Finishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday.
He said he tried to forget unpleasant subjects — like politicians and the “promises they always break.”
“As far as I’m concerned,” Mr. Woods said, “they should outsource all the politicians. The country needs jobs, but all the politicians care about is the banks. The politicians are running America into the ground.”
As voters prepared to head to the polls this week, interviews across the Chicago area show, candidates must fight to win voters’ trust. Incumbents, in particular, seem most likely to face a backlash.
From the streets and barbershops of President Barack Obama’s Hyde Park to a conservative candidates’ forum in Gurnee; from a coffee shop in Zion to a working-class neighborhood in Jefferson Park, there was a consensus: throw out those in charge and keep a close eye on the ones who might replace them.
The anger was bipartisan. So was the deep sense of fear about the national economy and its repercussions here in Illinois. People said they were tired of war and terrified of terrorists, fearful of losing their homes and their livelihoods. Locally, concerns ranged from the corruption in Springfield to the privatization of Chicago’s parking.
And everywhere, the four-letter word on everyone’s lips was “jobs.”
Ed P. O’Toole, 58, a retired mailman sitting on a bar stool in Jefferson Park, said he used to measure weakness in the economy by the number of unemployment checks on his route. “It never got as bad as it is today,” he said.
Mr. O’Toole comes from a military family, and said he wanted his elected officials to take better care of veterans, create jobs and make health care more affordable.
Leon McGee, 76, a retired chemist from the South Side, was born at the tail end of the Great Depression and cannot remember a worse economy. “We’re like a third world country,” he said.
On Jan. 23, about 65 people went to the wood-paneled Gurnee American Legion Hall for a Republican candidates’ event sponsored by the Northern Illinois Patriots, a Tea Party group. Among them were Amy and Jesse Moore of Zion, who have a 2-year-old daughter and a mortgage they struggle to pay.
“We are wondering, Where is our money going?” said Mrs. Moore, 28, a self-described staunch pro-life voter. “What are we paying taxes for?”
Mr. Moore, 28, lost his job in 2005, but quickly found work in Lake Bluff as a machinist. Mrs. Moore is a full-time mother. They said they considered themselves lucky even though their home had plummeted in value in the six years since they bought it.
“We wish we had never bought the house,” Mrs. Moore said. “We’re stuck now.”
She leaned forward in her seat as the candidates, including Dan Proft, a contender for governor, and Maria Rodriguez, the hopeful for the Eighth Congressional District, spoke and fielded questions about the economy, protecting gun rights and their plans to clean up corruption in a state where one in five former governors in the past century have wound up behind bars.
“I would end the practice of committing felonies by the governor’s office,” Mr. Proft said. “I promised my mom I wouldn’t go to federal prison.”
In nearby Zion, Rhonda Janus, 57, owner of the shop It’s All Good Coffee and Espresso, wants tax breaks for small businesses like hers, paid for by cuts in the size of government.
“When we prosper, we’re anxious to see others prosper,” Ms. Janus said. “We’re not hoarders, and our government seems to be hoarders.”
Democratic politicians also face an angry electorate. When Daniel W. Hynes, the state comptroller and candidate for governor, made a campaign stop at a Riverdale hair salon recently, Donnie Hackler, a barber, was blunt. “We’ve heard all this before,” Mr. Hackler said.
Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, also a Democrat, was sitting at a restaurant in Tinley Park recently when a woman came by to offer sympathy. “You’re certainly catching a lot of heat,” she said.
Read the original article from the Chicago News Cooperative.