Crain’s tips its hand
Tuesday, Aug 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller
Calling Rod Blagojevich “the worst governor for business Illinois has had in decade,” who “specializes” in ’soak business’ policies,” Crain’s scolds business leaders for not contributing more money to Judy Baar Topinka.
A fundamental rule of Illinois politics is, “Don’t back no losers.”
Business seems to be heeding that adage when it comes to supporting Republican gubernatorial nominee Judy Baar Topinka. So far, the business community hasn’t come across with the campaign contributions she’ll need to make a respectable race against incumbent Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the November election.
Some stalwart GOP donors of campaigns past are sitting on the sidelines as the critical fall campaign season nears. As Greg Hinz reports in this week’s issue, business donations to Ms. Topinka ticked up recently, but still haven’t reached the levels Republican candidates could count on in during the party’s heyday in the 1980s and ’90s.
Perhaps business leaders have looked at the polls and concluded Ms. Topinka is too far behind to mount a serious challenge. Maybe they’ve looked at Gov. Blagojevich’s $12-million-plus war chest and decided they don’t want to go up against that kind of firepower.
Whatever the reason, business is being penny-wise and pound-foolish. If they figure on keeping their powder dry until the GOP has a better chance of winning, they may be waiting a long time.
Anyone want to bet on which way this endorsement will go?
- Anon62701 - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 8:06 am:
Interns are temporary employees and not certified. They do not become certified until they move to a permanent position and serve a probationary period.
The non-certified Interns have no rights under the Personnel Code. To get rid of the current improperly hired Interns, all Blagojevich has to do is thank them for their service and send them home.
Come on Blago, do the right thing and send these corrupt bad apple Interns home.
How about the previous corrupt bad apple Interns that have moved to permanent positions and been certified. They also should be sent home under the very same basis that you fired the Ryan cronies. They improperly gamed the system to unfairly and improperly gain their state job.
Come on Blago, these corrupt bad apples also should be sent homr today.
Maybe you can even get two really big splash press releases out of these actions. Time to get on the horse and look like a hero.
- Leroy - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 8:32 am:
“Although he may have his shortcomings, we here at the editorial board believe Gov. Blagojevich is the right person for the job at the present time”
But it will be ‘qualified and reluctant’
- bored now - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 8:36 am:
i guess i would have been surprised if crain’s would endorse blagojevich under any condition, but… this was predictable. i said when the guv started going after judy last spring that the point of that kind of advertising was not only to drive up her negatives, but also to dry up her cash. i’ve noted all along that her june 30th numbers would demonstrate whether she had been successful in withstanding rod’s onslaught.
now the numbers are in, and topinka’s campaign is pretty much on life support. to resurrect it *now* would require extraordinary work, and probably a miracle — which seems to be what the topinka campaign has been counting on all along.
what’s amazing is that topinka is running in the best possible political environment for a challenger. scandal is in the air, the incumbent’s performance has been lack-luster (at best), his negatives are high, the party (madigan) appears to have abandoned him, and he’s basically alienated one third of the electorate. people dream about running in this kind of political environment!
how the blagojevich campaign would respond was predictable. had judy been a serious candidate, she would have raised wads of cash before rod went on tv, in order to respond. instead, she seems to be waiting for the national party to salvage her campaign. and the national republican party has long kept the illinois gop at arm’s length. it’s not just that the illinois gop skipped the reagan revolution, it’s the combine. judy did this to herself…
- Randi - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 9:07 am:
Last winter I attended a public presentation given by four of Chicago’s biggest movers-and-shakers. The topic was something like “what makes Chicago so great.†General answer: The vision and investments shared by Daley and the business community.
When it came time for audience questions I asked: “The mayor and his elected colleagues in IL are neither immortal nor invincible. We all read what is happening with the prosecutor’s investigations. What is the business community doing to protect your investments? There are no obvious successors who share your vision of the city or state.â€
Deer-in-headlights – that was the look I got from all four. I think it was John Bryan who mumbled something about “watching what is happening.†But he said it, and they acted like, they are living in a parallel universe that does not include hired-trucks, pay-offs, wired workers, etc.
The underlying issue, I think, is an assumption that virtually all local/state politicians are corrupt. I don’t mean that in the sense of a blanket opinion of the profession of elected officials. It’s just that the roots of corruption go so deep in IL it is hard to find someone that one can be sure is not involved.
Additionally, the business community does not understand how IL politics works. The irony is that they could take it over if they only tried. And I don’t mean just with money. The political establishment on both sides has a declining quantity of brain power and increasing sense that change is hopeless.
While it may be easy for Crain to endorse Judy, I sure don’t want to be on the endorsement committee at the other papers. It will not be a fun process trying to establish any logical explanation for whatever decision they make besides telling their readers “you are on your own this year.â€
- Disgusted - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 7:40 pm:
From my previous post:
I saw an informal poll on a real estate site (see houses.com) I was on this morning. They asked who people were voting for for governor. The results: Topinka 81%, Blagojevich 19%.
- RAI - Tuesday, Aug 8, 06 @ 11:28 pm:
Does anyone believe that any other candidate besides JBT would be running away with this race?
YES!!!