The recent ads released by the candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor, Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes, reflect the high stakes of that race.
Since the end of December, Hynes has been pounding Quinn about an early prisoner release program that Quinn eventually admitted was inappropriately administered; prisoners who shouldn’t have been out were released, committed new crimes and were returned to jail.
In response, Gov. Quinn has been telling anyone who would listen that last year’s fiasco involving a Chicago-area cemetery shows Hynes failed in his own responsibilities.
Of the two, the prisoner release program has had much more resonance with likely voters and is undoubtedly a major reason for Quinn’s drop and Hynes’ rise in the latest Trib poll.
Hynes upped the ante a couple of days ago with a new ad in which viewers see and hear the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, speaking in 1987, explain in great detail why he fired Pat Quinn as his revenue director.
On unedited video, Washington says Quinn lacked discipline, failed to establish systems that Washington wanted and was more concerned about PR than getting the job done.
Kurt Erickson of the Belleville News-Democrat says what Washington talked about is hardly news to those who have been paying attention to Pat Quinn in his first year as governor:
Last spring, Quinn sat next to House Speaker Michael Madigan in a House committee room and testified in favor of an ethics package that was awaiting final passage in the House.
Three months later, after reform groups panned the legislation, Quinn reversed his early support of the measure and vetoed the bill.
In 2006, while he was Rod Blagojevich’s lieutenant governor, Quinn sent a letter to former Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent, calling on Trent to lift a gag order the director had placed on his employees.
Four years later, as governor, Quinn now supports a nearly identical gag order his own prison chief issued to employees of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Then there was Quinn’s 73-minute State of the State speech this month, described by many as “rambling.”
Some Democrats who were already supporting Quinn for governor are attacking Hynes over the ad; Rep. Jan Schakowsky even said with some certainty that, if Washington were alive today, he’d be for Quinn, the hiring of whom, Washington said, was “my worst mistake in government.”
What’s next? According to Rich Miller at Capitol Fax , Hynes has an ad coming in which Quinn is seen “gushing over Rod Blagojevich.”
Hynes wants to remind voters that, during the Blagojevich administration, Lt. Gov. Quinn used his reputation as an impeccably honest, straight-shooter to defend his two-time running-mate.
Would anyone care to speculate what Mayor Washington would have thought about Rod Blagojevich?
The primary is February 2nd. Here’s the list of IEA recommended candidates.
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ieanea/