The Daily Herald has a pretty good look at the strengths and weaknesses of the various Republican gubernatorial candidates.

The State Journal-Register had one of the better stories on the Eisendrath kick-off.

This Sneed bit is somewhat telling:

Dem gubernatorial hopeful Edwin Eisendrath carried an appropriate totem when he announced his candidacy against incumbent Gov. Blagojevich: a silver bookmark engraved with the Winston Churchill quote, “Never, never, never give up.”

So, instead of a silver spoon, he’s got a silver bookmark?

And Jim Anderson of the Illinois Radio Network sent in this:

I’m trying to figure out the Eisendrath strategy, if there is one.

Where will the money come from? His family has a lot of its own, so this will be the least of his problems. With the SEIU being in big for Rod, maybe the AFL-CIO will go for Edwin — who knows. I think some lakefront liberals will give Edwin some money, but mostly he’ll have to pay out of his own pockets.

But getting in late — on the last day of filing — may actually help. Blair Hull spent zillions on a long campaign that came unglued at the end. Edwin can campaign like a house afire for 13 weeks, and see what it gets him. A candidate who has to raise funds, like Rauschenberger, needs as long a campaign as possible. But for Edwin, the short campaign might help.

Where will the votes come from? Let’s examine the 2002 Democratic primary, recognizing that in 2006, the electorate will be somewhat different, in that some of the 2002 voters have died or moved away, while new voters have moved into the state since then. But I don’t think the characteristics of the Democratic primary electorate have changed much.

Let’s suppose Eisendrath does well with the Vallas voters — 431,000 of them, or 34 percent in 2002. And let’s suppose Rod does well with the people who voted for him in 2002 — 457,000 of them, or 37 percent. That leaves Roland’s 363,000 votes to be fought over, with Rod only having to tie to win.

Here’s my assessment: The Roland voters would probably actually break toward Rod instead of Edwin. However, I think a lot of Rod voters may abandon him. If you look at how he did Downstate in the 2002 primary, he creamed the competition in county after county. I don’t see that happening if this alternative is perceived to be viable, so that has to be Edwin’s strategy: Make himself viable to Downstate Democrats who have fallen out of love with the guv, and hope he gets a good chunk of Paul’s votes.

In my opinion, Rod has solid support to win the Democratic primary in about the 70 percent range, meaning Eisendrath would still get close to 400,000 votes — a lot for a late-starting campaign for a guy with no name recognition, but not nearly enough to beat the Rodster.

UPDATE:And, for your holiday listening pleasure, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, sung to the tune of Folsum Prison Blues. I can’t stop listening. (Via Zorn, who, it turns out, wants to strap people down and extract their blood if they’re even suspected of a DUI.)