{"id":252277,"date":"2010-01-30T16:30:27","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T21:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01287735d90c970c"},"modified":"2010-01-30T16:30:27","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T21:30:27","slug":"quinn-stroger-in-usual-spot-as-incumbents-facing-primary-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/252277","title":{"rendered":"Quinn, Stroger in usual spot as incumbents facing primary challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Democratic incumbents in unusual spot<\/h2>\n

Quinn and Stroger trying to fight off slew of challengers and charges<\/h3>\n

By Rick Pearson Tribune reporter<\/p>\n

Gov. Pat Quinn and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger find
\nthemselves in the rare spot of being incumbents battling to hang onto
\ntheir jobs when voters decide in Tuesday’s primary whether opponents’
\ncharges of incompetence are valid.<\/p>\n

<\/br>
\nAt the top of the ballot, Democratic and Republican voters will pick
\nU.S. Senate candidates, setting the stage for an expensive,
\nnationally-watched contest for the seat once held by President Barack
\nObama.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAttack ads dominate the three highest-profile races. Whether the
\nmonthlong barrage works may provide an indicator of the public’s
\nappetite \u2014 or distaste \u2014 for politics following a year in which ex-
\nGov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached and Obama’s first-year agenda has
\nbeen marred by the recession and intense partisanship that belied his
\ncampaign promise of change.<\/p>\n

<\/br>
\nWith several contests in the tossup category, about the only thing more
\nuncertain than the outcomes is whether the number on the thermometer
\nTuesday will exceed the voter turnout percentage for the first
\nnon-presidential February primary elections in Illinois. That factor
\nputs the premium on better-organized candidates who have put together a
\nget-out-the-vote ground game.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nTraditionally, only die-hard partisans \u2014 about 28 percent of voters \u2014
\ncast ballots in mid-term primary elections. In 2006, only about a
\nquarter of the state’s registered voters turned out when Republicans
\nhad a heated battle for governor \u2014 and that primary was in March.
\nCandidates expect that despite a rise in registered voters to 7.5
\nmillion, turnout will be even less than four years ago.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nA total of 79,850 people voted early in Chicago and suburban Cook,
\nelection officials said. That’s about double the total when early
\nvoting launched in the March 2006 primary. But it’s down significantly
\nfrom the more than 132,000 early ballots cast in the February 2008
\nprimary, when favorite-son Obama was on the ballot.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe early election has led to a compressed, post-holiday month of
\ncampaigning. TV commercials among the candidates for governor have
\nresembled mini-debates \u2014 one candidate attacks a rival, only to see the
\nfire returned 30 seconds later when the next ad airs.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nMailboxes have been stuffed with political fliers and answering machines have been filling with automated telephone pitches.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"Do these candidates really think the average voter is going to be
\nswayed by a stupid phone call?" said Gayle Siegert, an Elburn real
\nestate agent who has been getting about a half-dozen phone calls a day
\n\u2014 from Democrats and Republicans \u2014 to her unlisted home office phone.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"It is the junk mail (of telephone calls)," said Siegert, who said she
\njots down the name of the offending campaign and vows not to vote for
\nthe candidate. "In the course of life, this is a mere irritant. \u2026 But
\nit’s something that’s annoying and we find it offensive and rude."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nTo be sure, the candidates’ rhetoric often has been blunt \u2014 not in
\ndescribing what they’d do if elected, but in assailing their rivals’
\nqualifications.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nQuinn, who took office a year ago after the disgraced Blagojevich was
\nousted, has seen what was once an insurmountable lead vaporized.
\nComptroller Dan Hynes has not let up in his withering criticism of the
\nunelected governor’s competence in stumbling over an early inmate
\nrelease program and an income-tax hike plan.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nHynes worked to pound home that theme in an ad showing the late Mayor
\nHarold Washington saying he made a mistake hiring Quinn as his city
\nrevenue director. For a week, Quinn has contended Hynes’ use of
\nWashington is an attempt to create racial divisions. Quinn said the
\ncomptroller should be "ashamed" for the ad when Hynes’ father sought at
\none time to run against Washington, the city’s first African-American
\nmayor.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nOn the Republican side, the six-way governor’s race also has displayed
\nstinging attacks but little clarity in terms of a front-runner.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThe contest between state Sens. Bill Brady of Bloomington and Kirk
\nDillard of Hinsdale, former Attorney General Jim Ryan, former state GOP
\nchairman Andy McKenna, Hinsdale transparency advocate Adam Andrzejewski
\nand Chicago political consultant Dan Proft has been an attempt to label
\nthose with political and governmental experience as insiders and those
\nwho are outsiders as inexperienced.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIn Cook, the Democratic board president primary represents a referendum
\non Stroger’s first term following controversies over patronage hiring
\nand his successful push for a hike in the county sales tax.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nWith polls showing deep voter dissatisfaction with Stroger, Democrats
\nCircuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, and Terrence
\nO’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, each
\nhave pledged to do away with the remainder of the sales tax increase.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nThere also are the primaries for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by
\ntarnished Blagojevich appointee Sen. Roland Burris. Treasurer Alexi
\nGiannoulias has been the front-runner, but finds himself in a fluid
\ncontest with former Chicago inspector general David Hoffman and former
\nChicago Urban League president Cheryle Jackson.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAmong Republicans, five-term North Shore U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk has held a
\ncommanding lead over several challengers who have failed to get into
\nthe double digits, percentagewise, though there are still a sizable
\nnumber of undecided voters.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nRegardless, it may be difficult for any candidate to count on TV ads this weekend to put them over the top.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"There are candidates for a variety of offices on TV (and) plenty of
\ncommercials," said Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at
\nUniversity of Illinois- Springfield. "I’ve never seen this much
\nclutter."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the print edition: Democratic incumbents in unusual spot Quinn and Stroger trying to fight off slew of challengers and charges By Rick Pearson Tribune reporter Gov. Pat Quinn and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger find themselves in the rare spot of being incumbents battling to hang onto their jobs when voters decide in […]<\/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-252277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252277","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=252277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}