23 Comments - DuPage Saint - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:04 pm: I know nothing. Sgt Schultz was a head of his time - 47th Ward - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:05 pm: Both Rauner and Pritzker are prepared enough to duck the questions. Unprepared candidates tend to provide answers, and the really unprepared candidates offer thoughtful, nuanced answers to difficult questions. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:13 pm: Pritzker is spending the cost of a house per day on his campaign. They know very little or anything of their own oppo, they’ve said that for the record, publicly, and show the depths of a baby tea spoon on things they feel no need to know. Is what this Pritzker Crew is about? They can build a heck of a field organization, coordinate and keep motivated, engaged groups Rauner alienated… … but can’t get the idea of governing or positions to govern and be talented enough to make political positions that could be slam dunks with their own constituency? Is that what’s at play here? Yikes. - yo - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:22 pm: Rauner said “nothing” four years ago and still got elected. The 24 hour news cycle would seem to me to be penalizing to a candidate who says anything other than nothing. - wordslinger - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:22 pm: –A campaign about nothing.– Worked for Seinfeld. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:27 pm: Shake up Springfield Bring back Illinois Hollowness rings true as a path to victory. - Jibba - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:51 pm: When you think you can win without taking hard positions, it is sensible to do so. Uninspiring, but sensible. Especially when your opponent has spent 4 years taking no positions and he will trash you either way. - Annonin' - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 12:54 pm: Actually if GovJunk paid a lick of attention to stuff he actually does he could have pointed to legislation he tried to kill, but later signed PA 99-0352 which was done before the public was aware of various police blunders. The measure dealt body-cams and training and funding. It is another telling failure and part of the exit interview tour. JB should be up on Rte 53 extension too. But deaths count for more — just ask Quincy vets - Jibba - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:00 pm: In fairness, that 53 extension is a tough nut to crack. It might be easy to oppose due to cost and fierce NIMBY opposition directly adjacent to the road, but there are a lot of supporters due to congestion and enhanced development opportunities. The blue ribbon commission report tried to split the baby, but satisfied no one. - PJ - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:15 pm: I think it’s pretty fair to at least expect Rauner to have an opinion on whether a consent degree should exist at all, details aside. You pretty much have to be in one of those two camps. - Lester Holt’s Mustache - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:30 pm: You’ll have to forgive us downstate rubes for not getting it, but why exactly is it that Pritzker has to comment on an extension to one roadway in one county? Aren’t there more important things for gubernatorial candidates to focus on than local traffic issues? Surely this is something that someone other than the candidate can comment on. - Smitty Irving - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:34 pm: Route 53, no position is the rational choice, as the opponents aren’t. They’re either NIMBYs, CAVEs (Citizens Against Virtually Everything), or BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone). - Annonin' - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:44 pm: Mr/Ms PJ raises another interesting point for GovJUnk — Jeff Sessions refused to be part of a consent decree discussion so he could take the Trump position on allowing police to run wild. Or the Madgian view, but that might mean he uses nic words and the name Madigan in same sentence. Perhaps he is better off acting like he has no knowledge of his own actions. BTW there should be several years of data sittin’ at ISP or elsewhere for him to study. - Rich Miller - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 1:59 pm: ===why exactly is it that Pritzker has to comment on an extension to one roadway in one county=== Because that extension has been hotly debated most of his life? - DuPage - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 2:11 pm: Pay the people in full for their properties, not some fractional amount that won’t replace what they now have. A lot of opposition would diminish if they would do that. - Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 2:18 pm: Some states pay a signing bonus on top of appraised value for properties needed for public works, to generate goodwill, pay people for their trouble, and to clear the land quickly. - JDuc - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 3:52 pm: It’s a badly needed extension. Traffic at lake Cook and on 12 can be described as horrific at best during rush hours. Should be done. - No Longer A Lurker - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 4:05 pm: I grew up in the northwest suburbs. The route 53 extension has been discussed and debated for as long as I can remember and I graduated from HS in 1973. The extension would cut through some pretty expensive real estate and I’m sure the owners of property in the Long Grove and surrounding areas have no interest in seeing the extension ever being constructed. - Arthur Andersen - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 5:23 pm: JB, you’re going to oversee the Tollway, and your appointees could make a call on this. Notwithstanding that it’s been an issue since you were a kid, that behooves you to study it and grow a, er, have an informed opinion. Your quote reinforces the perception that you have to check in with “somebody” before taking a position. - Thomas Paine - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 5:32 pm: “I don’t think we should talk about any major tollway projects until we clean up the corruption in government contracting on Bruce Rauner’s watch. Bruce Rauner failed to shake up Springfield, and voters are shaking their heads at the sweetheart contracts and jobs and handed out to his friends.” If you aren’t going to answer the question, at least stay on message. - Arthur Andersen - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 5:53 pm: Well said, Mr. Paine. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 30, 18 @ 6:01 pm: ===“I don’t think we should talk about any major tollway projects until we clean up the corruption in government contracting on Bruce Rauner’s watch. Bruce Rauner failed to shake up Springfield, and voters are shaking their heads at the sweetheart contracts and jobs and handed out to his friends.” If you aren’t going to answer the question, at least stay on message.=== This here… is restaurant quality. The Pritzker Crew fails to recognize the sheer depth and discipline needed to actually run… “Skyhook, in reverse” There’s a laziness to task. If you’re not going to engage with an answer, stay on a message that even 150 understood with their endorsement of both Pritzker and McCann… …“Bruce Rauner failed” is the answer to everything. I don’t get it. No reason with $200K a day spent, ya can’t get someone to game out answers, (like Rauner did to Quinn) that everything is indeed Rauner failing Illinois… especially if you’re dodging your own laziness to policy and issues. It’s restaurant quality to the response, but also highlighting such a glaring hole to policy, issues, and message. Be better. Better yet, stop being lazy to purpose. - Dodo - Tuesday, Jul 31, 18 @ 5:24 pm: Pritzker should call the Tollway, and especially the 53 extension for what they are: patronage pig troughs. The reason 53 hasn’t been extended isn’t because of the strength of NIMBYs or environmentalists, or the impotence of unions. It’s because of the extreme cost of building in wetlands, and the inability of the Tollway to either fund it or drop it. There are better, quicker, less expensive options, and they might be creating construction jobs right now if the Tollway would drop 53. Pritzker should stop pandering to labor with the promise of this unaffordable boondoggle, and choose fiscal responsibility, sustainable economic growth, and high quality of life without 53. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.