We’re a couple of weeks away from Labor Day, which
is the symbolic beginning point of the hard-core campaign activity for
candidates in the upcoming Nov. 4 election cycle.
That is when many people will start giving serious
thought as to whom they will actually cast ballots for. Those many undecideds
will wind up deciding whether they will actually bother to vote, and for whom.
WHICH IS WHY the two major candidates for Illinois
governor are using the time right about now to make sure there aren’t any surprises
amongst the people they’re counting on to be already locked up amongst their
supporters.
It is why Gov. Pat Quinn was at the South Side’s
Quinn Chapel AME Church in a meeting with many African-American public
officials and activist types. Republican challenger Bruce Rauner has thrown
some money around to certain black pastor types in hopes of depressing the
share of the African-American electorate that will back Democrat Quinn.
Quinn wants to make sure he has the Democratic Party
leaders in the African-American community on his side so they will go out and
encourage the voter base to actually get off their duffs and cast ballots on
Election Day.
In short, Quinn wants to ensure that what Rauner
will be remembered for is all the money (much of it from his own personal
wealth) he is spending in a losing political effort.
ALTHOUGH CONSIDERING HOW the Rauner personal
donations are into the several millions of dollars already, his campaign likely
will go in the books for the most money spent per vote. We’re going to learn
come November if it is possible to buy a political office in Illinois.
Quinn is reaching out these days to shore up his
support amongst people who should be regarded as on his side.
Then again, so is Rauner.
Ever since his Illinois State Fair appearance,
Rauner has been on board his self-named “Shake Up Express.” That’s a bus he’s
riding around all over central and Southern Illinois so he can cram in up to a
dozen appearances per day in small burgs all across the rural parts of the
state.
I’D BE WILLING to bet that the “T & T Pizzeria”
in Sullivan, Ill., isn’t usually a stop for political campaigns. But Rauner
included it, and many places like it, in his 38-county tour that is meant to
get him face-to-face with the many rural residents who view this election cycle
as a chance to dump a Chicago-oriented governor and replace him with someone
they think will focus attention on them instead.
Just how much a venture capitalist from Winnetka
(with a high-rise residence in Chicago proper) really identifies with rural
Illinois is questionable. But if Rauner picks up a tip or two during his rural
Illinois tour, then perhaps the event is worth it.
At the very least, he’s getting to see a string of
restaurants in the off-beat communities of Illinois, which means he’s not going
hungry these days.
While also ensuring that a batch of people who aren’t
inclined to vote for Quinn under any circumstances will bother to turn out to
vote for Rauner for governor – and perhaps a string of other GOP officials for
other offices to appear on the ballot.
WHICH MEANS THAT come Sept.1 (a.k.a., Labor Day, or
the end-of-summer for those who resent the idea of organized labor being the
subject material for a holiday), the candidates can go back to trying to sway
the sympathies of those people who truly are undecided.
My guess is that many will decide to just not vote.
But it also is likely that those who do make up their minds at the last minute
will be the ones who decide whether we get four more years of Pat Quinn – or a
Republican governor with a hostile, Democrat-led Legislature.
Then again, with the way the current Legislature
often responds to Quinn’s initiatives, there may not be much of a difference.
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