* I finally got around to listening to Bill Cameron’s latest “Connected to Chicago” show…

Lynn Sweet: So, let’s look at what is going on here in the Durbin-Duckworth announcement. They gave Chris Kennedy plenty of time to either neutralize them or earn the endorsement. The only thing that Duckworth and Durbin want is a Democratic governor, and the politics of all the major candidates aren’t that different. Now in the long term, so let’s put that in bucket one. Bucket two, JB Pritzker is a generous donor to Democratic Senate candidates, the Democratic Governors Association, so everyone knows that even if he loses, as he has said, he will maintain being a generous activist. So that gave him a running start.

But from what I can tell, he earned it. He has been traveling the state. He has been consulting with the Senators. I know that Sen. Tammy Duckworth is the Democrat who just won a big statewide race, OK, so she knows the most and has the best information and the best insights about what it will take to win. So he has been going and meeting with the people who can help him understand what it takes to win in the state of Illinois, and I think Duckworth and Durbin appreciate it. He’s not just using his money to buy commercial time. He is putting in his time to talk to the people who have done this to find out what it takes.

And I think, you know, Chris Kennedy had a lot of time to earn this, and now that filing is over and people will start focusing on the campaigns, the only thing that surprised me at this stage is I thought they might have waited a little bit, maybe until after the holidays just in case, to give Kennedy a little more time, but maybe they thought he’s had enough time.

In terms of the other candidates, they just haven’t risen beyond their regional base.

Cameron: Yeah.

Sweet: And actually when you look at it, I just looked up at the State Board of Elections. I guess there are seven or eight people who filed and out of it, the only ones who are real contenders here are JB and Chris Kennedy and, uh…

Cameron: Biss.

Sweet: And Biss, is the three major ones here. And it takes a lot to really make it on the statewide basis. So that’s why this endorsement, the two Senators combined has a lot more heft than other things because they have statewide name recognition. They have statewide connections. They travel around the state and they’re known. And that’s why this endorsement is the top standard of what you could seek.

Ray Long: Plus, Durbin is Downstate so he has some Downstate cred, too, which is something a lot of the candidates don’t have.

Sweet: People have heard of him! Biss put out, in all respect, he put out some press release, the most recent one, where he was touting some endorsement and it was somebody who I’d barely heard of. Not to be disrespectful and it’s important, but sometimes you have to weigh endorsements as to what can get attention. With all the things that people have on their minds and what they’re doing and maybe just trying to get their house cleaned for the weekend and get ready for the holidays, it takes a lot to break through. Having Durbin and Duckworth, combined, at least can get your attention.

Greg Hinz: The short version of all of this is that Chris Kennedy so far has run a crashingly disappointing campaign. Duckworth and Durbin see all the good things that Pritzker could do for them, particularly spending money to build a statewide political organization that will continue afterwards. So if Kennedy’s not going to show anything, why wait?

Take some time to read what Sweet said. She’s a DC type, so she may not be up on every little twist and turn in Illinois, but what she says about the Senators is from her own work and she’s right. Durbin and Duckworth wanted the Democratic hopefuls to show them that they were “real” candidates who could put together “real” campaigns before making any endorsements.

Their requirements included spending a lot of time throughout the state meeting with people, opening offices, hiring field staff, putting together a solid messaging team, etc. Pritzker courted them hard. And it worked out in the end.

* Related…

* Pritzker run keeps picking up steam: But it’s Pritzker who has the backing and the clout of the big boys. Fortunately for his opponents, voters will have the last word, and they have shown in the past that they are capable of thinking for themselves.