{"id":235387,"date":"2010-01-26T21:54:16","date_gmt":"2010-01-27T02:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01287717dc9e970c"},"modified":"2010-01-26T22:01:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-27T03:01:25","slug":"republican-governor-candidates-spend-hour-belittling-each-other-at-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/235387","title":{"rendered":"Republican governor candidates spend hour belittling each other at debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gopdebate0126\"<\/img><\/a>
<\/br>Republican governor candidates Kirk Dillard, Bill Brady, Adam Andrzejewski, Dan Proft and\u00a0 Jim Ryan, debated on WTTW’s "Chicago Tonight" program. (Nuccio DiNuzzo\/Chicago Tribune)<\/em><\/p>\n

Posted by Rick Pearson<\/em> at 8:55 p.m.<\/p>\n

Five of the six Republican governor candidates spent an hour tonight belittling each other\u2019s credentials for the state\u2019s top job, reflecting the tossup nature of the contest just a week before the election.
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<\/br>Former two-term Attorney General Jim Ryan illustrated the jab-filled atmosphere. He closed the campaign\u2019s final televised debate, broadcast on WTTW, by saying, \u201cI think we\u2019ve got to cool the rhetoric a little bit.\u201d Ryan then proceeded to rip absent rival Andy McKenna for what he said was unethical behavior when he ran the state GOP.<\/p>\n

<\/br>A Tribune poll conducted last week<\/a> showed McKenna, Ryan and state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale as the top three, though none reached 20 percent.
<\/br>
<\/br>But the attacks that flew during the event weren\u2019t limited to the top tier as state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Hinsdale transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski and Chicago political consultant Dan Proft also sought to sway voters in the final days.
<\/br>
<\/br>Andrzejewski accused Ryan of retreating to the \u201csoft life\u201d of academia after losing to Democrat Rod Blagojevich for governor in 2002 instead of fighting political corruption. Proft called Andrzejewski \u201csomebody who doesn\u2019t know anything about government,\u201d prompting him to mock Proft as to a \u201crhetorical heavyweight.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Brady, the lone downstate candidate, focused his attention on Dillard and Ryan, saying they can\u2019t be trusted as governor because they supported past tax increases.
<\/br>
<\/br>Dillard said he opposes a tax increase to help the state\u2019s deficit-plagued budget, but called anti-tax pledges a \u201cgimmick.\u201d Dillard, however, also said that after he restores state finances, he wants to consider \u201ctax fairness and tax policy in this state.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Ryan, who previously refused to sign an anti-tax hike pledge, said tonight that he pledges to oppose a tax increase.
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<\/br>McKenna, whose campaign\u2019s extensive TV ads have been fueled by his family\u2019s wealth, also came under plenty of criticism. Ryan, Proft and Andrzejewski accused McKenna of being distrustful for using state GOP resources for a political poll that included McKenna\u2019s name. McKenna has since apologized.
<\/br>
<\/br>But Dillard also accused McKenna of going \u201cinto the ground like a mole\u201d when it came to facing his GOP rivals and questioned how McKenna would deal with powerful Democratic leaders if he became governor.
<\/br>
<\/br>McKenna aides said he did not attend the event because he was campaigning in central Illinois.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican governor candidates Kirk Dillard, Bill Brady, Adam Andrzejewski, Dan Proft and\u00a0 Jim Ryan, debated on WTTW’s "Chicago Tonight" program. (Nuccio DiNuzzo\/Chicago Tribune) Posted by Rick Pearson at 8:55 p.m. Five of the six Republican governor candidates spent an hour tonight belittling each other\u2019s credentials for the state\u2019s top job, reflecting the tossup nature of […]<\/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-235387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235387","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=235387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}