Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Post Dispatch poll: 47-38-11-4

Posted in:

Illinois
Polls

Blagojevich’s 57 percent negative rating is high enough that it would likely be politically fatal for him â€” except that Topinka’s favorability rating is even worse, in part because of Illinois’ growing anger with her party on the state and national levels.

“Any other election year, Blagojevich loses this in a blowout,” said Research 2000 pollster Del Ali. “I think the only thing saving his butt is the disgust for the Republicans.”

Lots more details at this link.

posted by Rich Miller
Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 1:45 pm

Comments

Its not over until the fat lady sings but I feel real good about Rod’s chances. Hopefully his GOTV efforts will really deliver votes. As I support I have to acknowledge he should be a lot more vulnerable at this juncture but Judy has never made herself a viable candidate.

The approval ratings, the scandals, etc. and Rod still leads, at some point Judy has to take responsibility for the fact she has staged a horrible campaign. At the end of the day she can blame Rod’s $$$ but she never really did anything but hoped and prayed that Patrick Fitzgerald would win this thing for her.

Comment by wndycty Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 2:18 pm
And this poll was done pre-Kjellander.

Once people find out that Levine and Kjellander began conspiring for TRS business under George Ryan’s tenure(according to the plea agreement), Topinka’s numbers will tumble further.

As this Levine/Rezko/Cellini scandal unfolds, it seems clearer with each batch of new information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it really didn’t matter who was Governor. These same guys would have done what they did as easily under Jim Ryan, if he had won in 2002.

Comment by GOPGal Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 2:48 pm
Four words-Blago wins-Governor Quinn

Comment by Walking Wounded Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 2:52 pm
Governor Blagojevich has done a great job, he deserves re-election. Vote Blagojevich November 7, and keep Illinois going in the right direction.

Comment by (618) Democrat Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 3:22 pm
Let’s try to avoid just posting bumper sticker ads for one candidate or the other, please. If that’s all you’ve got between your ears, take it elsewhere.

Comment by Rich Miller Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 3:25 pm
JBT doesn’t have the funding that Rod has, so it is sort of pointless to complain that she hasn’t run a sufficiently strong campaign when she hasn’t got anywhere near the amount in Rod’s campaign war chest.

That said, I was in heart of liberal Democrat territory this afternoon, and I didn’t see any Blago signs anywhere. Guess that means everyone is embarrassed? Meanwhile, in suburbia, we’ve got Topinka/Birkett signs all over the place, especially around DuPage County.

I predict the race will be close, but if anyone is moaning about why we don’t have strong candidates, it is precisely because Illinois is so corrupt. Kind of hard to get good people to run in this lousy political environment, but Edgar isn’t running and JBT is clean as far as the feds are concerned. It is a no-brainer who to vote for to give someone else a chance to clean some of this mess up, but yes, it’ll probably still be a very close race.

Comment by Angie Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 3:54 pm
“Meanwhile, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney’s support has risen from almost nothing to more than 10 percent of the vote in the past two months â€” a measure of voter frustration with the two major-party candidates,” wrote McDermott.

Rich Whitney is polling in the double digits, not only because most voters disapprove of the Republican and Democratic candidates, but also because he himself is a great candidate and has better positions on the issues voters care about.

Also, did you notice this little tidbit from independent Research 2000 pollster Del Ali?

“I can see Whitney’s support growing. I wouldn’t be shocked if the guy gets 20 percent.”

Comment by Squideshi Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:26 pm
Rich,
A little testy today aren’t we? Must have been a long night.

Comment by Bill Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:29 pm
Squid,
If Whitney gets twenty per cent, Judy will be in single digits.

Comment by Bill Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:31 pm
Rich: Sorry I said somthing nice on here. Hope you accept my apology.

Comment by (618) Democrat Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:45 pm
Bill, good thing for your campaign that Whitney is on the ballot. He’s offering an alternative to a good number of disgruntled former Blago voters, who would have otherwise voted for Pinka. Just remember that the next time you Dems put the machine into motion into an effort to undemocratically limit voter choice! After this election, maybe you guys will finally get your act together and implement Instant Runoff Voting in Illinois.

Here’s another interesting factoid. According to this poll, out of those who actually had an opinion on each of the candidates:

59% had an unfavorable opinion of Blago.
60% had an unfavorable opinion of Pinka.
68% had a favorable opinion of Whitney.

To put this another way, if you’re familiar with the Republican or Democrat candidates there’s a 59-60% chance that you have an unfavorable opinion about them; but if you’re familiar with Rich Whitney, there’s a 68% chance you like him.

Comment by Squideshi Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:48 pm
Rich just doesnt like people running down his REPUBLICAN buddies. And , Saing VOTE FOR ROD BLAGOJEVICH we does deserves to be RE- Elected after and the crap. We, REPUBLICANS have said about him. GOOD JOB CARDS WE’RE PROUD OF YOUR BALL TEAM HERE IN QUINCY

Comment by quincy Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 4:58 pm
Angie: Imagine that, GOP signs in DuPate County? Don’t get to happy, the GOP numbers in DuPage are tanking, seems the days of Pate are over, Joe and Judy are not playing well there either. Maybe Joe can find someone to put to death after he gets his butt handed to him on election day.

Comment by Anon Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:09 pm
Rich Miller: I haven’t seen too many signs for anyone…anywhere… even in hyper-political Evanston.

I think you should do a post inviting folks to weigh in on their opinion of “signage” in this campaign season in locales they are familiar with. Have them compare with past years.

Comment by Conservative Republican Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:14 pm
LOVED “Crazy Aunt Judy” comedy video. Funny as hell. Also says it all about how she has come across in this campaign.

Comment by Anon Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:15 pm
You guys are something else. I get upset at the Greenies and the JBT people for the same thing. If you don’t say something interesting, it bores me. If it bores me, it probably bores everyone else. Seriously, often times, comments are more of a pain than they’re worth. Since I read every comment posted, all I’m asking is that you try to be a little more entertaining and illuminating than simply regurgitating the latest bumper sticker slogan.

Comment by Rich Miller Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:17 pm
Point taken, Rich. I really try to make worthwhile inputs, so it’s certainly not my intention to give you any further headaches.
(Kinda felt slapped around a bit, but I’ll make the effort to do better) WW

Comment by Walking Wounded Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:31 pm
Why I’m glad this is soon to be over:

1. Sick of reading the Cap. Fax Blog (it has taken over my life).

2. My cats no longer know me.

3. Not sure, but I think one of my daughters, or maybe my wife got married in the last 60 days but who knows? Need to get home more often.

4. Yard signs, hate em, can’t stand them, overrated and don’t vote. Other then that, great idea.

5. Rich has gotten really grumpy lately.

6. Tired of watching TV just to see the political ads.

7. JBT’s hair changes style and color more often than voters in Franks Watson’s district change their shorts. (Sorry Rich, could not help myself).

Comment by JustForRich Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 5:38 pm
Just returned from late lunch/early dinner with some pals…I actually had the audacity to pull out a copy of the Tribune Endorsement of Topinka and show my buddies the level of investigation Mr. Blagojevich’s administration is facing. They seemed to understand the Tribune’s comment there isn’t just smoke…the Governor is a “five alarm fire.” I leave it to my fellow voters what they wish to do with the info…but I’m doing my best to take this to the streets one individual voter at a time. I’ll say it every day until the election….feeling sad and betrayed by Blagojevich and its time to wash the Blagojevich off my hands.

Comment by sad Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 6:22 pm
Sad, as I have said before, the Tribune endorsement is worthless. They didn’t even interview all three candidates, so they couldn’t have done a very careful investigation.

Comment by Squideshi Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 8:10 pm
So, do you think Reverend Meeks is kicking himself in the rear right now? You know, if he were in the race, we’d be less than two weeks away from congratulating Governor-elect James Meeks.

Comment by Larry Horse Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 9:19 pm
JBY gets a strong endorsement from Crain’s

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22621

Check out this cookie:

“In sum, Gov. Blagojevich has disgraced himself and the state. Nothing he may have accomplished in office can erase that taint or entitle him to another term. Voters must send a strong message that Illinois will no longer tolerate the corruption his regime has fostered.”

Just like any rational person would have said about Bush in 2004, or the Stroger dynasty or GOP Congress this year.

Comment by Larry Horse Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 9:28 pm
Except for Bush 2004, you’d replace corruption with incompetence or dishonesty.

Also, who is this JBY I speak of?

Comment by Larry Horse Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 9:30 pm
Re: ” I havenâ€™t seen too many signs for anyoneâ€¦anywhereâ€¦ even in hyper-political Evanston.”

I go to school in Evanston, and trust me when I say that the Dems are out in full force; they just aren’t displaying the signs. I think the idea is that everyone over there is liberal, so why bother stating the obvious? That’s my theory at least.

Back to the paper I’m working on all weekend. Sorry for boring ya, Rich, but you’re sounding like this whole election is gettin’ to ya there.

For some relaxation, try watching the other races (outside Illinois), as there are some really interesting races going on out there. I’m just lovin’ watching Joe Lieberman, a Dem I really like, doing well in the polls as an indie. Is this the wave of the future? Going indie? Are the parties in such a state of transition that everything is about to start getting really chaotic and totally unpredictable? Oh what fun!

As for the snarky comment about DuPate County, you’d be surprised at how many people are tired of the social conservs. A lot of people have moved to the ‘burbs from the Chicago area, and they’re trending more moderate. Hence, the JBT support.

Time to rebuild the Illinois GOP into an honest and viable party that can win elections rather than drag in weird test cases of social conservatism like Alan Keyes. But it’ll take a ton of help from Fitz to clean out the cobwebs.

God bless him (Fitz).

Comment by Angie Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 9:56 pm
Y’all really ought to go over to the right column under Icerocket and click on “Blagojevich fights everyone.” It is the most comprehensive article I have read about him.

Comment by Little Egypt Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 10:06 pm
LOL. Just a little hungover earlier today. Kind of a busy week. The Fax (two editions every day all week), two newspaper columns, this blog (including monitoring all comments), press interviews, business stuff, launch of the Hotline Network all caught up to me by Friday night. Needless to say, I wasn’t worth much earlier today.

Even so, it did bother me yesterday when everything was breaking on the Levine thing and some idiot was writing things in a different thread that he should have known would be deleted right away and get himself banned forever. Kinda made me wonder about keeping comments at all.

Anyway, I’m better now. But if I ever get my hands on that guy….

Comment by Rich Miller Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 10:09 pm
Meeks didn’t need to run. Rich Whitney is running, and he’s championing Meek’s House Bill 750. In addition, Whitney is the only candidate to oppose state sanctioned gambling. What meeks should do now is come out and endorse Whitney for Governor.

Comment by Squideshi Saturday, Oct 28, 06 @ 11:25 pm
to 618 democrat, yes rod has done a great job raiding funds of hard working people of illinois. (teachers, state police, prison guards, security mental health guards…ect making illinois the worst in transportation, job growth, …ect….please don’t blame george, rod has raised the non balanced budget from 2.8 billion to 5.0 billion, and the long term debt from 5 billion to 15 billion. All you democrats are going to be shocked when you wake up on november 8th and hear JBT in ILLINOIS FIRST FEMALE GOV>>>>>>>>

Comment by ironman Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 12:21 am
Meeks played his hand so poorly, he isn’t qualified to be Governor. He sold his soul to Blago for a Filan scheme that will never see the light of day.

He could be wielding some real power right now. Instead, he supports the only candidate in the election who promises not to raise taxes for education and has no plan for property tax relief. There will be no education reform under Gov Blagojevich. And government will be hamstrung by several years of legal trouble surrounding Blago if he’s re-elected. Well played, Reverend.

Comment by Truth Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 2:18 am
First female gov for Illinois? Hah! Love it.

No offense to all of the very competent gentlemen out there, but they don’t seem to be running for the office. Maybe it’ll have to be Ladies Night come November to clean the mess up?

Give JBT a shot, and if she can’t do it, then some of us are just giving up. We’ll vote for anyone BUT the gubernatorial candidate. lol

Comment by Angie Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 11:55 am
I agree with Rich Miller that the Governor’s re-elections prospects woulld be jeopardized by his negative ratings if 2006 was not going to be big Democratic year. But it is a Democratic year,and Blago defined JBY the same way Bush defined Kerry.

Comment by Captain America Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 1:19 pm
Squid– Rich Whitney has peaked. RW = “none of the above.”

What this state really needs to do is figure out a way to get “None of the above” as a ballot choice.

If none of the above wins, then you have a runoff election where nobody who was on the ballot and got beat by none of the above gets to run.

That’d make you think twice about this negative crap.

Comment by HoosierDaddy Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 2:20 pm
HoosierDaddy, ironically, a binding “none of the above” option is in the Green Party’s national platform. Like so many other things that people want, the best way to get it is to vote Whitney.

Comment by Squideshi Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 2:55 pm
Got tied up with the World Series Championship Celebration
Just wanted to say thanks to JudyBore for plastering the Brickhead’s name every where. That alone should tube her effort.
Whitney should start that big slide down as folks note the concealed carry plank under the “Civil Rights” menu on his website.

The gunners may love it, but they will run fast the other way when they notice some of the other planks.
Had the AccordionGal picked Howdy Doody for Lite Gov she might had a chance. She should have put that yard sign cash into t.v.
looks like another homerun for GRod.

Comment by Reddbyrd Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 6:07 pm
Reddbyrd,

How can you classify it as a “homerun for GROD” with his disfavorable rating? Is it just about winning even though most voters do not want him? I am beginning to think that Lisa and Danny Boy are the only honest Democrats left in the entire State.

Comment by So Blue Democrat Sunday, Oct 29, 06 @ 6:33 pm