Author: Ruth Ravve

Its been days since Illinois held its’ primary election–the earliest primary in the country–but GOP candidates for governor are still waiting it out.

Out of the more than 700,000 ballots cast, Republican Kirk Dillard came in just about 400 votes shy of his leading opponent, Bill Brady.  That amounts to “just five 10,000th of a 1% difference” Dillard pointed out.   Absentee ballots and provisional ballots have yet to be counted.  Its estimated there are thousands of those, and the state election board has up to 14 days after the election to count them.

Dillard says, right now, the Illinois GOP is bolstered by scandals surrounding former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, whose trial is expected to begin in June, and the Democratic candidate for Lt Governor, Scott Lee Cohen, who’s facing allegations of assaulting his girlfriend five years ago.  Dillard says voters are aware of it all. “The door has been open…the Cohen fiasco opens the door even wider” Dillard says.

Click on the video to watch Kirk Dillard’s press conference.  

When President Obama announced plans for high speed rail service, during his State of the Union address, cheers went up in Chicago.  That’s because the windy city and the state of Illinois, are getting a $1.2 billion slice of the $8 billion federally funded pie.  “The Midwest got the most money of any region, one third of the money ($2.6 billion for the region)….its good to have a president from Illinois”  said  a smiling Illinois Governor Pat Quinn.  All that cash, he said, would translate into about 6000 jobs for the state.  “We’re going to make investments in this country that payoff for years to come” said Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.  Billions also went to several other states, such as California, and Florida, where construction is planned for an 84 mile high speed track from Tampa to Orlando.

High speed rail service, which has already been in use in parts of Europe and Asia for years, means train travelers could arrive at their destinations 30% faster than before.  Trains might get up to speeds of nearly 170 mph.  “We want to make sure Cubs fans can get to St Louis as soon as possible”  Quinn joked.

Once the rail lines are built, lawmakers will still have to keep their wallets open.  Experts say the initial cash will only get the transitions to the new lines set up.  Once the trains are running that they will need “sustained investment over time”.

Click on the video to see Senator Dick Durbin’s comments to the media about high speed rail.