* The Pantagraph interviews Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Scott Drury…
“I’ve been in state government for five years. I have a good sense of how it works and of what doesn’t work,” said Drury during a campaign stop Wednesday night in Bloomington. “What the public wants is someone who’s going to do what they’re saying. … I’m happy to compare my record with anyone else’s.”
Drury’s resume includes working as a federal prosecutor and serving in the Illinois House, where this spring he became the first member in 30 years to not vote for Michael Madigan as speaker. He insists that wasn’t for publicity, however.
“That’s where my district is at. … It shouldn’t be that shocking,” Drury said of the vote. His district, the 58th, is on Lake Michigan north of Chicago.
“The General Assembly doesn’t believe it can vote as it wants to,” he said. “It doesn’t represent its constituents. And that’s very problematic because you get two people running the state, and when they don’t get along, you have two-and-a-half years of no budget while everybody around us is suffering.”
* Meanwhile, here’s a Drury campaign e-mail entitled “Are you sick of Mike Madigan?”…
Last Tuesday, Mike Madigan became the longest serving Speaker of the House of any state legislature in United States history.
We all know Madigan cares about power, not us - and that has destroyed our State.
If you are one of the overwhelming majority of Democrats in Illinois who is disgusted with Mike Madigan’s rule, sign our petition today.
The Democratic Party in Illinois should be about taking care of hardworking families, investing in the next generation, making our communities safer and caring for those most in need. Instead, under Madigan’s leadership, our state is deep in debt, we have the worst-funded public schools in the country, gun violence is at an all time high, and the most vulnerable can’t get the vital social services they need.
In every corner of the State, Democrats are joining our campaign because they want a Governor with a proven track record of standing up to Mike Madigan and working for all of us.
If we keep electing politicians who are in Mike Madigan’s pocket, nothing will change.
If you want to rebuild Illinois, sign our petition today and take a stand against Mike Madigan.
www.druryforgovernor.org/stop-madigan
Thank you,
Team Drury
- John Rawlsss - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 10:38 am:
Tick tock where is the Drury clock
- MissingG - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 10:40 am:
Drury was a federal prosecutor?
- Former Federal Prosecutor - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 10:47 am:
Good to see all the links worked in the email, bet Drury got of signers that way…
- Oswego Willy - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 10:49 am:
When Drury gets Raunerite dark money, we’ll all know who Drury’s real supporters are…
- A Jack - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 11:05 am:
Blogojevich, Quinn, and Rauner waged war with the GA and nothing was accomplished. It’s time to end the war.
Drury wants to continue the war that has been unsuccessful for Illinois. We need a governor capable of compromise and Drury isn’t that governor.
Illinois has problems. That is something we can all agree on. But solutions always require compromise, not an all or nothing war.
A successful governor will compromise with the GA and let the GA members get back to fighting among themselves like in the good old days.
- Norseman - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 11:09 am:
I don’t think of good sense when you discuss Drury.
- anon2 - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 11:14 am:
=== I have a good sense of how state government works ===
Not based upon his track record in the House.
- NoGifts - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 11:35 am:
How will voting for Scott Drury for Governor impact having Mike Madigan as speaker? Why is that a policy to run on?
- The young gov - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 11:45 am:
“I’ve been in state government for five years. I have a good sense of how it works and of what doesn’t work,”
Well on all of this, unfortunately for us, the bar is extremely low. And also knowing how something works, don’t mean squat if you can’t execute.
On a side note, I watched Drury at the 10th Ward gubernatorial candidate forum on Tuesday night and he pivoted a medical marijuana question to criminal justice reform (okay, that’s fair) and then proceeded to act like he is an expert because he was on Rauner’s Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform when the reality is that he barely attended any of those meetings.
- Undiscovered country - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 12:20 pm:
Well look, his legislative track records proves he’s not THE MOST feckless member of the General Assembly. ‘cuz my mother always told me to speak nice of people.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 12:36 pm:
I worked with him on a bill once. His intent was to protect student privacy, which was fine, except what he proposed would have in effect banned all research on student learning in Illinois.
He had it in his head that a students academic record was the same as a person’s credit record. He had great difficulty understanding how the federal FERPA laws were already doing most of what he was trying to accomplish. He couldn’t understand how researchers aggregate data and omit (and don’t even want or care about) individual student identifying info. Most of all, he insisted that the students and families owned the data, not the school districts that collect and maintain it.
All of this and more was explained to him over, and over, and over. For almost two years. Each new draft of his language was worse than the last, it was as if he had heard nothing he was told by educators and researchers.
The only consistent thing I saw of Drury throughout several meetings and conversations was his unflinching belief in the righteousness of his cause. He is a zealot in support of his own superiority. He preaches from the pulpit of “Drury is right and everyone else is wrong.” Compromise is impossible with true believers and ego-maniacs like Scott Drury. They can’t compromise if they truly believe in their own righteousness. To do so would acknowledge that their carefully considered position wasn’t actually the best and only possible solution to whatever problem it is we’re trying to solve.
That sense of mental superiority/self-certainty is dangerous in public officials. When they start to believe their own BS, we’re all in trouble.
- walker - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 12:40 pm:
Drury’s stump speech up til last week, usually included the “corrupt politicians of the General Assembly” meme favored by Rauner. He skipped it for this audience. I cannot see what his end goal is.
- DuPage Bard - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 1:32 pm:
With “dark” money being inserted into the race. Drury may get enough points to have a Bob Schillerstrom impact here? Even though Schillerstrom dropped and endorsed Dillard he still got 7,000 votes or so because his name was on the ballot. Dillard lost by less than 200 votes.
- DeputyRegistrar - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 1:40 pm:
“What the public wants…”
“What the American people want…”
“What the people of Illinois want…”
Quit trying to tell us what WE want. Tell me what YOUR position is. If it matches mine, you might get my vote.
- Feline - Friday, Aug 18, 17 @ 2:37 pm:
Drury is a hypocrite. He would not be an elected official if Madigan did not pluck him out of obscurity and install him in that seat. He took the seat because it was advantageous to him. He beats up Madigan now because it is advantageous to him. He is a self centered hypocrite.