailey in polls, and mainstream media sometimes try to make political contests seem more competitive than they actually are.

I didn’t see or hear anything during the debate to change my belief that Pritzker will beat Bailey by 15 to 20 points when votes are counted after polls close Nov. 8. Pritzker will dominate in Cook County and win handily in the northeast part of Illinois, where three-fourths of the state’s population resides.

Bailey will win throughout the rest of the state, but it won’t be enough to overcome his deficit in Chicago and the suburbs.

Debate coverage seemed to favor Bailey because of traditional media’s tendency to want to give equal treatment to both sides.

“Gov. J.B. Pritzker and GOP challenger Darren Bailey trade insults and interrupt each other in first televised debate,” a Chicago Tribune headline declared.

In the debate I watched, I saw Bailey repeatedly interrupt Pritzker and Pritzker interrupt Bailey perhaps a few times. I would place the percentages of interruptions at about 90% by Bailey and 10% by Pritzker.

“Gentlemen, if you talk over each other we cannot hear, so try not to do that,” moderator Tahman Bradley of WGN-TV said after Bailey interrupted a Pritzker response.

Both candidates repeatedly accused the other of lying.

“It’s just a lie what Darren Bailey is saying,” Pritzker said about five minutes into the debate, during a discussion about public safety.

“Every word that comes out of this man’s mouth is deception,” Bailey said of Pritzker a short time later during discussion of the state budget.

“J.B. is an arrogant liar,” Bailey said.

“Over and over again you’ve heard Darren Bailey lie,” Pritzker said.

On some points, it was difficult to determine whether candidates deliberately made false statements or whether they were stating information in a creative fashion. Pritzker, for example, said he has proposed balanced state budgets for four years. Bailey disagreed.

“Our budget is still not balanced,” Bailey said. “This budget is a shell game.”

I reviewed numerous reports from credible media and nonpartisan organizations and concluded recent state budgets have been balanced, thanks in part to an influx of federal dollars Congress approved for relief during the pandemic.

The two candidates disagreed over the Illinois Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today Act, or SAFE-T Act. Parts of the act, including the elimination of cash bail, are set to take effect Jan. 1.

“The SAFE-T Act must be repealed because it lets violent criminals and murderers out of jail before trial,” Bailey said.

No, it doesn’t. The law gives judges discretion to detain suspects they believe would be a threat.

“The SAFE-T Act was concocted at 4 a.m. in the wee hours of the morning without any police involvement,” Bailey said.

No, it wasn’t.

The SAFE-T Act, or Public Act 101-0652, was introduced as House Bill 3653 on Feb. 15, 2019. Lawmakers held multiple readings and committee hearings and sought input from law enforcement and others. Initially, the full House unanimously approved the legislation on April 3, 2019.

The bill passed to the Senate, where it was amended in response to feedback received from law enforcement and others. The Senate approved the amended version by a 32-23 vote on Jan. 13, 2021. The House concurred by a 60-50 vote, and Pritzker signed the bill into law Feb. 22, 2021, more than two years after it was introduced.

To claim lawmakers approved the measure in the middle of the night with no discussion or input from police is a gross misrepresentation of reality.

The two have starkly different partisan views on abortion.

Pritzker supporters say women should have access to a full range of health care services, Bailey has compared terminating pregnancies to the horrific murders of Jews during the Holocaust.

“You are so divisive on everything,” Bailey said as he interrupted Pritzker during a question about abortion access.

Pritzker seemed to want to run on his record of restoring financial stability to state finances after the budget-less chaos of his predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner. The candidates were asked about higher education funding, and Pritzker responded with a point about Monetary Award Program, or MAP, grants.

“Everyone who applies for MAP grants gets one,” Pritzker said. “That’s never happened before in the history of our state.”

Previously MAP grants were awarded on a first-come, first-served basis until available funding for the annual awards ran out.

Bailey criticized the compensation for University of Illinois President Timothy L. Killeen, whose base salary increased in 2020 to $835,000 per year from $600,000.

“Are you guys aware that the president of the University of Illinois, President Killeen, makes almost a million dollars a year?” Bailey asked. “Can you tell me in what world that makes sense?”

Bailey may be even more incredulous to learn taxpayers fund an annual salary of $4.2 million for Bret Bielema, head football coach for the Fighting Illini.

Bailey seemed to score the evening’s biggest applause when he confronted Pritzker about possible aspirations of running for president in 2024. He asked Pritzker to sign a pledge that he would serve the full four years if elected to a second term.

Pritzker said he intended to serve four more years and that President Joe Biden intended to run for a second term in 2024.

The two sparred over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bailey accused Pritzker of needlessly restricting businesses. Pritzker said his actions saved lives, and that Illinois had among the highest vaccination rates and lowest mortality rates among Midwestern states.

“No, no, no, no, that’s not true,” Bailey interrupted.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other reputable sources, Illinois, along with Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, has higher COVID-19 vaccination rates than Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan.

Among Midwest states, COVID-19 death rates are lowest in Minnesota, followed by Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan.

A second and final television debate between the two is set for Oct. 18 in Chicago.

Ted Slowik is a columnist at the Daily Southtown.

tslowik@tribpub.com