33 Comments - slow down - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:02 am: It would be foolish for anyone to underestimate Biss. Not only is he an extremely smart and thoughtful legislator, but he’s also highly competent on the campaign trail. - Politix - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:04 am: Munger has done a decent job. Her honesty has been a breath of fresh air in the current political climate. If she stays consistent and Rauner doesn’t bring her down by association, she’ll be fine. - Anonymous - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:05 am: Honesty? Parroting the Turnaround Agenda? - Flynn's Mom - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:10 am: My thoughts exactly Anonymous.She’s just another BVR mouthpiece. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:13 am: Munger’s “number” will be $9 million. No way will Rauner “GoFundIt” the IllinoisGO at the freight of $9 million and allow his Comptroller to be out-raised. Bruce Rauner can NOT allow Comptroller Munger to lose. Not acceptable. That’s the “number” - $9 million - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:19 am: ===Munger has done a decent job. Her honesty has been a breath of fresh air in the current political climate. If she stays consistent and Rauner doesn’t bring her down by association, she’ll be fine.=== Yep. That is exactly why the states greatest governor ever is Judy Baar Topinka. Don’t let policy cloud your judgement of politics. - Arsenal - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:30 am: Munger’s number cuts a couple different ways. Yes, she will ultimately have every penny she needs to run the race she wants to run. And theoretically, not having to worry about that frees her up to do other stuff. But, OTOH, an inability (or unwillingness, or whatever) to raise $$$ yourself indicates a weakness in building relationships. - Anon - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:33 am: ===Bruce Rauner can NOT allow Comptroller Munger to lose. Not acceptable.=== OW, I certainly agree with you here but I also think he’s not exactly making it easy for her to win reelection. Whether or not she’s meant to she’s basically become the administration’s messenger of bad news regarding the budget and even if she’s not the person who is responsible for filling the pot, she’s certainly the person who has telling folks who can and can’t have access to it. I think this would be a significant obstacle to overcome with any budget involved. A lot of success in elections over a large geographic area comes down to name recognition and whether or not Comptroller Munger likes it, her name is being mentioned in the media with bad or ridiculous news. Governor Rauner’s certainly not making life easy for her. - Politix - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:37 am: Yeah she tows the party line to an extent - she’s a Rauner Republican after all. But a parrot for the Turnaround Agenda? No. Radogno, Durkin and Sandack are parrots for the Turnaround agenda. You will never catch them sounding the alarm. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:45 am: ===… I also think he’s not exactly making it easy for her to win reelection.=== That’s where the $9 million comes in… Biss, or Mendoza (Mendoza is the more formidable candidate against Munger) will face money they never thought possible. Plus, the skeletal JBT apparatus will be there too. It’s going to be Munger’s to lose, and she’ll have anything needed to win. … Unless the Dems and Unions and Social Service organizations and advocates decide to make Munger the “message” to Rauner… Right “Ounce of Prevention”? Exactly right. - Arsenal - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:48 am: ==Unless the Dems and Unions and Social Service organizations and advocates decide to make Munger the “message” to Rauner== That’s certainly the plan. We’ll see if they pull it off. - Team Sleep - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:49 am: Daniel Biss has two things going for him that no one else truly has. First - assuming that he wins the primary, he’ll be the only Dem running for a state level, statewide office. Since the presidential race will be a foregone conclusion and since Congresswoman Duckworth will draw in a lot of D.C. staff, the volunteer efforts to help out Senator Biss should be fairly stout and helpful. Second - he’s arguably the smartest person in the General Assembly. With respect to Comptroller Munger, he’d run circles around her in a debate or newspaper forum. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:51 am: ===That’s certainly the plan. We’ll see if they pull it off.=== - Arsenal -, I’m betting against them. Today. Today, they lose. The macro, it’s the macro. We’ll see if they decide to work together. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 9:52 am: - Team Sleep - You make good points. I counter? Hispanic Female from Chicago… that has a chit from Rahm to cash. Mendoza is the more formidable. - @MisterJayEm - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:04 am: “Her honesty has been a breath of fresh air in the current political climate.” Well, Munger did cop to being “the governor’s wingman, so to speak, on the budget issues.” That’s a kind of honesty. – MrJM - Roamin' Numeral - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:09 am: ==Unless the Dems and Unions and Social Service organizations and advocates decide to make Munger the “message” to Rauner== How much are the Dems and Unions and Social Service organizations and advocates going to spend to send this “message”? Do they really want to unload the entire piggy bank … to win the Comptroller’s office? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:15 am: - Roamin’ Numeral -, Which is why Munger is the favorite. She just is right now. - After Further Review - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:20 am: He may be a math wizard, but a model legislator Biss is not. Consider that he was the principal sponsor of the bogus window dressing act that was clearly unconstitutional from the get go. It wasted untold hours in litigation before being struck by the state Supreme Court. During the interim it messed with many people’s jobs. Biss was one of the geniuses who sought to abolish the Evanston Township Government before realizing that the statutes needed to be revised before the township could be dissolved. Evanston wasted time and energy on two separate votes to accomplish the task. Biss is too close to Jan and ex-felon Bob to be trusted. - Team Sleep - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:20 am: Roamin’ - if you look at Ms. Mendoza’s recent A-1 report, she took in quite about $25,000 from various union PACs alone. So those organizations are definitely taking this seriously. - VanillaMan - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:27 am: Munger’s election is going to be seen as a referendum on Rauner. Knowing this, Munger is holding Rauner hostage for the dough she will need to keep him from being humiliated a year from now. If the Democrats can nominate an excellent candidate, they will pour in enough money to see her defeated and take Rauner down even further than he is already by his own ridiculous governorship. - horse w/ no name - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:30 am: How much does a personality cost? - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:32 am: horse, that was mean. Spit my coffee funny, to be sure. But mean. - Politix - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:32 am: Name a more forthcoming Illinois Republican official than LM right now. I think it would be tough. - Postyer Comment - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 11:06 am: Has she dropped her g’s yet? Turns out that’s personality enough to get elected. - Ducky LaMoore - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 11:08 am: ===Name a more forthcoming Illinois Republican official than LM right now. I think it would be tough.=== Adam Kinzinger. I guess if you are asking statewide, then yes she would be. But that is a low, low bar. - Politix - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 11:27 am: What more do you want her to do? Stand up at the podium and ask Rauner to quit being a [banned word] idiot? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 11:36 am: ===What more do you want her to do? Stand up at the podium and ask Rauner to quit being a [banned word] idiot?=== If you’d like, we can go down this road, up to you… - A guy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 11:58 am: === horse w/ no name - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 10:30 am: How much does a personality cost?=== Varying prices I’m sure. No discount for Biss to get one either. I’d say for $9M, you could get a really good one. Neither will have to buy the optional wig. /s/lol. - Arsenal - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 1:24 pm: @ OW- Well, I’m not giving you odds. I think it’s going to depend on the broader lay of the land in the state. If HRC and Duckworth are rolling and the legislative caucuses are holding serve, I’d give it to one of the Dems. If Duckworth is struggling (maybe still winning, but struggling) and House and Senate Dems are in line for notable losses (not loss of majority, necessarily), Munger’s gonna be OK. I just can’t see the Comptroller’s race significantly diverging from the broader partisan trends. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 1:49 pm: - Arsenal -, 95 times out of 100, I’d completely agree. That $9 million, that’s going to make some noise, and it could peel, especially if it’s Biss and not Mendoza. Mendoza has the better shot. - clerk observer - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 2:17 pm: What $9M? You say this $9M like it is something real. Where is the $9M number coming from? And is Munger going to break the caps? Or is Rauner going to do an IE? - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 2:41 pm: - clerk observer -, The IllinoisGO is funded at $9 million. That’s the “number” IllinoisGO stands for… nothing really… The Comptroller of Illinois can NOT be lost. If Rauner and the Rauneriyes will fund IllinoisGO $9 million, they’ll find, minimally $9 million for Munger. https://www.elections.il.gov/CampaignDisclosure/D2Quarterly.aspx?id=589766 Bank on it. - Anon III - Friday, Oct 16, 15 @ 3:37 pm: Hillary, Tammy, & Suzie, is not a gender balanced ticket. Gender balance is good. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.