EXTRA: A pension reform party split

I got my chuckle from Tuesday’s vote on pension funding reform from the split in the Kirk Dillard/Jil Tracy vote.

DILLARD: A "no"

Dillard is a Republican from Hinsdale wishing to be governor, while Tracy is a GOPer from Quincy who is Dillard’s lieutenant governor running mate. They ought to be a team.

YET WHEN THE vote came up in the Illinois Senate, Dillard was amongst the people who voted “no.” While when it came up in the Illinois House of Representatives, Tracy voted “yes.”

For the record, this was an issue that seemed to ignore partisan political lines.

There were many Republican officials who voted “no” to the plan that was perceived by some as an Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan proposal that was desired by Gov. Pat Quinn.

Yet would-be Senate candidate James Oberweis voted for it, as did gubernatorial candidate William Brady and Darrin LaHood – the son of the former Republican congressman and Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood.

THE FINAL VOTE in the state Senate saw 20 Democrats and 10 Republicans vote “yes,” with 15 Democrats and 9 Republicans voting “no.” Three Democrats voted “present,” while two Dems (including Donne Trotter of Chicago, who likes to bill himself as a political powerbroker who does great things for his legislative district) did not vote.

In the Illinois House, there were 47 Democrats and 15 Republicans who voted “yes,” while 22 Democrats and 31 Republicans voted “no.”



TRACY: Didn't follow her leader

Although before you think that this issue was completely bipartisan, keep in mind that within minutes of the final votes being taken, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner was quick on the draw with a statement condemning the government activity that occurred Tuesday.

Calling the pension funding reform measure a “small bandage on an open wound” that would “help (legislators) temporarily feel better,” he said that if elected governor, he would “shake things up in Springfield and deliver results that will truly bring back Illinois.”



RAUNER: Destined to complain

WHICH MEANS WE'RE still going to have to endure several months of his cheap, anti-organized labor rhetoric on the issue.

Rauner is not about to let the Legislature’s actions take away his pet campaign issue, and all the rants that go along with it.

Let’s only hope that it’s a rant that comes to an end in March, rather than lasting all the way through nearly a full year and the November general election.

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Lt. Gov.: The fight for Number 2; or, Why would anybody want it that badly?

It’s official now; all the Republican candidates seeking to challenge Gov. Pat Quinn in next year’s election cycle have a running mate.

SIMON: Any regrets?

Not that anybody of any significance thinks that holding the second-in-command position of Illinois state government is worth more than the proverbial “bucket of warm spit.”

THE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES are getting no-names for running mates – people who hope that holding this nothing position for four years could mean they somehow get positioned to run for a real office with significant duties in the future.

Although it is possible to screw up such a situation.

Take the circumstances surrounding our current lieutenant governor – Sheila Simon publicly split from Quinn many months ago, and has said she wants to run a bid for Illinois comptroller.

Which puts her up against incumbent Judy Baar Topinka – a long-time office-holder who’s just different enough from the ideologue Republicans that she can win statewide office even in a Democratic Party-leaning state.

CONSIDERING THAT QUINN is a 99.9999999999 percent shoo-in to win the Democratic nomination for governor (or am I being overly generous in saying that Tio Hardiman has a 0.0000000001 percent chance of winning?), he could have easily kept Simon at his side.

Instead, she’s a likely loser to Topinka – and may well have built up enough ill-will toward her that she will soon be a political has-been!

SANGUINETTI: DuPage powerhouse?

The funny part is that nobody seems to want to be paired up with Quinn – even though he’s a primary election lock for victory and has a very good chance of winning the general election in November 2014 IF he can play himself positively off the nasty negative partisanship that can all too easily tie up the Republican campaigns.

The only stories and tidbits we hear are from the people who don’t want to be Number 2 on the Democratic ticket.

TRACY: Bolstering Dillard?

NOBODY HAS A clue who will be paired up with Quinn.

So long as the Democratic ticket is “Quinn/_____________,” he can’t even start circulating nominating petitions to get his campaign on the ballot.

It also further enhances the notion that this election cycle is about the Republican candidates, and that Quinn is an after-thought – a concept that could undermine the advantages of incumbency that Quinn is counting on to get himself a second full four-year term as governor.

RODRIGUEZ: A step up?

Then again, GOP chaos could be intense enough to overcome that factor. Who’s to say how the voters will feel 13 months from now?

PERHAPS IT IS because Quinn himself is a former lieutenant governor (one of the few who actually got to ascend to the top post) that he’s not all worked up over picking a running mate.

After all, he’s the lieutenant governor who had it become public knowledge that his governor openly ignored him – going more than a full year without speaking to him about anything.

Part of that was just the bizarre behavior of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Although it also shows how the post can be relegated to irrelevance. For her part, Simon has spent her time touring Illinois and visiting community colleges – but even that has to get old.

KIM: The Lt. Gov. top dog?

It may be why Democrats aren’t eager to be a running mate – even if it means being on a winning ticket.

WHICH IS WHY I find it curious to see the field of candidates on the Republican side of the equation; all of whom are eager enough to be a “nothing” politico in hopes that it will mean something someday.

From the newcomer to the group, Wheaton alderman Evelyn Sanguinetti, whom Bruce Rauner picked to help him steal away DuPage County votes from opponent Kirk Dillard, to state Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy (paired with Dillard), former Long Grove village President Maria Rodriguez (paired with William Brady) and Steve Kim (paired with Dan Rutherford).

When Kim comes across as the most experienced just because he ran a token campaign for Illinois attorney general in 2010, you know this is a fringe collection of characters who want to be Number 2.

A post the Dems can’t seem to find anyone to fill.

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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.

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