Quinn gets chance to create one last political headache for his critics

Pat Quinn has just over one month left in his time as governor, yet he’s going to create such a political firestorm. There’s just no way he could leave on a quiet note.

It is because of the death early Wednesday of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka – one month before she was to be sworn in for her second term as head of the post that cuts the checks to pay the state’s bills.

BECAUSE OF THE fact that she’s in charge of the office that keeps state government running financially (the state treasurer oversees the state’s investments), there needs to be a comptroller to ensure the government keeps running.

So to those people who, for politically partisan reasons, want Quinn to sit back and do nothing and defer to Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner until he takes office Jan. 12, that ain’t a gonna happen.

Quinn gets to pick a new state comptroller to finish out the remainder of the term to which Topinka was elected to in 2010. None other than the Illinois Constitution gives him that authority.

Although ideologues usually don’t care what some stinkin’ piece of paper has to say – they’re going to rant and rage that Quinn has no right picking anybody because of his electoral loss in last month’s elections.

I ALREADY HAVE read assorted commentary about how, if Quinn does get to sign off on a “Comptroller for a Month” position, he ought to defer to whatever Rauner wants to do. Even though when then-Gov. James R. Thompson had a secretary of state appointment to fill in 1981 when Alan Dixon moved up to the U.S. Senate, he picked fellow Republican Jim Edgar for the post rather than respecting the fact that voters picked a Democrat for the post.

Which means the idea of respect for party politics isn’t going to happen. It’s ridiculous to presume it will happen.

You’d think the fact that Quinn’s appointment will only run through mid-January and that Rauner himself will take office with a major appointment to fill (who gets to be comptroller for the four-year term running through early 2019 that Topinka was just elected to) would please those people.

But it won’t. Some people, particularly those who are trying to rewrite state law to call for a special election, are just way too eager to pick issues to complain about.

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict here who’s going to become the new state comptroller – not for the next month, nor for the next four years.

I’ve heard the political wisecracks about how Quinn likely won’t pick Sheila Simon to fill the post that she ran for, and lost, last month. After all, her refusal to continue to serve as Quinn’s lieutenant governor was a fairly prominent snub – perhaps the biggest of the now-complete campaign season.

I’ve also heard the names of “Tom Cross,” “Dan Rutherford” and “Evelyn Sanguinetti” all tossed about as possible picks by Rauner, along with the possibility of putting Topinka's chief of staff in the constitutional post.

The idea being that Cross came so close to winning state election (running for treasurer) that he ought to get some sort of post, while Rutherford serving as state treasurer has some sense of what the state’s financial situation truly is.

THE IDEA OF Lt. Gov.-elect Sanguinetti as comptroller is the most amusing to me – one person suggests that it would save the state some money in salary because Rauner could then go without a lieutenant governor during his gubernatorial term.

Of course, if that happened and Rauner wound up being unable to finish his term in office, that would make state Attorney General Lisa Madigan next in line to become governor without having to be elected. A thought that I’m sure would make the ideologues wretch in disgust.

Personally, I'd rather have someone as inexperienced as Sanguinetti in a do-nothing position like lieutenant governor, than being in charge of making sure bills get paid close to being on time. But maybe that's just me.

It will be intriguing to see who Quinn picks for the “Comptroller for a Month” post. Somebody will get to be a state constitutional officer for 31 (or so) days.

SIMILAR TO THOSE people who remember the week-long stint that David Orr once served as Chicago mayor in between the death of Harold Washington and the appointment of Eugene Sawyer.

Which was only significant in that it makes him the answer to a trivia question for political geeks.

  -30-

A serious allegation? Or just a way of trying to legitimize campaign sleaze?

I recall a day I once spent on the job for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago when I was trying to confirm a sordid tale about Oprah Winfrey – one in which I came up with nothing!

RUTHERFORD: Facing a firestorm!

Not a single fact. Nothing confirmable. I didn’t get the story!

THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES a couple of weeks later came up with a gossipy blurb about it in one of their columns. And by day’s end, that had crumbled into falsehood.

I remember Winfrey feeling compelled to go on her television program live to address the rumor and deny it – while not giving any credence to the story.

I have been thinking about that incident for the past week; ever since Republican gubernatorial hopeful Dan Rutherford held that press conference on Jan. 31 along with former federal agents to try to defend himself from what he expected would be allegations made against him. The moment felt, to me at least, very Oprah-esque.

The stories being told now about Rutherford are sordid enough that some people want to believe it will be the end of the political campaign for the man from Chenoa who rose through the ranks of Illinois government from state legislator up to Illinois treasurer.

WHO NOW WANTS to make the big move up to governor!

For the past week, we have had stories published and broadcast about allegations with no details offered up. With reporter-types who knew the name of the person making the allegations, but choosing not to reveal it.

At least not until Monday. Which is the day that Ed Michalowski filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Chicago against Rutherford. He says that while working for the state treasurer’s office, he was sexually harassed. He also claims he was pressured into doing political work on state government time. But most people are going to focus on the former accusation.

WINFREY: Will Dan be as successful?

Michalowski loses any claim to anonymity because his name is now on the lawsuit. It’s a matter of public record.

ALTHOUGH THE FACT that it is now out there, in a sense, does not make me feel there is any more legitimacy to the allegations.

I’ll state right now that I don’t know Michalowski or anything about him. And I certainly have no clue as to whether or not there is any legitimacy to his claims – which are that he experienced the harassment once at Rutherford’s home, once at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., and once at a tavern in Springfield.

Before we knew what he was talking about, Rutherford denied the allegations. He claimed more than a week ago that any trash talk being spewed now was politically motivated.

The sad thing is that my gut feeling makes me suspicious – of the people who are making the accusations. Particularly some of the attorneys who have been talking in recent weeks about the case!

FOR IN THE two-plus decades that I have followed the activity of state government, I have heard rumor and innuendo concerning Rutherford that would be consistent with these latest tales.

Is this lawsuit now just something on a piece of paper that is meant to give legitimacy to such trash talk? As in now that this case is out there, they can start spreading the other nonsense tales that they have spewed for years?

All in hopes that it could drive the Rutherford campaign out of the mix for governor? Which makes me wonder if the real villain becomes whichever Republican candidate stands to benefit the most IF Rutherford were to wind up dropping out of the campaign?

I’m not about to get into tales I heard about Rutherford years ago – other than to say they were always more resembling of whispers that were told anonymously by people who couldn’t necessarily get their stories straight.

QUINN: The ultimate winner?

WHICH MAY WELL be where this whole saga is now headed! Just one nasty mess that will take down everybody in its path.

Which also has me thinking that the ultimate beneficiary of this may well be the Pat Quinn campaign – since whomever winds up winning the Republican nomination is going to be beaten up, bruised and bloodied so badly that they may not be able to give it their best effort in trying to Dump Pat come November.

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It’s campaign time – ’14 cycle begins

I didn’t venture down to Springfield early Monday, although I wish I could have. For there was the occurrence of a key moment in an election cycle.

The ticket of Tio Hardiman/Brunell Donald-Kyei filed its nominating petitions Monday so it could challenge Pat Quinn/Paul Vallas come March 18. Photograph by The African Spectrum

 

The filing of nominating petitions; the documents required of any candidate to show that he has any kind of support that makes him (or her) worthy of a spot on the March 18 primary election ballot.

EVEN IN MY absence, however, the usual spectacle took place – hundreds of people lined up outside the offices of the Illinois State Board of Elections to submit their petitions in hopes that they can be the first to file for their desired office so as to qualify for the top slot on the ballot.

In some cases, the actual candidates came out to wait their turn in line. While others sent their political operatives to do the dirty work of bearing with wintry-like weather.

It seems this year, there were a few people who camped out beginning last week to ensure they were they absolute first people in line when the state Board of Elections offices opened at 8 a.m. Which is always the case. I’ve seen it in the past – only the names have changed, ever so slightly.

According to the Chicago Tribune, they were people who worked for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. Personally, I’d have been more impressed if Madigan himself had shown up to file his petitions.



William Brady gets credit for filing ...

INSOFAR AS THE Republican brawl for the gubernatorial nomination, it seems that William Brady and Kirk Dillard to file the petitions that their campaign aides put together for them.

While Bruce Rauner sent aides to do it for him, and Dan Rutherford sent Steve Kim – his running mate for lieutenant governor, to do the paperwork that gets the two of them on the ballot.

Since all were on hand when the Elections Board office opened, there will be the lottery sometime next month to determine who actually gets the top ballot spot (which according to political superstition can be worth as much as 5 percent of the vote).

Won’t it stink for the candidate who froze his tushie off on Monday, only to lose the lottery and wind up last or next to last?



... own petitions, as did Kirk Dillard

THERE’S ALSO THE Democratic Party brawl, so to speak, for governor.

Tio Hardiman filed his petitions to get on the ballot, meaning that Gov. Pat Quinn will have an actual challenger for the primary. But now we know the actual name of Hardiman’s lieutenant governor running mate.

She’s Brunell Donald-Kyei, an attorney who according to the Capitol Fax newsletter once worked in the Public Guardian’s office before going into private practice, where she was the attorney for Eugene Mullins – a friend of former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger who was found guilty of corruption charges for allegedly taking kickbacks related to county contracts.

We can joke about a possible Paul Vallas/Donald-Kyei debate, although it probably says a lot that the State Board of Elections website botched her name. We may have some voters searching for “Donald Brunell” on the ballot.

THAT IS IF they don’t just ignore the Hardiman/Donald-Kyei slot and cast their vote for Pat Quinn.

I’m focusing primarily on the governor’s races for now, because I suspect they’re about the extent that anybody is paying attention to political campaigns at this point.

Other elections will get their day in the sun, although it probably will be a cloudy, overcast day and few will pay attention. It always causes me to feel dismay the degree to which many people don’t pay attention to their elected officials – then want to rant and rage when their ineptitude comes through.

Although I found it intriguing to see state Rep. Derrick Smith, D-Chicago, filed his petitions Monday for re-election. Smith, of course, was the freshman legislator whose colleagues kicked him out of the Legislature when he was indicted on federal charges that amount to soliciting bribes.

SMITH: The political thing that won't go

BUT SMITH GOT himself re-elected in the very next election cycle. And it seems the U.S. Attorney’s office is taking so long to get around to Smith’s trial that he may well finish out his current term and get himself picked to another!

For those who are repulsed at the notion, his conviction would eventually remove him from office. But the Smith shadow will continue to cover the General Assembly.

It is why political observer geeks such as myself find days like Monday to be something special. It literally is a day when everybody who wants to run for office has to make their physical presence in Springfield – or at the County Building downtown if their desired dream post is a Cook County government position.

It’s not quite the same as those people who line up to ensure they get any seat for a rock concert or major sporting event. Even though it ought to be regarded as more important -- considering the influence these people have to dictate how the tax dollars generated from our incomes actually gets spent.

  -30-

One year and counting ‘til Election Day

We’re at the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November. Which in most years would mean that we have reached the culmination of the “silly season.”

Go to school!!! NO election today

All the rants and rages and innuendoes and slander and ridiculous rumor being spewed by political people who are trying to take down another political person would be coming to an end. It would be Election Day.

YET 2013 IS the one year every four when we get spared from such trash talk. Our elections this year were limited to select suburbs, and took place back in April. Nobody in Illinois is voting for anything this day.

We’re just at the point where it is now 52 weeks until we have to decide who will win the 2014 election cycle. Our state’s U.S. senate seat will be up for grabs, along with the Illinois governor’s post and all the other offices within state government – including all of our state legislators.

At this time next year (which will fall on Nov. 4, to be exact), we’ll finally be putting an end to the nonsense. But for now, we have a full year of it.

And there will be plenty of nonsense, particularly in the ranks of the governor’s race. Although the Senate race will get silly too – although perhaps not as much because the Republican partisans seem to be having trouble coming up with a credible candidate to take on the mantle of “Dump Dick Durbin.”

AND YES, IF you try searching that phrase on Google or some other search engine, you’ll find a lot of explicit images and definitions of the phrase in a crude manner. Don’t try it, unless you’re prepared to be repulsed.

Countdown to political retirement ...

Then again, there are those who are more repulsed by the prospective GOP nominee – James Oberweis – who has a record of failed campaigns for political office because his attempts at political conservatism wind up being so off-putting to real people.

I’m sure he will spew the venom against Durbin – who wants a fourth six-year term in the Senate. Whether he can credibly make any of his allegations stick has yet to be determined.

Which means most Republicans interested in winning an election are going to be focusing on the gubernatorial race. Which actually falls within their way of looking at government.

THEY WANT THE state governments to be all supreme, with the federal government learning to mind its own business and do what the states tell them to do.

... or preparing for new terms in office?

The GOP-leaning types probably would rather have governor, particularly if they think he would be able to order the U.S. senators around in some way.

But the gubernatorial field is such right now that I don’t have a clue which of the four candidates now circulating nominating petitions to get on the March primary ballot will actually be running in November.

I could see both William Brady and Kirk Dillard (who has gone out of his way to alter his one-time moderate stances into something that can appeal to the rural conservative interests that dominate the Republicans these days) getting not only those people excited, but also the interests of urban Chicago.

AS IN ANGERING those urban voters to the point where they turn out in force to vote for anybody but them – even Pat Quinn, whom many think of as being so bland, if not incompetent.

I could also see Bruce Rauner’s campaign being just the thing to turn off the Republican base to the point where they don’t bother to vote next year. He is, after all, the friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel (which has me wondering how long until someone starts beating up on Dillard because he used to be a friend to Barack Obama back when both served together in the state Senate).

OBERWEIS: Does he help, or hurt?

The GOP’s best chance to win could well be Dan Rutherford – although it’s questionable whether the one-time Pontiac-area legislator has enough of a personality to run a credible statewide campaign.

But it could be that he gets the Republican base, while Democrats take their usual attitude toward state government elections. They don’t matter!!!!

BECAUSE WE ALL “know” that the elections of real importance are the City Hall ones that will take place in 2015. State government is for the people who aren’t qualified to serve in the city (which could be part of why Stephanie Neely wouldn’t want to give up a city treasurer post to be lieutenant governor).

Of course, the real truth is that I don’t have a clue who’s going to win on that first Tuesday following the first Monday of November that will take place one year from now.

Anybody who says they do know is either lying to you, or else is more ridiculously optimistic than a Chicago Cubs fan.

  -30-

Petition flaws; a campaign fatal error

RUTHERFORD: Cleaning up mistakes?

Remember Alice Palmer?

I don't know if Republican gubernatorial hopeful Dan Rutherford does. But his actions of late indicate he doesn't want to suffer her same political fate.

FOR RUTHERFORD IS the candidate who realized his nominating petitions, the documents that are meant to officially get himself a spot on the GOP primary ballot come March, were flawed enough that he could have been kicked off.

His campaign could have died before ever taking place – and Republican-leaning voters would have had to pick between the trio of William Brady, Kirk Dillard and Bruce Rauner.

The state treasurer who served in the Legislature for nearly two decades representing the Pontiac area would not have been a presence on the ballot.

Now his circumstances are far different from those of Palmer – the one-time state legislator from the South Side who would up getting tripped up (and kicked off the ballot) when she tried seeking re-election in the 1996 election cycle.

PALMER’S PROBLEMS AROSE when she got dreams of running for Congress. She wanted a promotion. But it became apparent to her during the campaign cycle that her chances of actually winning were nil.

So just before the deadline for filing nominating petitions, she changed her mind and went for re-election. Which required a whole new set of petitions – the others had people supporting her for Congress, NOT the state Senate.

But because they were put together on the rush to meet a deadline, they were sloppy. There were flaws. Enough flaws that she didn’t have enough valid signatures of support.

PALMER: Historic gaffe

Now had there been politeness and courtesy, no one would have brought up these flaws. If no one challenges the petitions, they automatically become legitimate – regardless of the flaws.

BUT THEY WERE challenged, the flaws were found, and Palmer got kicked off the ballot. She never again held elective office. That is how a community activist named Barack Obama began the 12-year trek that wound up at the White House.

It seems Rutherford’s own petitions had flaws – ones even his most ardent backers acknowledged. We just know that the Republican opposition would have ganged up on him to get a credible candidate knocked off the ballot.

Anything to make their own campaign effort easier.

OBAMA: Took advantage of a fluke?

Which is why the Rutherford campaign these days, according to Crain’s Chicago Business, is taking it upon themselves to circulate all-new nominating petitions – which did not include a notarized statement specifying when the petitions had actually been circulated.

THAT’S EXACTLY THE kind of technicality that election law attorneys love to exploit to knock around the opposition.

For Rutherford’s sake, let’s hope that none of his people are feeling particularly rushed. Because that could lead to further errors of sloppiness that could still harm him.

My guess is that Rutherford’s petitions (in whatever form they get submitted to the Illinois State Board of Elections) are going to be scrutinized to the “n’th” degree by people looking for anything they can try to claim is a flaw.

The outcome, if a flaw is found, can be worth the legal battles and hurt feelings – although I can’t say I see any of the GOP gubernatorial dreamers as anyone with potential to become president come 2028.

I DOUBT THAT history will repeat itself in quite that way.

Although it does seem odd that a petition flaw would occur this time, since there were also questions about the nominating petitions that put Mitt Romney on the ballots in Illinois for U.S. president.

ROMNEY: Didn't learn from mistake?

The only reason there weren’t serious challenges to that (which would have been embarrassing to the Romney campaign if it couldn’t get on all 50 states’ ballots) was because of potential for flaws in the petitions of opponent Rick Santorum.

Both sides ultimately decided to “play nice” and not pursue the issue. That won’t happen again if anybody thinks Rutherford is vulnerable to a technicality that could undo him before the voters get a chance to.

  -30-

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: It strikes me as being quite pathetic that the people most willing to denounce Barack Obama for using flawed petitions to eliminate his opposition are the same ones who would eagerly have pounced on Dan Rutherford petition flaws to undo his campaign if it would gain them an ideological ally.

It’s Quinn vs. whoever! Those who can't accept that fact should get over it

The way the election cycle for Illinois governor is shaping up these days, there seems to be only one concept that prospective voters agree about.

HARDIMAN: Still in the running

Nobody takes seriously Tio Hardiman’s bid for the Democratic Party nomination for governor.

HARDIMAN IS THE former director of CeaseFire Illinois, a group that is concerned about the level of violence in urban areas. He also is a product of public housing in Chicago – which gives him a perspective on life that we rarely see amongst our public officials.

But it also is one that many people prefer to ignore, which is why would-be voters aren’t taking seriously the notion of Hardiman even though he technically is the only challenge that Gov. Pat Quinn faces now in his bid for re-election.

It is now considered a given that Quinn will be the Democratic Party candidate for governor in 2014 – although some are feeling desperate enough to want to talk people such as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle or former Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulis into considering a bid. Some people think that the departure of William Daley from the primary scene is to Quinn’s advantage.

He can now focus on being governor and roaming around the state doing gubernatorial things while the four guys in the running for the Republican nomination are beating up on each other.

THE GOP “WINNER” will be bloodied and bruised, while Quinn will be fresh and will have had the chance to use the coming months to build himself up a campaign fund of sufficient size that he can go on the attack the day after primary election day.

Of course, there also are those who want to think that all the public attention will now be paid to the Republican candidates. They will be beating up on each other, while no one will be paying the least bit of attention to Quinn.

QUINN: The presumptive nominee

He’ll become a political nobody; as in not all that liked by his alleged Democratic Party allies and in the dreams of all GOP operatives who have the taste of blood in their minds.

Personally, I think that’s a bit over the top; primarily because there are the advantages of incumbency that Quinn will have as he tries to get himself a second full term as Illinois governor.

QUINN MAY NOT have high approval ratings these days. Then again, Quinn himself has never been well-liked by his “colleagues” in electoral politics. Quinn is the equivalent of the high school classroom nerd whom people wish they could completely ignore – but somehow manages to do things that forces himself into public attention.

BRADY: Giving it another go

I’m not saying that I believe Quinn is a shoo-in for re-election. He’s going to have a challenge. People, by and large, are dissatisfied with the performance these days of Illinois government. They will be looking for someone whose head they symbolically can put on a pike when they cast their votes in the primary and general elections next year.

I’m just not convinced that the Republican candidates are any more liked than Quinn these days. In fact, I wonder how much the ideological nonsense taking place in Washington these days will wind up reflecting badly amongst people back here.

Some may approve, but others won’t. And let’s not forget that Quinn got himself elected in 2010 largely because of a sense amongst an urban majority that the Republican gubernatorial candidate would be openly hostile toward their interests because he came from the “other third” of Illinois – as in not city or suburbs.

RAUNER: Wishing he could be rural

EVERY TIDBIT I have heard coming from the GOP primary candidates makes it seem as though they are interested in focusing their campaigns on the rural part of the state – which could make them equally unattractive to Chicago-area voters in 2014.

It’s going to be confusing. It’s going to be chaotic. It’s going to be a mess. Who knows at this point who’s going to be governor?

Except that it won’t be Hardiman; even though he probably should be taken seriously because he at least talks passionately on his pet issues.

  -30-

Ethnic benefits w/out actually offering much? GOP strategy again in ‘14

Republican gubernatorial hopeful William Brady told us of his choice for lieutenant governor. It’s Maria Rodriguez, a former village president of suburban Long Beach.

RODRIGUEZ: How many think she's Latina

The “highlight,” so to speak, of her political career on anything other than a municipal level was back in 2010 when she ran for Congress – and lost to Joe Walsh in the GOP primary.

BUT BRADY, THE state senator from Bloomington whose 2010 bid for governor collapsed because he became too associated with rural Illinois, hopes that having a suburban person will make him a little more amenable to Chicago-area voters in the 2014 campaign cycle.

What I find intriguing about this is the fact that one of Brady’s challengers, Dan Rutherford of Pontiac, came up with suburban business executive Steve Kim to be his lieutenant governor running mate.

Political operatives openly admit that part of what Rutherford gains is a possible outreach to the growing Asian population (Kim is of Korean ethnic origins).

And now, Brady is giving us (as in potential voters) the Latina who isn’t. “Rodriguez” is her married name.

ALTHOUGH I’M SURE Brady won’t object if many voters don’t realize that fact and presume that she is. This appointment becomes his gesture (not much of one, to be honest) toward the Latino community.

Which I’m sure he will try to use in ways to deflect criticism of the fact that many of his policy thoughts and political alliances will be with people who would prefer to think of diverse ethnicity as a problem our nation must deal with – rather than just the reality that offers up so many advantages!

The Republicans will claim that criticism of them is wrong. After all, they’re trying to include all kinds of people. Actually, all kinds of people who are just like themselves – although that’s a thought for a future commentary.

Will Steve Kim really shift Asian votes to GOP?

For today, I have to note that it seems odd to me that these “gestures” of support toward varied ethnicity are being done by GOP candidates with regards to lieutenant governor candidates.

THAT’S THE POSITION that has oft been described by political observers as, “not being worth a bucket of warm spit.”

That is the political position Republican officials think is worthy of someone who isn’t quite WASP-y enough to fit an image? It isn’t quite the way that the party should be going after ethnic voters – not if they’re at all serious about achieving results.

Rutherford reaching out to Latinos?

The fact that those of us with differing ethnic origins will be able to see through this kind of blatant appeal will be the reason why Kim probably won’t be responsible for getting significant numbers of Asian voters to cast votes for GOP candidates.

And as for Rodriguez? It’s her name. I’m not denouncing her. But I’m expecting the ethnicity confusion to create quite a bit of humorous moments in coming months.

NOT THAT THIS strategy ought to be surprising. Because the very same Illinois Republican officials tried the same thing back in 2010.

Let’s not forget that Kim was the Republican nominee for Illinois attorney general, while Steve Enriquez was the GOP choice to serve as Illinois secretary of state.

Of course, they ran against Lisa Madigan and Jesse White, respectively. Those two turned out to be the biggest vote-getters of the 2010 election cycle in Illinois – and also the two who were never thought to have a serious chance at victory! Kim’s backers may boast that he got more than 1 million votes in the 2010 general election, but he still got his butt whupped by Lisa Madigan.

The day the GOP comes up with an electoral winner is the day the political party will be taken seriously amongst the growing ethnic populations. Until then, it just comes across as the kind of tokenism politics that Republicans often accuse Democrats of engaging in!

  -30-

Election cycle (ugh!) is now underway

With the Labor Day holiday now past us, we’re technically in the time period in which candidates for electoral office can be campaigning without appearing to be tacky or self-serving.

TRACY: Vote for her, Dillard comes along

We’re 155 days away from the March primary (less if you choose to use early voting). It’s time for the candidates to start circulating the nominating petitions that actually get them on the ballots for March 18.

WE’RE GOING TO learn who the candidates for governor will choose to have as running mates – although two of them have already let their choices out of the bag of secrets, so to speak.

Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale has chosen a state representative from Quincy – following the concept of some sort of regional balance (suburbs and western Illinois) – to be the Top of the Ticket for the Republicans.

Unless the voters decide to choose the Dan Rutherford option. The Illinois treasurer has let it be known that he wants Steven Kim, the would-be politico who four years ago ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general.

Rutherford is touting the idea of an ethnic balance, since Kim would be the first person of Korean (or Asian, in general) ethnic background to get elected to a statewide office – if the Rutherford/Kim ticket were to prevail in the primary AND in the Nov. 4 general election.

NONE OF THE other gubernatorial dreamers have come up with running mates – although they are likely to do so in the near future. After all, if they’re going to run as a pair, they have to submit nominating petitions identifying them as a pair.

And if they’re starting to circulate them in coming days, they need to know in coming days who they’re being paired up with.

I’ve hinted before that this could be a significant factor in the gubernatorial race because the actual candidates themselves aren’t the kind of people who can inspire people to want to turn out and vote for them.



Steve Kim (left) is going from a failed attorney general bid to a gubernatorial running-mate slot. No word on whether anyone thinks failed secretary of state candidate Robert Enriquez is beneficial to the GOP in 2014. Photograph provided by Steven Kim for Attorney General 2010

 

There aren’t any “Barack Obama-like” candidates running for office in Illinois next year.

I REALLY DO believe this will be an election cycle in which (particularly for governor) people will be voting against people. They’re going to make their pick based on who they detest the least!

Voters will walk into the booths at their polling place, see a batch of names whose very existence annoys them to no end, and will cast their vote for whoever happens to be left.

And while I’ll be the first to admit that having an incumbent governor who has generated approval ratings as low as 26 percent doesn’t make things look good, I see all the other declared candidates for governor as having significant segments of the populace who can’t stand the thought of them, either!

That is why I go into this election cycle being completely unsure who should be thought of as the favorite. Each of them will have their hard-core followers – along with people who would symbolically slash their wrists at the very thought of that person becoming the resident of the Executive Mansion in Springfield.

THIS ELECTION CYCLE might be less annoying if there were another office up for grabs that would have serious competition. But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is going for his fourth term in the U.S. Senate being challenged by Doug Truax and Chad Koppie.

FRERICHS: Wants to replace Rutherford

Truax has a military background, and is likely to try to appeal to the hard-core ideologues of Illinois. Which might be a problem since those are the same people that Koppie usually tries to appeal to during his perennial bids (all unsuccessful) for elective office.

Which is typical of all the other statewide offices within Illinois government that are up for grabs in 2014 – the most competitive will be for Illinois treasurer, where state Rep. Tom Cross, R-Oswego, and Bob Grogan of suburban DuPage County both want to challenge state Sen. Michael Frerichs, D-Champaign, for the right to replace Rutherford.

They might all be hardworking, earnest public officials. But let’s be honest – none of them are going to inspire Illinois to want to turn out to vote on March 18.

  -30-

Who’s the third Democratic gov candidate for Illinois '14 cycle?

It has been in the rumor mill for the past few days, and now WLS-TV is reporting it as well. State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, is contemplating a run for Illinois governor in next year’s election cycle.

RAOUL: The next governor?

I suspect that the reaction from many people who happen to stumble across this commentary is something along the line of “Who?!?”

THEN AGAIN, I’M fairly sure that was the reaction of many people back in 2004 when then state-Sen. Barack Obama was first speculated as a possible presidential candidate.

Personally, I’m not sure that Raoul is the next Obama. Even though some people are quick to point out that both were from the Hyde Park neighborhood, have general progressive political credentials and are black men whose names don’t exactly comply with the ideals of those who see this as a WASP-y nation.

But aside from being a black man (which could make him the candidate who takes the bulk of the African-American segment of the vote), I’m not convinced he will get into this particular election. If anything, a Raoul campaign succeeding would overcome odds bigger than anything Obama managed to do.

Admittedly, the current candidate field almost begs for a third person to get involved.

WE HAVE CURRENT Gov. Pat Quinn seeking re-election, and former Commerce Secretary/White House chief of staff William Daley also seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

QUINN: Front-runner? Or long-shot?

There are those people who can’t stand the idea of Quinn, and others who can’t stand the concept of a Daley having any political influence outside of Chicago.

Both men have potential drawbacks, and the right third candidate could manage to succeed – particularly since in a three-way race, you don’t need a majority to win. It could only take 36 percent.

Although I wonder if Raoul’s biggest drawback is a characteristic he has in common with both Quinn and Daley – he lives in Chicago.

DALEY: The BIG name

FOR I SUSPECT that the people who are most eager to not vote for either Daley or Quinn are those who live in the “other” third of Illinois – the part that isn’t Chicago, or its suburbs. The part known commonly by the epithet “downstate.”

Those people want a candidate from outside of the Chicago area, and probably one who isn’t going to have much more appeal to the African-American voter bloc than either Daley or Quinn – the latter of whom is most likely to take the black vote if it remains just the two candidates in the March primary.

The big problem, of course, is that there aren’t any downstate officials who are in a position to run a serious campaign for governor as a Democrat. I wonder if a Quinn vs. Daley vs. Raoul field would seriously depress the voter turnout in the Democratic primary outside of the Chicago metro area.

I suspect the bulk of the “rural” vote will wind up working its way to the Republican primary – although I’m not convinced that state Sen. William Brady, R-Bloomington, will be any more successful than he was three years ago when he ran for governor.

RUTHERFORD: The eventual challenger

SOME MAY THINK that he had his chance in 2010, and it’s time to find someone new. That may be the reaction to state Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Hinsdale, as well. As for state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, he may be too obscure, while business executive Bruce Rauner may come off as “too Chicago” for that rural-type vote.

Raoul’s chances of becoming governor may center on the concept that the electorate finds ALL of the candidates so unbecoming that he stands out in a crowded field.

It could happen. Or maybe not!

For the senator from the Hyde Park neighborhood has shown himself to be a serious legislator who has more ambition in life than to be the next alderman of the 5^th ward. It’s not always the highly-qualified person who manages to get themselves elected to office.

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