I missed Henry Bayer’s call earlier. Then I found out why he phoned.

Illinois’s largest state employee union endorsed Judy Baar Topinka in the Republican primary for governor Saturday, but made no endorsement in the Democratic primary, signaling the union’s disappointment in Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

In 2002, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents 100,000 active and retired state workers, endorsed Blagojevich in both the primary and general elections.

“There’s no question many of our members all across the state have been extremely disappointed in this administration,” said union spokesman Anders Lindall. “He’s allowed important state services to deteriorate due to lack of funding and lack of appropriate staffing. He’s failed to reform our states’ broken tax system.”

UPDATE: From the press release:

Among other notable endorsements, the union backed Paul Mangieri in the Democratic primary for treasurer and Democrat Tammy Duckworth for U.S. House of Representatives from the 6th District in Chicago’s western suburbs.

UPDATE: The State Journal-Register has more.

And OneMan makes a good point.

I think this might actually help Blagojevich in the general election. He can show that he is in fact no friend of government and government employees and he is being careful with state funds. He can rail against bureaucrats and the like and talk about how he has shrunk government.