{"id":228454,"date":"2010-01-25T20:33:23","date_gmt":"2010-01-26T01:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a80e2dd3970b"},"modified":"2010-01-25T22:16:44","modified_gmt":"2010-01-26T03:16:44","slug":"hynes-and-quinn-call-each-other-incompetent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/228454","title":{"rendered":"Hynes and Quinn call each other incompetent"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATED AT 9:15 p.m.\u00a0; <\/strong>originally posted by David Heinzmann and Monique Garcia <\/em>at 7:33 p.m.<\/p>\n

In their last televised debate tonight, Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes spent most of an hour calling each other incompetent, a sign of increased tension in the final week of a tight race for the Democratic primary for governor.<\/p>\n

While both politicians profess to have the answers for Illinois\u2019 future, much of the rancor during the debate on WTTW-TV focused on distant history in Chicago politics. The two Chicagoans argued over Hynes’ ad featuring old television news footage of the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, explaining why he dumped Quinn as an aide.<\/p>\n

And after Hynes vowed to fix the state\u2019s pension system by rooting out abuses, including double dipping, Quinn accused his rival\u2019s father, Tom Hynes, of taking multiple pensions stemming from his various jobs as a longtime state legislator and former Cook County assessor. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis father\u2019s a double-dipper, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s right,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n

The Hynes campaign acknowledged Tom Hynes\u2019 multiple public pensions, but the comptroller accused Quinn of being \u201cdisoriented\u201d for attacking his father, who has been out of office for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Quinn has been reacting to the Washington ad for days, at times accusing Hynes of race-baiting, but also pointing out that an 18-year-old Dan Hynes appeared in an ad for his father, who temporary split from the Democratic party in 1987 to oppose Washington\u2019s reelection bid for mayor. Quinn said Hynes and his father were \u201ctrying to take out Harold Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor also defended his tenure as revenue director for Chicago, saying people in Washington\u2019s administration asked him to do unethical things, such as giving businesses breaks on paying their taxes. Caught in a fight between Washington aides who variously contended he was either too reform-oriented to deal with administration friends or too interested in seeking the media spotlight, Quinn was ousted after eight months.<\/p>\n

Quinn said he was preparing to resign the office\u00a0 when Washington asked him to leave over a \u201cdifferent management philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hynes stood by the ads, saying Washington fired Quinn for allegedly mismanaging an office tasked with fiscal oversight, an issue at the center of Illinois\u2019 current crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the words of Mayor Washington are very powerful,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cThey tell a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The candidates also argued again over Hynes\u2019 level of responsibility in the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, with Quinn alleging the comptroller\u2019s office ignored numerous complaints about irregularities at the south suburban graveyard. Hynes countered that the comptroller\u2019s office had very limited oversight restricted to auditing cemetery finances.<\/p>\n

The candidates spent very little of the debate discussing issues facing the state. Even in response to questions about the budget mess and other hot-button issues\u2014gay marriage, video gambling\u2014the candidates quickly attacked each other. <\/p>\n

At one point, moderator Carol Marin asked the candidates to exchange compliments. Quinn struggled, saying \u201cI think anybody who gets in the (political) arena deserves credit,\u201d but then slicing back at Hynes with accusations he used the comptroller\u2019s office to undermine the governor politically. Quinn also refused to say he\u2019d support Hynes in the general election if the comptroller wins on Feb. 2.<\/p>\n

Hynes lauded the governor\u2019s commitment to veteran\u2019s issues, and said he would fully support Quinn if he ends up being the candidate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very concerned about what the Republicans are saying about cuts,\u201d Hynes said.<\/p>\n

dheinzmann@tribune.com<\/a>
<\/br>mcgarcia@tribune.com<\/a>
<\/br><\/p>\n

Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes traded charges of incompetence tonight in a televised debate with a week to go in their tight race for the Democratic primary for governor.<\/p>\n

The debate on WTTW-TV began with the two Chicago politicians arguing over Hynes’ ad featuring old television news footage of the late Harold Washington, Chicago’s first black mayor, explaining why he fired Quinn as an aide.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hynes contended it showed Washington firing Quinn for "incompetence and mismanagement", adding "that’s what we got" from Quinn’s first year as governor. <\/p>\n

Quinn responded\u00a0that he\u00a0quit the\u00a0Washington administration at the mayor’s request because he was in a dispute with the mayor’s chief of staff, and without giving specifics Quinn\u00a0implied that he was\u00a0under pressure to give breaks to people with political connections.<\/p>\n

Quinn, as he has before on this topic, asserted that Hynes and his father, former state lawmaker and county assessor Tom Hynes, encouraged racial\u00a0division when the\u00a0elder Hynes\u00a0ran as a third-party candidate against Washington in his 1987 re-election campaign. At the\u00a0time\u00a0racial tensions ran high in Chicago politics.<\/p>\n

Quinn hit\u00a0Hynes again over the comptroller’s limited role in overseeing cemeteries, saying he "completely dropped the ball" on the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal in which cemetery workers are accused of digging\u00a0up bodies and re-selling\u00a0graves.<\/p>\n

"He was incompetent," Quinn said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED AT 9:15 p.m.\u00a0; originally posted by David Heinzmann and Monique Garcia at 7:33 p.m. In their last televised debate tonight, Gov. Pat Quinn and state Comptroller Dan Hynes spent most of an hour calling each other incompetent, a sign of increased tension in the final week of a tight race for the Democratic primary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}