Time to vote, unless you already have

It’s Election Day; and it’s time for everybody to do their civic duty and get off our collective duff to decide who will head our governments for the next four years.

Admittedly, things have changed in recent years so that many people already have cast their ballots – early voting and vote-by-mail and all. Cook County officials said Monday that pre-election voting was 53 percent higher than the 2010 election cycle -- with 12 percent of the registered voters and 23.5 percent of the number who bothered to vote overall the last time "governor" was on the ballot having already cast ballots.

SO MUCH FOR the goal that Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner was hoping for that Chicago-area people wouldn’t care as much about this election, so that his rest-of-the-state opposition to Chicago would be sufficient for him to win the election.

He may still do so. Because other counties with interests in doing harm to Gov. Pat Quinn's re-election dreams also are showing high early voting rates.


But it's going to be very tough for Rauner to overcome the fact that Quinn does appear to have convinced many, many Chicago and inner-suburban voters of his campaign theme that Rauner is an uncaring rich guy who wants to have a government that favors the wealthy.

Which all too often is what is truly meant when people say government needs to be “pro-business” and they persist in pushing for measures meant to weaken the ability of organized labor to look out for people who truly work for a living.

ALTHOUGH I’M NOT going to trash the people who vote for those kinds of political people. They are, after all, expressing their viewpoint in the most American of ways – at the polling place.

If they can actually get enough people to cast ballots to elect their preferred candidates, then they deserve to have their people in charge for the next four years.

My gripe is with the people who can’t be bothered – either to have turned out to an early voting center during the past two weeks or to show up at their neighborhood polling place to express their views of whom they want in office.

I know some people will claim that none of the candidates represent their views. Some will claim they’re making a political statement by voting for nobody. Some were probably more interested in Nik Wallenda's walk over the Chicago River on Sunday than they are in anything that happens Tuesday.

IN REALITY, THEY’RE ignoring the reality that somebody is going to have to assume the political positions come January (for state and federal officials) and December (for Cook County people).

The idea of “None of the Above” somehow symbolically winning is nonsense. Either Quinn or Rauner – or by some miracle, Libertarian Chad Grimm – is going to be the new governor. That person is going to face great financial challenges that will only be made worse by officials engaging in partisan politics the way our Congress has done for the past four years.

I’d like to think that anybody who can’t be bothered to vote forfeits their right to complain about government at least until the 2018 election cycle when these government posts are up for grabs again.

If anything, I took the time to show up at an early voting center so I could gripe all I want – particularly in the space provided by this weblog.

SO IT IS with that in mind that I got a kick out of the last-minute e-mail pitches I received to remind me to be sure to vote.

Vice President Joe Biden and aides to Quinn sent me such appeals, with the latter reading more like a tacky chain letter – it literally told me to pass along the message to at least five people I know. Yes, I “broke” the chain by not sending it to anybody.

I even got a message from actor Scarlett Johannson. Sponsored by the Democratic national Committee, her message warned how a Republican majority in Congress would send us, “on the fast track back in time on women’s rights.”

Whether you agree with that sentiment or not, you have to admit that she’s more legitimate than Madonna, who a couple of decades ago told us, “If you don’t vote, you’re going to get a spanking.” Ouch!

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ELECTION DAZE: How did gubernatorial dreamers ‘play’ in Peoria?

Personally, I thought the Thursday night debate between Gov. Pat Quinn and Republican challenger Bruce Rauner was rather “blah.” More a matter of scratching my head and wondering, “Do we really have to pick from these two guys for our state’s next governor?”

But I can think of one group of persons who probably were ecstatic with what they heard from the two – public educators.

SPECIFICALLY, I’M REFERRING to those schools superintendents all across Illinois who have been quaking in their pants for some time now concerning a measure pending in the Illinois General Assembly – the one that seeks to redo the way state aid is apportioned to school districts.

The bill in question, which has state Senate approval but still needs review by the Illinois House of Representatives, is meant to give more state funds to those school districts in areas where property values are on the decline.

But I have heard several superintendents and financial advisors say the bill’s specifics are so complex and convoluted that there aren’t any easy ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’ I have heard from district officials who are convinced they will lose money even though they technically are in areas where property taxes just don’t produce enough cash to keep the schools functioning at a respectable level.

During the debate, both candidates were asked whether they’d support the bill.

QUINN SAID HE hates it because he doesn’t like the idea of any school district losing state funds. He wants to find a way to increase the state’s share of money for all districts.

Whereas Rauner admitted he hadn’t studied the bill in great detail, but said that from what he had heard, he’d be inclined to oppose it.

Does this mean the sudden “whoosh” we heard Thursday night was the sound of superintendents across Illinois exhaling at the prospect that this reform measure may eventually wither away?

What else should we think of what was the first of three formal debates between Quinn and Rauner prior to the Nov. 4 general election?

LEGISLATORS GET ENDORSEMENTS THEY MAY NOT WANT: At one point, Bruce Rauner confessed to having respect for state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, and state Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields.

While Pat Quinn said he respects Illinois House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, and former state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale – who now is in charge of running the Regional Transportation Authority.

The question was meant to give the two gubernatorial hopefuls a chance to express some bipartisan support.

But how long will it be until those people named wind up wishing that the candidates had kept their mouths shut and not singled them out? Because we do have way too many people who view “bipartisan” as the ultimate dirty word.

POLITICAL ‘LOVE’ BY ASSOCIATION?: Bruce Rauner offered up Michigan Gov. Rick Scott, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and one-time New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as examples of business-oriented people who achieved government office.

He tried to claim them as examples of why he should not be regarded as too inexperienced to hold Illinois government’s top political post. But I can think of many people who would view those examples as proof of why we should vote for Pat Quinn.

As for the Mighty Quinn? He tried at one point to gain some goodwill by touting the accomplishments of that Jackie Robinson West Little League team from the Roseland neighborhood that almost won the Little League World Series this year.

It makes me wonder if, on that date sometime in the future when Quinn has to appear before St. Peter and justify his admission to ‘Heaven,” will he try trotting those youngsters out as an example of something positive that happened on his watch?

GO AWAY!!!!: Chad Grimm is a 33-year-old gym manager who has the Libertarian Party nomination for governor. He also happens to live in Peoria, which would have made him the lone candidate who didn’t have to travel a great distance to partake in the debate at WTPV-TV studios in that central Illinois city.

But we didn’t get to see or hear from him, because the debate organizers wanted only candidates who register 10 percent or more in polls to participate. Various polls that have included Grimm put him at about 5 percent backing.

I know the rationale from TV types; they don’t want the stage cluttered with candidates who can’t win. But I have never bought that – I have always thought anyone who can actually beat the legal challenges and get their names on the Election Day ballot ought to be included.

So that the voters know for sure just who that otherwise-anonymous knucklehead is when they show up at a polling place to cast their ballots.

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From who do we get to pick Nov. 4?

I found it amusing to learn of the lottery held this week by the Cook County clerk’s office to determine top ballot position for the Nov. 4 general election to be held in Illinois.

ORR: Fodder for conspiracy theorists?

The Democrats came out on top, meaning that for every position up for grabs, the Democratic Party nominee will be listed. Then the Republican. Then, any candidates of alternative political parties – assuming any are able to make it through the political process that is heavily stacked against them.

SO WHEN IT comes to governor, it will be Pat Quinn, followed by Bruce Rauner, followed by whoever is able to file enough nominating petitions that even a rigged process can’t justify jettisoning them.

Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office felt so compelled to show they didn’t rig this lottery that they put a video of the process out on You Tube. You can watch it yourself – although I’m sure those amongst you who want to believe the worst won’t believe what you see.

Just like those people who think the moon landing was rigged, as well.

Orr’s office says we won’t know who the third party candidates will be until some time around August. That’s when the final ballot will be certified.

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE those amongst us who don’t pay any attention to those names anyway.

 

Green Party nominee Scott Summers? Libertarian Chad Grimm? Constitutional Party candidate Michael Oberline (who likes to use photographs of himself in his Marine Corps uniform to tout his political bid)?

Maybe they’ll each get a percent of the vote. Or maybe they’ll combine to take 1 percent.

QUINN: He wins, for now

Personally, I got to meet recently Ilona Gersh, an activist and factory worker in suburban Dolton who says she’s running for governor on the Socialist Workers Party.

SHE SAYS THERE’S so little difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to issues that really matter that people shouldn’t think of the campaign as Quinn versus Rauner. They ought to be looking toward the rest of the ballot.

Then again, she talks openly of her admiration for the 1959 revolution that saw Fidel Castro take control of Cuba and for how Malcolm X is a seriously-misunderstood figure in our society.

Points that could be debated, if people wanted to spend time pondering the issues. Although I suspect most will write her off, along with the other third party candidates. Because engaging in deep thought is headache-inducing.

RAUNER: Will he overcome Cook lottery?

Then again, these may be some of the same people who actually do just vote for whichever name comes out on top of the ballot for each political post. There just doesn’t seem to be any third-party candidate as of yet who is grabbing our attention away from Monsieurs Quinn and/or Rauner.

WHICH MEANS THAT Cook County putting Quinn on top (along with Richard Durbin for U.S. Senate and every other Dem for state and countywide office) may be one of those stupid little factors that boosts the incumbent governor’s vote tally by a percent or two.

Which could be just enough to help him prevail overall.

Because while some people look at the maps and see one tiny little blotch of a county in the far northeast corner of Illinois, that county does account for about 45 percent of the state’s overall population.

And one that can be heavily motivated to turn out the vote, compared to the mass of small counties across the rest of the state that must combine their mass in order to keep up with the support Cook County can give to Quinn – if it chooses to do so.

Third party candidates for Nov. 4 are ...

WHICH IS WHY the Rauner campaign’s strategy really seems like one meant to induce apathy toward the upcoming activities of Nov. 4.

Get enough people to decide it doesn’t matter (or to think like the socialist that there’s no real difference between the two major party candidates) and not to vote, and maybe he can just depress the vote totals enough to prevail.

I’m not about to guess on May 9 what will happen on Nov. 4. We have nearly six full months, and who’s to say what will crop up that will capture the hearts and minds of the electorate.

But wouldn’t it be the ultimate joke if one of the determining factors was a lottery by David Orr held on the day that was Indiana’s primary election day?

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