Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Rauner’s new TV ad focuses on term limits

Monday, Dec 16, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

Mentioning George Washington and Ronald Reagan was a bit much, particularly since Reagan wanted to repeal the 22nd Amendment…

During his final days in office, President Ronald Reagan vows to continue speaking out on issues that concern him. Among other things, Reagan says he will push for repeal of the 22nd amendment that limits a president to just two terms in office.

But it’ll probably work very well with the tea party crowd.

* From the Rauner campaign…

Bruce Rauner’s campaign launched a new television ad focused on his push for term limits. Bruce is chairman of the Committee for Legislative Reform and Term Limits, which recently announced it has already collected more than half the signatures necessary to place a Constitutional amendment enacting term limits on the legislature on the November 2014 ballot.

Click the link to watch the ad: http://bit.ly/1bFYpl7

“Out-of-control spending, record tax hikes, terrible unemployment and a state government controlled by special interests - the career politicians are failing Illinois, and Pat Quinn is the worst of all,” said Bruce Rauner. “I’ll put an end to the self-dealing and drive results for taxpayers.”

“I’m running to create a booming economy, clean up state government, dramatically improve education and enact term limits,” Rauner said. “And unlike the career politicians running Springfield right now, I’ll make it happen.”

* I shouldn’t have to remind you, but support for term limits is almost off the charts in Illinois…

When asked if they’d be more or less likely to support a GOP gubernatorial candidate “who supports a constitutional amendment limiting the number of terms state legislators may serve,” 76 percent of Republicans said they’d be more likely, while a mere 13 percent said they’d be less likely and 12 percent said it made no difference [according to a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll].

And…

The Paul Simon poll found 79 percent [of Illinoisans] favored term limits, a number consistent with previous polls.

36 Comments

Davis poll confirms huge lead

Wednesday, Dec 4, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Roll Call…

Freshman Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., holds a large lead over his GOP primary opponent, former Miss America Erika Harold, according to a poll obtained exclusively by CQ Roll Call.

Davis leads Harold by a massive 48 points in the poll of likely GOP primary voters commissioned by his campaign and conducted by the GOP survey firm Public Opinion Strategies. Twenty percent of respondents in the poll said they were undecided.

The survey showed Davis with 63 percent and Harold with 15 percent.

The results underscore Harold has a monumental challenge ahead to defeat Davis in the primary — which is just over three months away on March 18. Ninety-three percent of respondents said they had heard of Davis, while 45 percent said they have heard of Harold.

The poll interviewed 400 likely Republican primary voters via live telephone surveys between Nov. 19 and Nov. 21. It had a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

Harold also has a severe cash disadvantage, reporting just $99,000 in cash on hand at the end of the last quarter. Davis reported $882,000 in the bank at the time.

* Those numbers are almost exactly the same as an October 10th We Ask America poll…

The poll of 859 Republicans, taken Oct. 10, showed that Davis was the choice of 63 percent of the likely Republican voters, to 16 percent for Harold. About 21 percent of those polled were undecided. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.34 percent.

A poll taken exactly four months earlier, on June 10, by the same Springfield polling firm, We Ask America, found that Republicans favored Davis, 53.55 percent to 16.38 percent.

16 Comments

Poll: Mark Kirk an unknown Senator

Tuesday, Dec 3, 2013 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Public Policy Polling has released more details of its latest poll…

Almost halfway through his first term, Mark Kirk is one of the most anonymous Senators in the country. 32% approve of him, 32% disapprove, and the largest percentage at 37% doesn’t have an opinion about him one way or the other.

What’s interesting about Kirk’s numbers though is that while Republicans are not that enthused about him (only a 35/27 approval), Democrats don’t really have much of a problem with him compared to most Republican Senators (a 23/35 approval).

So, maybe Republican state legislators shouldn’t care all that much about what Sen. Kirk thinks of the pension reform bill. However…

That crossover support means he might not be an easy out in 2016- he ties Lisa Madigan at 41 in a hypothetical head to head, taking 15% of the Democratic vote while losing only 11% of Republicans.

That could be a sign of Kirk’s strength. More likely, though, it’s an indication that Lisa Madigan’s star is truly falling.

* Meanwhile…

As we’re finding most places Illinois voters strongly support raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. 58% support such a move to only 34% who oppose it. The concept has overwhelming support from Democrats (77/19) and independents (57/30), and even 34% of Republicans favor it.

That’s pretty strong support, but I wonder if it would be as high if respondents were told that Illinois has the highest minimum wage of any of its neighboring states.

* Hilarious…

Who do you think’s done a better job this year: Congress or the Chicago Cubs?

Congress ………….. 9%
The Cubs …………. 67%
Not sure ………….. 23%

Man oh man.

* More…

Jay Cutler’s net favorability with voters in Illinois has declined a net 19 points over the last year from +26 (41/15) in November 2012 to now just +7 at 34/27.

I can’t believe he’s still net favorable.

* Methodology…

PPP surveyed 557 Illinois voters, including an oversample of 375 usual Republican primary voters, from November 22nd to 25th. The margin of error for the overall survey is +/- 4.2% and +/- 5.1% for the GOP sample. PPP’s surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews.

26 Comments

« NEWER POSTS