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I’ve been wondering when someone would ask Meeks this question.
State Sen. James Meeks, an immensely popular South Side pastor, teased about a third-party run for governor this spring but pulled the plug after getting Gov. Rod Blagojevich to promise to add more than $1.6 billion a year in state education spending.
But with those funding plans increasingly in doubt and Blagojevich getting re-elected with less-than-overwhelming support, Meeks said Tuesday he wished he’d have run.
“I think I could have won,†Meeks said. “I mean listen, if the Green Party guy gets 11 percent, right? And I get 11 percent from the governor and from Topinka, that brings me in at 33 percent. And then I wouldn’t have been getting out of a taxi cab to come in here today.â€
It’s something to consider, anyway. How do you think it would’ve played out?
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 7:52 am
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Rev. Meeks had neither the organization nor the backing to win the primary, let alone as a fourth alternative in the General. He might have attracted conservative voters, but only at the peril of splitting his own base.
Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:03 am
In my humble opinion if Meeks had decided to run, he would have handed JBT the prize. As I see it, most, if not all, his support would have come from those normally voting Democrat. Unlikely that he would have pulled much from Whitney. ….and if “ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we would all have a wonderful Christmas.â€
Comment by Justice Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:05 am
Meeks would not have made it but he sure would have hurt Blago. I’m sure he is wishing he had made a different decision, as do a lot of us, because Meeks made the mistake of trusting Blago and taking him at his word. Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Blago.
Comment by Little Egypt Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:27 am
Meeks would have gotten about 18 - 22%, and JBT would be Gov.
Comment by Niles Township Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:41 am
Possibly Meeks could have gotten more than 11%. Look at the plurality that Blago got in Chicago, alone. Some of that would have went to Meeks - but not enought to cut into the 460,000 votes that the governor won by in Cook.
Will Meeks ever see the funds that he was promised? Ask Sen. Bomke where the funds are for Lincoln Developemental Center.
Comment by Shelbyville Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:45 am
Gov Topinka is what we would have been saying. If Todd Stroger could win, Meeks would have syphoned enough of the Black vote as he has a good reputation. He would have gotten minimal conservative votes.
Next time, he should have gotten a memo of understanding. This highlights my reasoning of why Meeks is a fool.
Comment by Wumpus Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 9:11 am
No way the Greens, after having killed themselves to get 25,000 signatures, would have gone quietly and foisted all their support on Meeks. And I can’t see a majority of the lakeshore whites voting for Meeks after news broke about his Halloween Hell House.
That said, in an election this weird, who knows for certain? You gotta wonder.
Comment by ZC Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 9:29 am
Meeks would have made Topinka governor, and we would have all be spared watching this governor get indicted and hauled off.
Thanks for nothing, which is exactly what Meeks got too.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 10:36 am
Call me crazy, but I say Meeks would have won. If there ever was a year for a known, credible independent candidate, it was 2006. Meeks would have siphoned off a huge part of JBT’s base, especially considering his assistance with the marriage ammendement. He also would have taken a huge slice of Rod’s African-American base.
I think Meeks would have won and shook things up in both parties.
Comment by Daniel Darling Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 10:37 am
I don’t know how Meeks would have faired as a candidate. The gig is harder than it looks. People make mistakes under pressure.
I suspect one outcome would have been to cause Whitney to get more media attention earlier.
When Meeks trashed the two-party paradigm it would have caused the media to give Whitney more attention.
Since Meeks and Whitney were more focused on school funding issues, it would have caused the debate to shift from finger-pointing about corruption to a more issues-based discussion about education funding.
I suspect Blagojevich would still have gotten a good chunk of the Black vote. Meeks would have gotten a block of the Keyes vote and a healthy portion of liberals, especially in the ‘burbs.
I think Judy Baar Topinka’s negatives wouldn’t have gotten as high in an issues-based debate and Blagojevich would have been forced to scrap part of his trash Judy ad campaign.
My chief insight is that Whitney would still break 5% with Meeks in the race.
Also, Meeks’ ticket–he would have had to recruit a full slate–might have dragged him down. Somehow I suspect he would have put someone on the ticket to fill the spot who was insufficiently vetted.
Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 10:54 am
If he had been from south of I72, I would have voted for him.
Comment by Joannie Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:37 am
I’d just like to speak up for Rev. Senator Meeks. A great gentleman and an outstanding role model/leader for his community. Let’s not personally bash him at this late date.
Comment by anon Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:56 am
Didn’t Meeks run for his seat this time around as a democrat?
If so, yeah. Not a ploy at all. Heavens no.
Comment by RickG Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 12:33 pm
Meeks would NOT had fared well, especially after his ridicious education funding idea of selling the IL Lottery for a short term influx of cash but long term losses later.
Comment by Crimefighter Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 12:34 pm
JBT would be Guv
Comment by scoot Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 1:08 pm
I’m not convinced Meeks truly believed Blago would honor his word and push for the lottery lease/sale to help schools. Meeks is not so naive to believe Blago is capable of following through on a pledge (even immediately after Meeks brought the governor to his knees and won the so-called deal, Blago publicly pretended like he hadn’t made a deal with anybody). I think Meeks saw the writing on the wall - that he wouldn’t win a race for governor, and that he WOULD totally piss off pro-Blago Dems like Jones. I think he used the lottery-for-schools deal as cover to get out of running; he made it look like he accomplished something.
Comment by DeepFriedOnAStick Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 1:12 pm
He had his chance and he didn’t take it. One would assume he wasn’t serious in the first place. All anyone can say at this point is we’ll never know will we.
Comment by Levois Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 1:35 pm
If he ran a well organized and well funded campaign, he would have won. Not because people would have liked him (although they might have) but because he would have taken larger amounts of votes from the other two. Social conservatives and liberals. (odd huh?)
Although he probably would not have been well funded.
Comment by moderate Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 1:41 pm
Meeks would have been toast in an election. His tax increase plan was poorly conceived, provided inadequate provision for protection of “tax swaps”, and would have been exposed as also making “the rich richer” while gross inequities in school funding remained.
It also would have become “Lottery II” with taxes raised, and General fund “bait and switch” possible to the usual porky projects and patronage hiring.
As with Osama Obama, it’s much sexier to be a “possible” candidate than a declared, and accountable, one.
Comment by PalosParkBob Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 1:52 pm
I think it would have been:
Topinka-37
Blago- 35
Meeks- 20
Whitney- 8
Possibly more for anybody who would have been endorsed by Nieukirk.
Comment by Establishment Republican Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 2:20 pm
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Next time, Mr. Meeks, just run! Don’t believe anything Gov. Blago, Mike Madigan or Mayor Daley tell you. They’ll tell you what you want to hear to make you go away. The Democratic party is bankrupt of integrity and ideas anyway.
Comment by Run Meeks Run! Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 3:15 pm
Hey,
Meeks said he got outta a cab? I thought he had a car driven by “volunteer” off duty police security guards. At least he did when he had the confrontation with the Chicago Police about a year or so ago.
I wonder if he bought any property from Rezko…….if not he may be the only Chicago pol who hasn’t,
aRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH
Comment by IrishPirate Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 3:25 pm
Having Meeks in the race would have weakened the argument that Whitney can’t win, as it is possible to win a four-way race with as little as 26% of the total vote. Because the strength of that argument would have been reduced, more people would have voted for Whitney; so in essence, he benefits from Meek’s participation two ways.
Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 3:38 pm
Topinka wins. Meeks threw the best opportunity the black community had to establish some real standing with the Democrats.
Result: Black vote is still going to be taken for granted.
Comment by Crackhead Obama Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 3:55 pm
I think Topinka would’ve been able to pull this off. Oh by the way RickG Meeks has declared himself as an independent. If you go to the State Senators website you will see that he is the only I in the listing. Anyway these are how the results would’ve looked:
Topinka:38%
Meeks:25%
Blago:23%
Whitney:14%
I think a lot of people who voted for Blago didn’t want to really vote for Blago but at the same time they hated Topinka and they didn’t want to vote for a former socialist. So I think they wou;d’ve bit their tongue and voted for Meeks even though he is also very arrogant. By the way I don’t think anyone who says the N word in church is an inspiration to any type of community except for the KKK community (but of course he’s black).
Comment by JakeCP Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 4:51 pm
Could Meeks really have believed Blago? I don’t know how any of you feel, but he sure does look a bit short in the gray matter in this deal to me. Does he feel like he got hosed? Or does he just feel good about “winning” his power play? Who knows?
Comment by Buck Flagojevich Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 5:39 pm
I wish he would’ve ran for governor because then we could’ve been much better off with Topinka. For those of you Meeks lovers that live in Chicago I just wanted to tell you not to worry because he might even run for mayor.
Comment by JakeCP Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 7:01 pm
there was a movie, an old one, called Leap of Faith. Steve Martin and Debra Winger,in their trailer, were going around baptizing everyone. A poor man went up to Martin and said “I need a job, can you help me” and he proceeded to hit him upside the head and said”you’re employed, you’re working for Jesus now”
I think that’s what Meeks would have done with all the state employees
Comment by anonymous Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 7:17 pm
Can’t imagine voting for a pastor for governor. Believe very strongly in the separation of church and state.
Comment by Way Northsider Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 8:57 pm
Meeks was meeked out of the running. He got paid!
Comment by Springfield looker Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 9:25 pm
Blagojevich 49%
Baar Topinka 40%
Meeks 11%
Comment by T.J. Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:23 pm
Meeks, what a joke, he would have been an easy one to defeat. Nobody believed he would run in the first place and that he was looking to be bought off and he was, only problem is he didn’t get the money. Blago never took him seriously and rightfully so. He is full of hot air!
Comment by Come on Glenn Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:30 pm
“Can’t imagine voting for a pastor for governor.”
Lots of people voted for Dan Rodriguez-Schlorff for Treasurer, and he’s a Unitarian Universalist Minister. In fact, he was also the first openly gay candidate to run for statewide office in Illinois, as well as the first asian.
Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:40 pm
It’s pretty sad that Meeks got fooled by the least trustworthy person in Springfield. It demonstrates why he will never be, nor should he ever be, in charge of anything.
Comment by M.V. Wednesday, Nov 15, 06 @ 11:55 pm
Meeks believed the Governor when most politicans make him write his deals almost in blood.
Meeks played a game of political chicken and appears to have lost. Only if the Governor comes through with the education funding reform ( not without a big change in how we tax in Illinois); will Meeks save face.
Selling the Lotto like selling off other state property isnot the way to go. Dawn Clark Netsch was the real reformer for education funding reform. Saw what that got her.
Comment by decaturboy Thursday, Nov 16, 06 @ 9:26 am
Lots of people voted for Dan Rodriguez-Schlorff for Treasurer, and he’s a Unitarian Universalist Minister.
Only party activists had any idea.
Comment by T.J. Friday, Nov 17, 06 @ 12:53 am