Friday, November 5, 2010

EXTRA: Thank you, Bill Brady

William Brady reverts back to his past political life. Instead of being “Republican gubernatorial nominee,” he’s now “state Sen.” of “R-Bloomington.”

He made his concession Friday afternoon from a Bloomington hotel conference room, accepting the reality that he lost this year’s election for Illinois governor by about 20,000 votes (the actual number still won’t be available until those results are certified about a month from now).

WHAT MAKES ME glad that this election cycle is ending (rather than being dragged on by the influence of the Republican Governors Association) is that it means our state can get back to trying to resolve its very serious financial problems. Has the state government deficit increased to $15 billion?

Brady remains as a member of the Illinois Senate. Which means he and his caucus colleagues will have their own role in trying to resolve the issue. Will he work? Or will we get demagoguing and cheap rhetoric?

Here’s hoping Bill takes the high ground and tries to urge his colleagues to work seriously. Maybe that is his proper niche in this situation, rather than the months of spewing partisan rhetoric meant to pander to those people who think that the budget would be balanced if we could just cut out all the welfare programs.

Based on the Illinois Senate’s performance during their time in session on Thursday, it is obvious that confusion still exists among our politicos. We’re looking for leadership.

I HAVE ONE other reason for being glad that Brady will not drag this situation out. We’re both alumni of the same college (Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington). He’s older than me by just enough that he was a fresh college graduate making his way in the world (Class of ’83) right at the moment that I was an incoming freshman (Class of ’87).

So we’re NOT old college buddies. But it would have been difficult to talk about my alma mater if one of my fellow alumni were still going about acting like a sore loser.

  -30-

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