26 Comments - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:17 pm: Governor Quinn: The purpose of a Campaign Manager is to manage the campaign while you govern. Hire a Campaign Manager NOW, please! - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:18 pm: ===The guv said “the campaign stuff will come after we finish the governing,”=== Spoken like a true gadfly. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:22 pm: adding (to Gov. Q)…you did not do OK in the primary. You all but lost what should have been a cake walk. If the vote hemorrhaging continues, you will owe the state votes in November. A good campaign manager could be making hay of Brady NOW. And raising money NOW. And defending you NOW. While YOU govern. If you wait until the fall, it will be too late. - Young Dem - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:24 pm: It is too late Pat—-the people don’t like you any more governor goofy - WOW - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:25 pm: Quinn just isn’t very sharp. He barely won the primary with the help of some very wealthy unions (who he and the GA have now really made mad). So what does he do to prepare? He sits on his hands. I guess it worked as Lt. Gov, maybe it will work in the campaign. - Trying 2 B Helpful - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:38 pm: Quinn will wait to hire a campaign manager?! I’ve been a Quinn supporter, but this is unbelievable. I guess those silly polls mean nothing. Geez! - And I Approved This Message - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 3:55 pm: Do you think it’s possible that he doesn’t really want to be Governor? - ILPundit - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:00 pm: I’m with Quinn. I never walk and chew gum at the same time either. Far too complicated. - cassandra - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:05 pm: Hynes was a viable candidate. Brady is not. When voters are paying more attention and they get a gander at some of Brady’s more extreme past position on issues like equal pay for equal work, minimum wage, abortion rights and so on, it’ll be all over. I suppose he could try and rework them during the campaign but they’ll make for great Dem ads. So Quinn could be right, in the sense that if he could beat a really attractive candidate like Hynes, he can beat Brady in a walk. And this from somebody who would like to end the Dem grip on the governor’s chair and give the other party a chance at fixing the budget and putting state govt on a diet. But even for those who might be willing to hold their noses in the service of change, Brady is simply too extreme in too many ways. - CircularFiringSquad - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:22 pm: OMG…This means CampaignMasterClark will be free to roam free for months….during said period he will be molding the slightly puffy BillheBuilder in bronzed hunk who can appear in the suburbs during the daylight. Should be no problem. Right. There are not enough months left to get a big “Mission Accomplished” for that one - Six Degrees of Separation - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:30 pm: Brady is simply too extreme in too many ways. So was Hot Rod, and we the people elected him to two terms. - wordslinger - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:31 pm: Quinn was in the wilderness so long, his natural inclination is to wing it on everything. Remember the SOS address. He ain’t going change. Events will play a hand before it’s all done. - dupage dan - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:42 pm: Don’t Pat, don’t. We’re rootin’ for ya! I know you are hopin’ that the people love you so much you will be swept into office by popular acclaim. Just keep repeating that to yourself for the next 7 months. - bored now - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:47 pm: cassandra: while i agree with your assessment, it *feels* less like a calculated decision on the governor’s part and more like a fall back on his tendency to micromanage. whether or not a campaign manager could help the governor right now (it would), the governor doesn’t appear to want *his* attention divided until session ends. i think quinn could benefit from a strong campaign manager who was capable of pushing the governor to raise money and refine his message, but old dog, new tricks… - jonbtuba - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:50 pm: Pat Quinn should be fine. Let’s not get caught up in poll numbers and lose sight of a key fact: it’s APRIL and the election is in NOVEMBER. Quinn has plenty of time to go out and introduce the benefits of his policies to the public. Brady may have heard good music for his ears, but the tune that man sings is far too flat for the people of this state. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 4:56 pm: To: Governor Quinn From: 47th Ward RE: Finishing the governing At the rate you are going, you’ll be finished with governing the second week of January, 2011. In case you can’t grasp the situation you’re in, when you’re governor, you are always “governing.” That’s why you need a good manager to keep your candidacy viable while you tend to matters of state. So, if you’d like to remain governor beyond this year, please hire a campaign manager who knows what s/he is doing. And do so immediately. Thanks. - cuban pilot - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 5:15 pm: I like how a lot of people on the board keep mentioning and thinking that Brady will lose all support once city folk and suburban women hear about his social views…. funny stuff, because this election is all about the state economy stupid (not making fun of anyone, just reciting the carville quote). If people in this state are as economically worried in November as the are today, Brady personally could spend all summer personally gassing puppies and cats from galena to greyville, and he would still win. As many have stated, an ultra-conservative republican could not win in this state unless there is an emergency. This year, we are in an emergency. - jaded voter - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 5:33 pm: Pat Quinn is not hurting himself by not rushing the campaign. NO ONE is paying attention, the few that are are right here reading this website. Pat Quinn will sink because he will govern going forward in the spineless way he has governed in the past. Talk all you want about issues, most people vote based on half formed or half understood feelings. Brady will win in Nov. because people will “like” him because he is likeable in a Reagan kind of way———-that is, provided he doesn’t have any huge misstep. Voters will also feel “tired” of Quinn and his sleepy aimless “leadership” in the face of IL’s serious economic and budget troubles. - cassandra - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 5:41 pm: Even if the state budget is still problematic in November, it’s not going to be an emergency for everybody. It’s unlike to be an emergency for most citizens. Somehow they’ll cobble together a budget that keeps things running pretty much as they are, through borrowing, delaying payments and so forth, even without a tax increase. It’s not going to be the kind of emergency that causes vast numbers of Democrats to switch parties, even for one election. Actually, the economy is improving slightly. Tax receipts will be up in 2010. This is not going to be the year for a Republican leaning strongly to the right. It perhaps could have been a Kirk Dillard year, but that’s chance is gone. - Siriusly - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 7:43 pm: Six degrees: speak for yourself, this Dem never voted for captain corrupt 47: send in your resume! - Tom Joad - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 7:46 pm: Comparing Brady to Reagan? That is the laugh of the day. - Siriusly - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 8:41 pm: I think gov quinn is actually trying to prove that governing matters more than politics and he’s not going to even run any sort of campaign. He who laughs last laughs best? - Amalia - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 9:51 pm: i’d rather he had a manager but he takes care of money with Rosen and the message will probably get out with governing and that kid who makes the great videos. sure, no one is there to crack the whip, or release the Twitters, but the other main job of a manager, to manage the candidate is difficult with Quinn. note to his “governing” scheduler….YOU have a big job. please do it well. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 10:28 pm: Brady may well be too conservative for the state, but if Quinn refuses to campaign, how will anyone find out? The message does not get out there by itself. JBT may have been a better fit for the state than Rod, but Rod controlled the message from the start. If Quinn cedes the field to the Brady people until July or August, the message will have been set by Brady and it will probably be too late to change it. - Gregor - Tuesday, Apr 13, 10 @ 11:08 pm: I think I understand where Quinn is coming from. He’s so deep in it now that really the only hope is to turn the budget around; nothing less than that level of stunt will win enough voters to overcome his deficit. It’s a Hail Mary pass, or the high school equivalent of hoping a red-bull-fueled all-nighter 24 hours before the due date will generate an “A” paper for school he’d blown off working on all semester, and raise the GPA enough that Dad will buy him that car.l Brady should be beatable, even by a ghost-driven proxy campaign. But this, this is putting the car on cruise control and diving into the back seat for a nap, hoping it will safely find it’s way to your driveway. Pat, I have a lot of respect for you still, but you should NEVER have run for re-election to governor. You had the chance to have the job fall into your lap, and you could have just decided to say the hard truths, make the tough choices, save the state, re-set the balance, and let history judge your work later. Instead you let yourself get distracted by RUNNING instead of DOING. And by that choice you’ve likely lost it all. Having chosen to ask for re-election, you can’t just leave it as an exercise for he reader now. You could have wound up with schools named after you. Keep on this path and all you’ll be is the answer to a future Trivia Question. - irish - Wednesday, Apr 14, 10 @ 9:54 am: If Brady had any other message than the one he is spouting this could be a problem. I know there are a lot of very unhappy people out there with the cutbacks to schools, municipalities, Social services, etc. The independent movement is probably stronger now than it has been in a while. The young adults are awakening and becoming a force. But once again what choice do we have. I think a majority of voters are very upset with the status quo and want real change NOW. But what are the options? Option #1) An ineffective, flipflopping, incumbant who has somewhat of an idea of what should be done but does not have the power, the stamina, or the moxie to get it done. Option #2) A Republican opponent who seems to be saying this problem isn’t as bad as it could be, I am really clueless on the problem, but I can make it worse, vote for me. Option #3) A Green Party candidate who is more concerned with a perennial issue that isn’t germaine to the issue at hand. If this continues either a lot of people are going to stay home, or they are going to despise casting the vote that they ultimately are forced to cast. If I were the Four Tops I would be a little concerned because I think the ire of the electorate is going to be focused on the GA because the voters have no choice in the gubnatorial race. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.