* WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program is airing a live Democratic gubernatorial debate tonight at 7 o’clock. It won’t be simulcast on the Intertubes, so I won’t get a chance to watch.
Those of you who live in “the Chicagoland area,” as the locals say, would be doing the rest of us a big favor if you live-blogged the debate in comments. Thanks much and have fun.
Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes traded charges of incompetence tonight in a televised debate with a week to go in their tight race for the Democratic primary for governor. […]
Hynes contended [the Harold Washington ad] showed Washington firing Quinn for “incompetence and mismanagement”, adding “that’s what we got” from Quinn’s first year as governor. […]
Quinn hit Hynes again over the comptroller’s limited role in overseeing cemeteries, saying he “completely dropped the ball” on the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal in which cemetery workers are accused of digging up bodies and re-selling graves.
“He was incompetent,” Quinn said.
* 7:55 pm - And it’s over. Check the comments for a great live-blog. We definitely need to do this again. Excellent job, campers.
If you’re just coming back to the site, now’s your chance to tell us what you thought.
I found it odd that when the candidates were asked to name one thing they liked about each other, Quinn went after Hynes again. Not exactly the high road.
Ford Motor Co. plans to add 1,200 jobs when it begins making the Explorer sport-utility vehicle at its Far South Side factory on Torrence Avenue later this year, Crain’s has learned.
Gov. Pat Quinn is due to join Ford executives when they announce the Explorer production at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the plant near 130th Street. Plans to bring the Explorer from Louisville, Ky., to the under-utilized Chicago plant were first reported by Crain’s nearly a year ago. The move was helped by recent tax credits approved by Mr. Quinn.
Adding the Explorer probably will mean bringing a second shift back to the Torrence Avenue plant, which has been down to one shift for the past year. The factory now employs about 1,400 workers.
The company and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn are scheduled to make the announcement on Tuesday at the factory.
Quinn told reporters in Chicago on Monday that an unspecified company would be announcing 1,200 new jobs in Illinois.
The person briefed on the announcement says some of the workers will be from Ford’s pool of employees laid off at other factories. The person did not want to be identified because the announcement has not been made.
At Ford, the current truck-based Explorer, which provided billions in profits for the company as the top-selling SUV for a decade in the 1990s, will change fundamentally when its revamped version debuts by the end of the year. The new Explorer, which hasn’t been publicly unveiled, will be designed on the same underpinnings as a Ford car.
The news of hiring at Ford comes only days before the company will report its fourth-quarter earnings. Some Wall Street analysts now expect that the Dearborn, Mich., company could be profitable in the quarter and report a full-year profit, including special items, when earnings are released Thursday. Ford lost $30 billion between 2006 and 2008.
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* Alexi Giannoulias has responded to David Hoffman’s new TV ad by hitting back. Rate it…
*** UPDATE *** Hoffman responds…
“Mr. Giannoulias’ new ad attempts to take David Hoffman to task for daring to question his work record. True to Mr. Giannoulias’ form, his ad does not address the well documented facts of his relationship with Tony Rezko. They are well-sourced. They are well-reported. They are true. These are questions Mr. Giannoulias continues to dodge. Mr. Giannoulias also fails to mention in his ad that not one newspaper in Illinois has determined him fit for the Senate.
“Mr. Giannoulias also misrepresents the facts saying the Tribune called out David on a misstatement. David, in fact, took it upon himself to clarify after making a minor error. Imagine a public official who believes they should be held accountable to the voters for their public statements and actions - a lesson that is lost on Mr. Giannoulias, who has yet to apologize for his mismanagement of the Bright Start Fund and purposely misleading the investors regarding the amount of the losses.”
* Meanwhile, the respected Public Policy Polling firm is releasing a new survey that shows Giannoulias ahead and Hoffman in second place…
According to a yet-to-be-released survey from Public Policy Polling, Giannoulias has the support of 32 percent of Democratic primary voters — just 2 percentage points shy of the 34 percent he received in a similar poll released Sunday by the Chicago Tribune and WGN.
Former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman (D) scored 20 percent in the PPP poll, while former Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Robinson Jackson scored 18 percent. About 27 percent of respondents reported they were undecided in the automated poll of 400 likely Democratic voters conducted Jan. 22-25.
Kirk holds an even more commanding lead in the GOP primary field with 42 percent. His chief competition, real estate developer Patrick Hughes (R), had 9 percent of support in the poll and 39 percent were undecided. These results were also similar to the Chicago Tribune poll, but Hughes scored better by about 20 points in his own poll that he released today from a relatively unknown polling firm.
Let’s compare PPP’s poll to the Tribune results, which are in parentheses…
Not a huge difference at all, but Hoffman can probably better use these numbers to his advantage. Whether it means anything is debatable, at best.
…Adding… It should be noted that this PPP poll is much more current than the Trib poll, which was taken Jan. 16-20. Some of those Trib numbers are nine days old.
* In another campaign, 10th CD Republican hopeful Beth Coulson is up on cable TV with a new ad. Rate it…
I expected better.
From a Coulson press release…
Earlier in January, Coulson’s radio ads started airing on radio stations throughout the Chicagoland area, touting her experience as a leader in the 10th Congressional district in bringing lower property taxes and small business tax credits, as well as the endorsements from leaders like former Gov. Jim Edgar. Starting Sunday, Coulson’s media campaign hit television with a district-wide cable buy focusing on her ability to bring fiscal conservatism to Washington.
* Dawn Clark Netsch is endorsing Dan Hynes this afternoon. From a press release…
“Dan Hynes has been a straight shooter and independent voice from the very beginning. For years, he’s been signaling that our state’s finances are on the wrong track,” said Netsch. “Hynes is a competent manager who doesn’t stick his head in the sand. He has credibility when it comes to the state budget and our fiscal mess. He’s the candidate who has the skills needed to help us recover from this dire situation.”
Should be fun to see how the liberal icon responds to the Harold Washington ad.
Axelrod refused to comment on the devastating advertisement State Comptroller Dan Hynes is running against Gov. Quinn quoting former Mayor Harold Washington criticizing Quinn. Axelrod was a master campaign ad maker. But with Quinn standing off to his side Monday morning, Axelrod declined to weigh in.
The two were at an event for Misericordia Home.
* Legal fees allegedly aren’t showing up on campaign reports. From a press release…
CHICAGO—Independent Democratic candidates for State Rep. Joe Laiacona and Rudy Lozano Jr. filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections today, citing numerous violations of state election law related to the pre-election reports filed last week by Democratic incumbents Rep. Daniel Burke (D-23), Rep. Deborah Mell (D-40), Rep. Carol Sente (D-59) and Rep. Michael Zalewski (D-21).
Despite the fact that each of the incumbents was engaged in a time-consuming ballot access challenge, they all failed to report any expenditures or in-kind donations for attorney fees or staff costs.
“In November last year, I objected to my opponent’s petition on the grounds that she was not a registered voter,” said Laiacona. “We were both represented by attorneys. The fees I paid my attorney are reported. Mell’s report does not include any attorney’s fees.”
Lozano said, “We filed eight times the minimum number of signatures required. Burke never had a prayer of knocking us off the ballot but that wasn’t their goal. They wanted to cost us a bunch of
money and divert us from campaigning. Burke’s report hides this essential information from the voters.” […]
Illinois law requires the complaint case to be heard immediately and the State Board of Elections to make a decision in a week.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan promised “deep cuts” in state government if he’s elected during a meeting with The Register-Mail Tuesday.
The former Illinois Attorney General says the state was on the verge of bankruptcy, but raising taxes isn’t the way to pull the state out of the hole.
Ryan said the solution is to cut the fat out of state government. “These cuts are going to be painful,” he said. “But for the last 10 years the state has spent more than it has brought in.”
He made a commitment that cuts would not hurt the most vulnerable members of society. “I’m going to go out of my way to protect the poor, the disabled and the elderly,” he said.
I really wish newspapers wouldn’t let candidates so easily get away with statements like that.
* Quote of the day goes to Republican gubernatorial candidate Kirk Dillard, even though he was quoted last week…
“I’m not the Senate GOP leader today because I’ve always thought like a governor and not a myopic legislator,” Dillard said. “I’ve always thought globally.”
To those who know him, the bombastic quote sums up Dillard perfectly, displaying an ego and ambition that dates back to his days working as a top aide to Republican Govs. James Thompson and Jim Edgar.
[Birkett] says he was weighing his political future in June when he asked McKenna, then the state GOP chair, for results of a rumored poll.
Birkett says McKenna told him he didn’t have any poll information, something that Birkett says “was a flat-out lie”.
A few weeks later, McKenna resigned as party chair and went on to enter the governor’s race.
Birkett accuses McKenna of putting personal interests ahead of party when he included his own name in the poll without the permission of the republican state central committee.
Birkett made a video about the subject as well. Watch…
MARCH 2009: A Zogby poll shows that Birkett was leading the early field for Governor (Birkett 39, Brady 8, Whitley 5).
APRIL 2009: State party takes extensive $28,000 poll, using nearly half of all party funds. Just this month, McKenna admitted breaking party ethics rules by submitting his name in the poll for both Governor and Senator. Birkett was far ahead of McKenna in the poll.
JUNE 16, 2009: Birkett meets with McKenna at his Dad’s business, Schwarz Supply Source, Morton Grove. At the meeting, Birkett asks whether McKenna has any poll #s relating to him. McKenna says no.
* Democratic comptroller candidate Rep. David Miller has been accusing his top primary opponent of botching the Bright Start program…
Both Giannoulias and Kelly are facing questions about Bright Start as they campaign statewide for U.S. Senate and state treasurer, respectively. Krishnamoorthi is now running for comptroller, tiptoeing through the Bright Start minefield as well.
His opponent, state Rep. David Miller (D-Lynwood), reminds audiences that Krishnamoorthi oversaw Bright Start when he worked at the treasurer’s office.
Miller, his opponent, questions the timing of Krishnamoorthi’s departure.
“The question for me is, Was he asked to leave, or did he bail at a time when things got hot?” Miller said. “I believe he got pushed out.”
Krishnamoorthi dismissed the allegation: “It is absurd to suggest that I left because of Bright Start.”
Miller also accused Krishnamoorthi of downplaying his role in the Bright Start debacle when he is talking to voters.
“He doesn’t take personal responsibility,” Miller said. “He tries to explain it away as being a part of the downturn in the economy. He talks about transparency and accountability in his speeches, but he’s shown a lack of both. This was his baby.”
*** UPDATE *** With a hat tip to Progress Illinois, here are a couple more new TV ads. Raja Krishnamoorthi…
* A few weeks ago, a buddy of mine in the Pat Quinn campaign explained why he believed Dan Hynes was making no progress against Quinn. “Voters don’t view Pat as the incumbent,” he said.
Now that the race has dramatically changed, I think voters have taken a different view and actually see Quinn as an incumbent. That’s the background for my latest syndicated newspaper column…
With the primary election just around the corner, just about everybody I know has asked me who I think will win the various races.
I try to avoid making win/loss predictions, and this campaign season is a prime example for why everybody should just sit back and wait to see what the voters do.
For instance, a month or so ago, Comptroller Dan Hynes looked to most longtime political observers - including me - like he was toast. Stick a fork in him. Sayonara, dude. Pretty much everybody had given up on him.
Hynes had spent millions of dollars and hadn’t closed the gap between himself and Gov. Quinn. His message at the time - that Quinn’s tax increase proposals were bad for the middle class - just wasn’t working. He trailed Quinn in every poll by anywhere from 20 to 30 percentage points.
Then, of course, Quinn’s administration was hit with a scandal that has not stopped reverberating. His Department of Corrections director secretly let loose hundreds of violent prison inmates before their scheduled release dates in order to save a few bucks. Quinn first said he knew about it, then said he didn’t know about it, then blamed it all on his director, whom the governor has since adamantly and repeatedly refused to fire.
Because Quinn wouldn’t fire the guy, Quinn effectively took ownership of the scandal for himself. If he had fired the director, Quinn could’ve blamed everything on an underling and moved forward with some media-friendly prison reforms. But since Quinn refused to budge, Quinn was the one who got the blame - because blame always moves upwards if no actions are taken. And when some of those early released prisoners committed violent crimes after they were given their “Get out of Jail Free” cards, that blame became intense.
Until that point, I don’t think most voters viewed Quinn as a standard incumbent. He basically fell into the job when Rod Blagojevich was arrested, impeached and removed from office. So, I think, people were more than willing to cut Quinn as much slack as possible. That’s a big reason why Hynes’ early attacks didn’t work. Quinn wasn’t viewed as culpable for the state’s many problems (he inherited the budget deficit disaster from Blagojevich and George Ryan, after all), and people gave him points for trying, even if they disagreed with him (like when he proposed that big tax hike).
But the combined bungles of the early release plan and Quinn’s refusal to hold anyone truly accountable has, in my mind, convinced folks that he is now an incumbent just like every other incumbent. And that’s a dangerous place to be in a year shaping up as toxic for incumbents.
So it’s no surprise at all that Quinn’s own polling showed last week that he was leading Hynes by just a few points and was fading fast. Suddenly, Hynes is a contender.
Hynes began running a new TV ad late last week that featured the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington explaining on video why he fired Quinn from a top job in the 1980s. The video is certainly dramatic, but it’s also right on topic. Washington basically says in the video that Quinn was an incompetent showboater. It’s almost as if Washington is speaking this week, not 20-odd years ago.
It’s not easy to defeat a sitting governor in a party primary. The governor controls so many of the party’s strings, so much of the money and can command so much media attention for every little thing he does that it’s tough for an opponent to compete. Add in the super-early Feb. 2 primary date this year - which has shortened the campaign season by six or seven weeks - and it’s just about impossible.
So, while I will follow my tradition and not make a prediction about who will win this race, I will say this: The Hynes campaign has done just about everything right since the first of the year and Quinn has done just about everything wrong since mid-December. If Hynes doesn’t win, it was never in the cards.
* That same Quinnster buddy and I had what you might call an “intense conversation” over the weekend about the Quinn campaign’s use of Bobby Rush to defend against the Harold Washington ad. Eric Zorn is not happy, either…
In a new [Internet video] the Pat Quinn campaign features U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush expressing his indignation about last week’s bombshell commercial from the Dan Hynes campaign:
“And here’s Dan Hynes, who hasn’t done anything in public life that’s notable,” says Rush. “This is an act of a desperate man who is in a desperate situation and is running a desperate campaign.”
Not only is Hynes actually in a statistical dead heat with Quinn in the Democratic gubernatorial primary race and far from desperate, but… Bobby Rush? The guy who played a whole deckful of race cards a little more than a year ago to be sure that no one derailed the appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate?
* Zorn also checked to see if Dan Hynes “slagged” Barack Obama during the 2004 US Senate primary. He found one instance. Here’s a linked Sun-Times article from 2004…
Hynes opened Wednesday’s debate by attacking Obama, his former ally:
“When George Ryan was leading our state into a fiscal ditch, I took him on,” Hynes said. “I often stood alone. That’s what leaders do. Barack Obama chose a different course. He stayed silent. He didn’t do anything.”
Obama said it was Hynes who sat “on the sidelines” as Obama fought Ryan in Springfield.
“Dan mentioned earlier about George Ryan’s budget… I’ve actually passed laws that helped to provide tax relief for working families. Twenty thousand children have health care this year that didn’t have it last year because of a law I passed. On all of these issues, I’ve actually delivered.”
Hynes staffers were seen passing out anti-Obama literature that did not bear the Hynes campaign logo.
* I wrote over the weekend that if one of Hynes’ African-American or white liberal backers spoke up in anger about the Harold Washington ad, I’d be a whole lot more impressed. Last night, the Quinn campaign sent me a link to a blog written by a Chicago public school teacher…
But then Hynes ran an ad using the dead Harold against Quinn, who supported Harold but was fired from his job as Washington’s budget chief. My stomach turned. And when I early voted at the local library yesterday, I skipped the governor’s line.
Not exactly what I had in mind, but I give the Quinnsters big points for trying.
* David Hoffman has finally aired his long-promised attack ad. The spot whacks Alexi Giannoulias on Tony Rezko and touts Hoffman’s newspaper endorsements. Rate it…
Um, the Giannoulias family bank didn’t “let” Rezko bounce a half-million dollars in checks. The bank didn’t honor the checks and the casinos got quite upset about it.
* Erick Erickson, the top dog over at RedState, is dreaming…
Conservatives across the country are seriously considering a last minute air-drop of support into Illinois for Pat Hughes. The thinking goes that the last minute effort to help Scott Brown put him over the finish line and the same could be done in these last eleven days before the Illinois GOP primary. […]
He is not polling well against Kirk right now, but then he has significantly lower name identification. All the polling suggests Kirk’s support is very week and once people find out about Hughes, they break overwhelmingly for Hughes.
Scott Brown was a pretty well-known commodity by the last week and was either leading or coming very close to it by this point in the MA Senate campaign. And even if Hughes’ new poll is right - and that’s seriously doubtful considering that nobody even knows who his pollster is - he’s still trailing by 20 points. That’s a lot to overcome in a week - and that assumes the incoming cash is immediate. The Trib poll is probably more accurate anyway.
* Republican Lt. Governor candidate Jason Plummer, who has raised $731,000 this month alone in cash and (mostly) loans, has a new TV ad. Rate it…
In 2003, Madigan sponsored legislation sending $3.5 million in state money to the city of Chicago for “all costs associated with road, water, sewer and lighting improvements on 76th Street and South Kostner Avenue.”
That legislative language directed money to a privately owned stretch of pavement that leads to the properties of two Madigan clients in his Southwest Side district.
Madigan’s response in the story…
Madigan’s written statement said he sponsored the road improvement at the request of a nearby condominium building, which he described as the principal beneficiary of the project.
“That’s just not true,” said Daphne Brownlee, president of the Ford City Condominium Association. “We became aware of it for the first time when it was being done and we were very surprised.”
Brownlee, who said she was on the condo board at the time of the roadwork, also challenged Madigan’s statement that her complex was the primary beneficiary, because its main entrance is on another road.
But late last week, Madigan’s press secretary issued a statement. All emphasis is in the original…
The problem for the Tribune, however, is that they talked to the wrong condo association. The Tribune reporters spoke to the Ford City Condominium Association. But the condo association that requested the roadwork was the “Courtyard in Ford City Condominium Association,” a nearby complex located on 76th Street—the street that was the beneficiary of the roadwork. Thus, the Tribune did not prove the Speaker’s assertion false; it missed the boat altogether while leading its readers to believe that it had caught the Speaker in a contradiction.
What is most pathetic about the Tribune’s reporting is that Ms. Brownlee told the Tribune reporters that they had the wrong condo association, but they did nothing to correct the error. She explained that her condo complex was not even located on 76th Street and would not benefit from that roadwork. One might expect a reporter to take these statements as evidence that he was not talking to the correct source. Instead, he took the statements as evidence that his thesis was correct, and the Speaker was wrong:
Brownlee … also challenged Madigan’s statement that her complex was the primary beneficiary, because its main entrance is on another road.
Did it ever occur to the Tribune reporters, upon learning that Ms. Brownlee’s condo complex was not even located near the roadwork, that maybe they were speaking with the wrong association? Why did they ignore Ms. Brownlee’s warning to them on this point? And why didn’t they simply return to the Speaker, with whom they had an open dialogue, and provide him the opportunity to clarify matters? One phone call, and the issue could have been cleared up.
Instead, the Tribune published a piece on this Ford City road project that might have made for nice “gotcha” journalism but which, unfortunately, was completely false and misleading. This leaves only one question:
Will the Tribune admit its mistake and issue a retraction?
* Meanwhile, Rod Blagojevich praised the Tribune in a press release…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich [Sunday] praised the Chicago Tribune for its expose on Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and the apparent conflicts of interest between his job as a powerful polician and the clients he represents in his law practice.
“If this isn’t corrupt I don’t know what is,” said the former governor on his WLS radio show this afternoon. “Finally the Chicago Tribune has done something about this.”
“I hate to tell you I told you so I told you so,” said the former governor the show.
Blagojevich says he doubts Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Michael Madigan’s daughter, will do an investigation.
“Madigan & Getzendanner has become a go-to firm in Chicago’s lucrative field of commercial property tax appeals,” Chicago Tribune, the paper wrote. “In 2008 it represented 45 of the 150 most valuable downtown buildings, based on values set by the last complete city reassessment in 2006, according to public records. That’s more than twice what the closest rival represented.”
“Hey Mike Madigan why don’t you call me on this show,” Blagojevich said on the radio. “Why don’t you disclose who your clients are. We have a right to know.”
Madigan never called.
But others did. The lines lit up.
“If Madigan has his way he’s gonna make Illinois his personal feifdom,” said Jerry from University of Illinois.
As governor, Blagojevich rewrote HB824 which called for lawmakers to disclose their clients. The bill died after that.
* David Hoffman is, indeed, surging, but he’s still in third place according to the new Tribune poll. December Tribune poll results are in parentheses…
Giannoulias 34 (31)
Jackson 19 (17)
Hoffman 16 (9)
Meister 1 (1)
Undecided 13 (21)
Most of the undecideds appear to be breaking to Hoffman, but a lot of this movement is within the margin of error, so be cautious.
Jackson, the lone African-American contender in the Democratic contest, has the support of 48 percent of black voters, which has helped keep her virtually even with Giannoulias among Chicago voters. But Jackson’s percentage of black support has not increased significantly since December, while Giannoulias’ backing from African-Americans has roughly doubled to nearly a quarter of the black vote.
Giannoulias also holds a healthy edge over his rivals of 2-to-1 or better among suburban Cook County and collar-county voters.
Experience has shown that an African-American candidate can go from 50 percent to 85 percent of the black vote in a heartbeat late in the game, so keep that in mind.
Three major candidates have gained a few points in name recognition and favorable ratings. Former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman has been critical in TV ads of Alexi Giannoulias about Bright Start college fund losses due to Oppenheimer Core Fund investments in mortgage-backed securities, plus questionable loan recipients from his family’s bank. However, there is not much indication this led to increased unfavorability for Giannoulias, +3 points.
* On to the Republicans…
Kirk 47 (41)
Hughes 8 (3)
Thomas 3 (3)
Martin 3 (2)
Undecided 35 (46)
More than half of GOP voters said they agreed with the tea party movement, including nearly 70 percent of those who describe themselves as very conservative. But that hasn’t translated into support for Hughes. The survey found Kirk being supported by 48 percent of Republicans who said they backed the tea party movement while Hughes got only 10 percent support.
While one-third of likely GOP primary voters said they mostly agree with Kirk on the issues, nearly a quarter of GOP voters said they believe he isn’t conservative enough — a percentage similar to six weeks ago.
Kirk’s opponents are still known by only half or less of primary voters. Voter opinions of any of his six opponents - good or bad - ranges from only 4% to 16%. That means only 4%-16% know enough about any of them to have an opinion. The level of undecided voters remains very high just two weeks before Election Day. Unlike the race for governor, none of his opponents have run or been elected to state office so unknown alternatives to Kirk leads to many who remain undecided – 35%.
With eight days left until the Feb. 2nd primary, real estate developer Patrick Hughes (R) has significantly increased his support in a new survey from his campaign - although he still trails GOP front-runner Rep. Mark Steven Kirk by a 20-point margin in the open-seat Illinois Senate race.
Hughes scored 22 percent with likely GOP voters in a survey sponsored by his own campaign, while Kirk scored 42 percent. Every other GOP candidate in the race had less than 5 percent support in the uninformed ballot poll, while 27 percent of survey respondents said they were undecided.
Hughes, who has already given upwards of $250,000 of his own funds to the race, is considered to be Kirk’s cheif primary competition, but has been badly trailing the five-term lawmaker in prior public polls.
The Jan. 21-22 Shamrock Polling survey took the opinions of 1,104 likely Republican voters.
I’ve never heard of Shamrock Polling, and a Google search comes up almost empty, except for that CQ story and one person who claims he received an e-mail from the company, which allegedly charges $500 a month for 1,000-person polls.
Comptroller and gubernatorial candidate Dan Hynes says he has no plans to pull a racially charged TV ad where the late Mayor Harold Washington is criticizing Governor Pat Quinn after serving as the city’s revenue director under the leadership of Washington.
Critics of the ad say it’s a desperate attempt on the part of Hynes’ campaign. Dan Hynes disagrees.
Comptroller Dan Hynes launched an ad last week showing the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington trash-talking Pat Quinn.
“Pat Quinn is a totally and completely undisciplined individual,” Washington says in the 1987 interview.
Not surprisingly, the ad triggered a massive amount of spin control from the Quinn camp. For example, spokeswoman Elizabeth Austin said Washington was “spinning in his grave.”
But really, folks. Take a deep breath here. Did the dead ex-mayor really say anything we didn’t already know?
Last spring, Quinn sat next to House Speaker Michael Madigan in a House committee room and testified in favor of an ethics package that was awaiting final passage in the House. Three months later, after reform groups panned the legislation, Quinn reversed his early support of the measure and vetoed the bill. In 2006, while he was Rod Blagojevich’s lieutenant governor, Quinn sent a letter to former Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent, calling on Trent to lift a gag order the director had placed on his employees. Four years later, as governor, Quinn now supports a nearly identical gag order his own prison chief issued to employees of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Then there was Quinn’s 73-minute State of the State speech this month, described by many as “rambling.”
The question isn’t over Quinn’s consistency. The question is whether Hynes can beat a sitting governor Feb. 2 by using a dead guy to point out the obvious.
* The governor continues to ask African-American churches to lash back at Hynes. From a press release…
Standing up against the outdated politics of division, Governor Pat Quinn Sunday will bring a message of reconciliation and unity to African-American congregations throughout the Chicago area.
“We have had enough of the politics of division,” Governor Quinn said. “In these difficult times, when so many families are struggling to make ends meet, it’s more important than ever for all of us to work together to put Illinois back on track.
“We simply don’t have the time to revisit the past,” Governor Quinn added. “Over the past 25 years, we have succeeded in building a progressive coalition that is finally reforming Illinois government. Today, I believe that Democratic voters are focused on building a new and prosperous future, not in dwelling on the past. I believe we can move forward together to bring economic growth and honest government to Illinois.”
Quinn never became part of the Democratic inner power circle, despite years of holding statewide offices. We feel confident he would retain that independent streak if elected.
Proft offers many bold ideas. He not only wants to hold the line on taxes but cut them to encourage investment and job creation. He favors school choice for low- and moderate-income students in failing schools. He proposes statutory caps on state spending.
Proft has not previously held office, but he has helped run campaigns and is a keen observer of state government. His outsider perspective would serve him well as the governor in charge of change.
* More weekend coverage of this exploding controversy can be found here, here and here.
