57 Comments - Pain at the Pump - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 6:55 am: What many people do not know is exactly where gasoline and crude oil prices are set. The prices are set on a couple of commodity exchanges around the world such as in New York, London etc. Then add in sales taxes and motor fuel taxes and the retail mark ups. In newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times or the Wall Street Journal, you can read the previous days prices. I go not blame the oil companies for reaping the “windfall profit.” They are going business just like anybody else. A politian can’t influence the price at the pump. All he/she can do is blow hot air. hold hearings etc. - schroedk - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:01 am: I agree with the previous poster. However, maybe a positive consequence will be more voters voting against the incumbent. As a term limit supporter for all elected political positions, I get frustrated when the apathetic voter keeps voting for the same career politician who has no interest except in their own political survival. Too many people simply vote for whoever has the R or the D after their name without any more thought. As a fiscal conservative, I think Dems in Illinois and Repubs in Washington have failed us all miserably. It would be a happy day if each and every one of them lost their jobs in November. But that’s just me. - Reddbyrd - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:01 am: Doubt that anyone in Illinois will suffer unless they keep pushing the tax give away to the oil companies. Most of remember when Ryan tried that, called a special session and watched the oil companies pocket the extra moolah. Some will wonder why the GOPs in DC did push for more refinery capacity or monitor pipelines more closely. BP’s 14 year wait in Alaska should be criminal. Wonder what goes on in the lower 48? - C$ - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:08 am: The government has incentive to keep high gas prices, as the taxes they steal from consumers are based on a percentage of the gas price. High gas price = high tax revenue. I don’t think we’ll see our state government working to reduce gas prices any time soon. - Hank - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:13 am: The president has been pushing for several years more drilling in alaska and the dems shoot it down everytime. But they sure do take advantage of the anti-bush/high gas price rhetic to further their own political gain. In my opinion, they love these high gas prices. - Anon - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:29 am: We also need less government regulation which makes it more costly to build a new oil refinery. - Elder - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:35 am: I think this issue cuts hard against the Republicans, especially in Red states and red areas with wide open spaces and lots of pick-up trucks. We all know intuitively that gas prices spike when we go to war in the Middle East, and it is pretty hard not to argue that the current wars are Republican initiated and led. - Skeeter - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:39 am: We see two things: 1. Record profits for oil companies; 2. The Bush Admin. gives them more and more tax breaks. Why do they get tax breaks when they have literally more cash than they can spend? Sure it will have an impact on voters. - Bill Baar - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:44 am: Topinka has been the one hitting the drums on this. Cook County has the highest gac prices in the country now. Seems hard to hang Cook County’s taxes on Bush. - vole - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 7:45 am: People seem resigned to paying $3.00 per gallon. I don’t see many signs that it is affecting driving habits compared with $2.00 per gallon gas. If oil jumps to over $100 per barrel and gas would hit $5.00 per gallon, this would certainly be a threshold of pain and anger. Illinois politicians are benefiting from high prices by having their noses up the corn ethanol industry’s backside. They claim great promise from this including reducing our dependence on foreign oil, but in actuality, this technology is based on inputs of fossil fuels and offers few benefits regarding net gains in energy. - JohnR - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:14 am: You have to admit, just as everyone predicted, steady and drastic rises in gasoline prices are becoming the only instigation we have seen for anyone to even look at alternative sources of fuel. It may not be a coincidence that this movement is coming at the tail-end of the big gass-guzzling SUV craze. Would people have felt the impact as much if we had all gotten into a mid-size sedan phase? - Louis G. Atsaves - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:17 am: I believe that it will impact our elections. The voters are not so dumb. The taxes we pay on a gallon of gasoline in this state is staggering. I recently drove to Nashville, TN ($2.75 a gallon). The difference between Chicago ($3.35 a gallon) and other parts of the country are the taxes we pay on each gallon. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:32 am: The question presents a quandry for both parties. Green-minded folks see the benefit of high gas prices encouraging conservation and alternative energy. Defenders of the poor see the devastating effects on low wage earners. Business minded folks see the market at work. Anti-tax folks see the opportunity to lower taxes to provide relief. - Realist - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:32 am: What are politicians supposed to do? Pass a bill repealing the laws of supply and demand? - the Other Anonymous - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:33 am: I disagree with Rich that politicians cannot do much to stop the increase in gas prices. I just think they are looking in the wrong places to change policy. First, while politicians — especially local politicians — can’t do much about the spot price of oil, there’s a lot they can do about reducing demand for oil in the long-term. Illinois should be adopting policies that promote conservation, such as reducing urban sprawl and promoting mass transit. Moreover, our leaders in Congress should mandate scrubbers and other technology that would allow us to burn coal — especially Illinois coal — cleanly. Second, much of the pump price of gas is related to refining capacity rather than the spot price of oil. In Chicago especially, we pay a higher price because only a handful of refineries make the grade of gasoline mandated for the city. Mayor Daley is right when he calls for reforming the EPA regs that still allow trucks and cars that are fueld from outside Chicago to burn higher-polluting gasoline (even when they are driving in the city) while city people are paying the higher price. The average voter probably doesn’t understand this level of detail, mostly because we have been conditioned by the Republican knee-jerk reaction that the answer to every problem is to cut taxes. But, if voters are angry at politicians about the pump price of gasoline, they certainly are justified in voting on that anger. Let’s just hope that their replacements are thoughtful about how to rein in gas prices. - 4% - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:36 am: Good thing the Governor is giving a tax break to United Airlines and not the average Illinoisan. Makes a nice 30-second sound bite…. - Bill Baar - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:38 am: What are politicians supposed to do? Pass a bill repealing the laws of supply and demand? Cut the sales tax or give a tax credit on imcome tax. - Greedo - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:54 am: >Cut the sales tax or give a tax credit on imcome tax. What will Illinois do to offset the rising costs of its own fuel prices then? Illinois has to buy gas for all of its vehicles, too. If anything, the tax should be increased. People in Illinois can afford it. - Pat Hickey - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:56 am: Illinoisans are mad, Rich, they’re mad; yeah, that’s right, they ain’t taken it no more. Lousey politicaians and Gulf State oil producers! I passed Rizza Hummer on Harlem in Tinley, yesterday Rich; it was packed with angry customers looking to buy a Hummer - They are mobilized! - Cassandra - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 8:58 am: I agree with Pain also. However, research studies show that the majority of voters do not cast their vote on the basis of a coherent, thought-out political philosophy. We vote on emotion and short-term issues. So gas prices could affect voting…or not, depending on what else is going on in early November. In the long run, though, taxpayers need to insist on lower taxes if we have to pay more for. Lower gas taxes, lower property taxes, lower state income taxes, whatever–it’s all the same system really. But the Blago hit or miss giveaway of state tax dollars to politically connected contractors and to attractive voter grouplets needs to end. We can’t afford it, nor can we afford the huge overcompensated state bureaucracy we currently are forced to support. - Truthful James - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:01 am: We are like the proverbial frog in a pot of heating water. We are ten years behind on the power curve. Our taxes on gas have been too low to either fund alternative energy research or to cut demand. No level of government has had the political will to fully tax petroleum for that purpose. It would have offended the taxpayers, the major oil companies (whose mark-up has remained a constant percentage), and, our friends, the oil producing countries. Raise the Federal tax to five dollars a gallon and allow a deduction on the Federal income tax form. Fund research in fusion energy, smaller ’shining pebbles’ fission plants, and others. Forget about recycling, mine the landfills, burn garbage and use the heat to make electricity. So many ingenious things we have forgotten how to do. - Truthful James - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:03 am: Look at the single minded Chinese emphasis on obtaining sources of supply around the world and across the board. Oh, they are using the trade deficit to finance them. - Veritas - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:09 am: Futures trading on oil is what is killing us. Market speculation on this commodity flucuates wildly based upon both real and perceived threats to supply. - zatoichi - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:13 am: People will pay the price and complain, then pay again. They will only drop the gas guzzlers then the price is so high $4-$5 gallon that they are regularly dropping $100-$125 at the pump. (The gas stations will be fat with cash which makes for a nice robbery spot, but that is a seperate issue.) Politicians will make all kinds of meaningless speeches, but that will not effect the $.15-$.20 a gallon differences between rural towns serviced by the same suppliers and dealers. Are they going to cut taxes? Not for long when they cannot pay other bills. Going to charge the oil companies a surcharge? OK, they will simply pass it along. The econmic reality is that as oil moves to $100 a barrel the cost of gas, plastic, and everything else based on petroleum is going to ever higher levels. The global warming issue will eventually tie to this in higher taxes. - Toby or not Toby - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:17 am: For years and years the US citizen has benefited from an artificially low gas prices. Just take a look at Europe and what they have been paying for years. Most there ride motor bikes and drive very fuel efficient cars. We drive gas hog SUVs that were produced under the rules governing trucks which did not have to meet the stringent rules governing fuel efficiencies or safety required of automobiles. Most of us drive much too fast and waste lots of gas. We are spoiled and are now paying the price. We need to move through this dependence to brighter times using our own renowned ingenuity. If no present politician in Illinois will participate in an innovative energy strategy, we need to dump them and elect people that aren’t beholding to the auto and oil industry. Maybe Judy Bar can develop a program of incentives for companies in the energy efficiency business and make Illinois a place for a booming economy spearheaded by energy efficiency companies. We need innovative ideas, we need movers and shakers, we need leaders beholding to “We The People.” And we need incentives for those who conserve energy by reducing the tax on those products, increasing tax breaks and setting aside large enterprise zones throughout the state for companies developing new, innovative energy efficiency products. - VanillaMan - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:23 am: As long as we have voters that remember Nixon and Carter, the media will make gas prices an issue and blow any increase into nightmarish comparisons to the 1970s. Bad news sells. Then we are fed this nonsense about record gas profits, as though this somehow means something. To all those Chicken Littles out there, it is time to really remember the 1970s, not the media’s perception of it today. There are little similarities, regardless of how the media wants to spin it. Gas prices in 1979 took a larger share of personal income than today at $3 a gallon. Not only did it hurt dramatically more in 1979, it hit on top of an economy reeling with stagflation. Carter gave us 20% inflation, remember? Today, the economy has expanded beyond what it even was during the “Clinton Boom Years”. Not only is $3 a gallon not as horrible as $1.25 was in 1979 - take a look at the big picture. The economy is booming at a growth rate of about 3.5%! In 1979 - we were shrinking. What we have is a media still spinning the Big Oil/Republican = Crooks lies. It completely ignores the real economic picture. We aren’t even being told how great the economy is doing because the media is too busy spewing out 74% negative news on Bush. As to record profits - anyone with a Business 101 class knows that you might pull in a record profit one year, but after a decade of losses, and a future with no growth potential - your stock values will stagnate and drop. See Big Oil’s stocks? Even with record profits they are not booming. Superstitions and conspiracies satisfies those too lazy to learn. Before we start grabbing any convenient answer to gas prices, perhaps we need to read a bit. There are no monsters hiding behind our gas pump except the ones we imagine. - VanillaMan - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:26 am: AS to Europe! Their prices are higher because of taxes placed on gasoline to feed mass transits. We were not artificially lower - they were govermentally screwed. - D as in Dumb - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:30 am: Huh? Bigbyrd says reducing the sales tax allows big oil to make make more? how? people arent’ driving any less, they are just paying more to the state. In correllation, would reducing property taxes be bad because homebuilders would make more money? And let’s definitely not reduce the inheritance tax, because then people will choose to die quicker and what a windfall that would be to funeral homes. - Skeeter - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:31 am: Vanilla, Please try and get your facts straight. Pick up a copy of Fortune Magazine. What company has had the highest PROFITS for the past few years? Why should that company get special tax breaks? Why should I have to pay my fair share of taxes, but the oil companies, who are literally so flush with cash that they cannot spend it, get tax breaks? - HANKSTER - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:33 am: We need to demand that cars have better gas mileage and within the next several years the majority of cars, suvs, being produced must either run on alternative energy or get significantly higher gas mileage. This is no longer a matter of choice for individuals to decide what they drive because it has really become a matter of national security, national sustainability, and public health. - Wumpus - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:37 am: The fact that IL has the nations’s highest prices will hurt gubnah if anything. - ChicagoCynic - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:37 am: It’s a silly issue that lawmakers have very little to do with other than a few cents around the margin. But since most people know far less about macroeconomics than they do about sports, the politicians have to posture on it. In truth, high gas prices will help all of us in the long run break the dependency and encourage alternative fuel exploration. - VanillaMan - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:47 am: We have it in our power to do something about gas prices. We can drive less, drive one of the dozens of high mileage cars available, or we can move closer to work. This is about responsibility - yours - not a government. Fact is there has always been high mileage cars available. They don’t sell. We choose to guzzle gas. We choose huge vehicles. Some posters sound like smokers demanding healthy cigarettes. Record profits should cause stock value to explode. This isn’t happening. Why? It is because investors understand that in the long run, any investment in Big Oil will not give them the return they need. Big Oil might be getting record profits, but their fiscal future is still bleak. One of the big reasons we had the High Tech crash, was due to investors falling for the BIG profit myth. Don’t fall for it either. Big Oil profits are not indicating that Big Oil is thriving. - Reddbyrd - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:51 am: Dear D as in Dumb Glad I checked back to help you out Reduce the gas tax w/o mandated pump price cut( which states cannot accomplish) Refiner/Marketers stick the tax cut in the jeans and laugh all the way to the next GOP fundraiser Homebuilders don’t collect real estate taxes so the comparison does not work. Homebuilders are usually long gone by the time the tax bill shows up Nice try! But not enough Now let’s talk about more refineries. Don’t blame the tree huggers ’cause Big Oil has close refineries that could have been remodeled. Refineries could have prepared for the end of MTBE and built more ethanol plants and pipeline capacity. Refiners could have maintained the Alaska pipeline. But they were too busy building new vaults to pile up the cash. BTW Hats off to CaptFax for a great topic! Listening to all that sweet music at the fair must have honed your QOTD skills - Skeeter - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 9:53 am: Bleak future? In 1955, Exxon ranked #2 on the Fortune 500. In 2005, it had the #1 profits. Oil is now, and since 1955 has been, doing pretty well. They don’t need tax cuts more than any other industry. Want to cut taxes? Cut mine. But Mr. Bush doesn’t really care about the middle class. He cares about his pals in the oil industry. Also, do some research before making comments about “the crash.” The problem there was NO PROFITS. People invested based upon promise and not on profit - Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:04 am: If Democrats are smart, they’ll remind voters in the 5th and 3rd Appellate Districts where McGlynn and Powers are getting all of their money. Big Oil is one of the primary funders of the US Chamber of Commerce. These are the guys who’ve been trying to persuade America that global warming is a myth, just like Big Tobacco wanted us to believe cigarettes don’t kill people. - John Ruberry - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:18 am: Politicians have to come out in favor of building more refineries. There’s been a lot of talk in favor of it, but little action. It’s national issue that congress controls, although a bully pulpit time governor could make noise that congress might listen to. For any congressinal race debate, like Iraq, it should be a “must ask” question. - DOWNSTATE - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:20 am: If you think for one minute that the Democrats on the national level does not take money from big oil then you had better change brands of crack you are smoking. - HANKSTER - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:26 am: DOWNSTATE: 84% of oil money to rep, 16% to dems. Thats just a simple fact. Republicans are tied to big oil, polling shows that and the money shows that. This is why republicans have a serious credibility problem on the issue. - Buck Flagojevich - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:35 am: Damn it, as American’s, it is our God given right to have cheap gas prices. Right? I for one am glad we don’t pay $7+ per gallon as those stupid people in Europe. Give up the monster SUV’s and try conservation. You know, mass transit if available, walk (perish the thought), ride a bike, get a more fuel efficient vehicle, combine trips. - the Other Anonymous - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:57 am: Vanilla Man writes: Record profits should cause stock value to explode. This isn’t happening. Actually, oil stock values have exploded in the last two years. Mobil/Exxon opened the week of Aug. 6, 2004, at $46.29; it opened the week of Aug. 11, 2006 at $67.42. Royal Dutch Shell opened the week of Aug. 6, 2004, at $44.05. It opened this week at $73.84. British Petroleum opened the week of Aug. 6, 2004, at $57. It opened this week at $72.17. All these stocks outperformed the market — by substantial margins. The Dow Jones increased by just about 10% over those two years, while all these stocks increased by about 50% or more. - DOWNSTATE - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:18 am: Hannkster why will the Democrats vote no everytime America wants to build a new refinery or open up more drilling.So guys like you can have a reason to say what you say.If you open up Alaska and the coast in Florida build 5 new refineries the cost of gas would drop. - Walking Wounded - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:19 am: The general public/voters will pay whatever market price the big oil companies charge. They’ll gripe and complain, but keep up their driving habits. I believe the only way the people will revolt, is if there is another gas shortage (remember the 70’s?) and everyone is forced to purchase gas on alternate days. People’s reaction to gas rationing was pretty ugly then and would be even uglier now. - Rich Miller - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:27 am: “Toby or not Toby” and others like this… I asked about the impact on Illinois candidates, not your opinion as to why oil prices are high and/or what we need to do about it. - HANKSTER - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:31 am: DOWNSTATE: There is this crazy thing called the environment that some of us people are worried about. Some people care about global warming, did you know now even Bush says its real? The fact is that we should be putting resources into alternative forms of energy but instead republcians are concerned about giving tax breaks to oil companies who want to drill in Alaska. If you want to make the argument that republicans arent the ones that are more in line to suffer with the voters for high oil prices go ahead. Democrats would love to have debate on high gas prices and if the elections came down to that, only a fool would think republicans would stand a chance. - Truthful James - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:32 am: As is typical on this Blog and others, partisans on both sides muddy the waters with spirited attacks and defenses, whilst ignoring the future. We need development of alternative energy resources, not because we are running out of oil but rather to rid ourselves of the yoke that Big Oil and OPEC have around our necks, Supply will always be with us, it is the demand side we must address. It is going to hurt, but prices will have to rise hugely. I suggested that the Feds raise the gas tax $5 per gallon. Perhaps that is not enough, but this is for discussion purposes. We would still have lower prices (and lower taxes) than Europe, Japan or Korea. Others have said, in effect, lower the price at the pump. That just increases the Demand, postpones the substitution of energy alternatives. Conservation, mass transit and the rest merely shift the burden among consumers. The objective should be to get the oil companies out of the transportation industry. It is likely that $5 or higher surtax, in lowering demand, might result in lower oil prices to restore some of that demand for petroleum based energy Visibly, the government should ramp up imvestment in the Fusion Energy Project, taking from the hydrogen atoms as they are fused the resultant energy to produce electricity. The Europeans are going full speed ahead at CERN/ Our efforts at Fermi and Berkeley are lagging. Continue to develop superconductive transmission methods. We have got develop as well the purer forms of Energy manufacture. Conservation will provide some relief. This is a non partisan solution. Yes, on the local level mass transit will have to be increased. Taxicabs, jitney cabs, limousines all have a place. Regulations must be adjusted to maximize their efficiency Cowering politicians are not welcome. - Walking Wounded - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:54 am: To clarify a bit, I think if there comes another gas crisis, voter’s reactions will be detrimental to just about any Illinois or federal politician sitting in office. The incumbents, D or R, will be accused of not doing enough, even if the circumstances are beyond their control. - Toby or not Toby - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 11:56 am: Rich, Thought I had addressed alternatives for Illinois politicians to help remedy the problem, but I see your point of “stick to the topic.” Oil prices are high because they are Market Driven. Both China and India are consuming vast quantities of oil for their industrial machine that is cranked wide open. The more demand, the more the barrel of oil costs in relationship to available supply. We in Illinois can do a lot to alleviate the problem long term and that is through special enterprise zones, tax credits on high efficiency vehicles and tax penalties on gas guzzlers manufactured after a certain period, which money should go into R & D for colleges and universities researching energy efficient products and processes. We routinely change our oil every 3,000 miles, when every oil company and automobile dealer will tell you that isn’t necessary. Of course they are whispering that fact. That alone would save millions of barrels of oil. It can be painful for oil change operations, but we are already feeling a great deal of pain at the pump. - Toby or not Toby - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 12:09 pm: As far as the price Illinois politicians will pay…it depends on the initiatives they do or don’t put forward. Putting a cap on taxes on a gallon of gas would be a nice start but it certainly isn’t a fix. That will disappear over one weekend of gas price increases. Politicians need to encourage energy efficient development through tax incentives as a carrot and tax penalties as a stick. Both must be used if we expect to solve this problem. Most politicians look to their advisors who have short term strategies to answer the “topic of the day.” We need long range planning. Short term, we vote our pocket book! - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 12:34 pm: I’m surprised no one has suggested a Venezuelan solution. Nationalize the oil companies and sell gas at 20 cents a gallon. - taxmandan - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 1:01 pm: It’s a political winner to who ever decides to take up the issue. In fact, if I were Topinka I would make energy issues a major theme of my campaign. That would give her an issue that differentiates herself from the Governor and puts him on defense. Of course that doesn’t mean her entire strategy can be blaming Rod for gas prices, she needs a plan with substance. This is an excellent opportunity to explain to voters what steps she will take to make Illinois a leader in alternative energy production, etc. The time has passed for giving “hors d’oeuvres” versions of plans. - Levois - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 1:10 pm: I’m not sure who’s going to suffer. It seems to me Republicans aren’t doing much about it, but the Democrats don’t seem to have a plan to address these high gas prices. I’m not sure how this plays out. - Justice - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 1:28 pm: As far as the price Illinois politicians will pay…it depends on the initiatives they do or don’t put forward. Putting a cap on taxes on a gallon of gas would be a nice start but it certainly isn’t a fix. That will disappear over one weekend of gas price increases. Politicians need to encourage energy efficient development through tax incentives as a carrot and tax penalties as a stick. Both must be used if we expect to solve this problem. Most politicians look to their advisors who have short term strategies to answer the “topic of the day.” We need long range planning with some short term incentive. Rich, you just might share these comments with JBT…..oops, forgot one of her staff is on this blog with us. All of Blogo’s folks are looking for future photo ops, without his baby and gasoline isn’t a problem as most have the use of state cars and FREE gas!! Oh yeah, good points Taxmandan! - NumbersGuy - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 5:09 pm: I would just like to thank everyone today for helping me reinforce my long-ago decision to not become a graduate instructor in Economics at a Big 10 University not to for away from here. Props to all. Besides, I’ve learned about so many varied things since then, esp. over the past three years. Things like “what is a proffer?” “what is the difference between a subject and a target” and other important non-economic concepts. - Shallow Pharnyx - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 6:39 pm: I don’t think it will effect Illinois politicians unless there is a huge increase between now and November. People are thinking about other issues at the state level. - M.V. - Monday, Aug 14, 06 @ 10:02 pm: I think most of the people who actually vote in midterm elections, in Illinois at least, are political patronage workers, and often that means they’re voting for someone who is on the ballot. Those people vote with their jobs in mind, not their gas tanks. - Ken in Aurora - Tuesday, Aug 15, 06 @ 2:17 pm: From the original article: “It’s killing everybody,” muttered Shteiwi, 54. “Whoever’s in office now, I’m not going to vote for none of them.” Just think, elections are decided by the likes of Mr. Shteiwi! Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.