![\"\"](\"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/blagojevich-burris-illinois-corruption-300x225.jpg\" "\\"blagojevich-burris-illinois-corruption\\"")
Finishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday.<\/p>\nFinishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said he tried to forget unpleasant subjects — like politicians and the \u201cpromises they always break.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d Mr. Woods said, \u201cthey should outsource all the politicians. The country needs jobs, but all the politicians care about is the banks. The politicians are running America into the ground.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n As voters prepared to head to the polls this week, interviews across the Chicago area show, candidates must fight to win voters\u2019 trust. Incumbents, in particular, seem most likely to face a backlash.<\/p>\n From the streets and barbershops of President Barack Obama\u2019s Hyde Park to a conservative candidates\u2019 forum in Gurnee; from a coffee shop in Zion to a working-class neighborhood in Jefferson Park, there was a consensus: throw out those in charge and keep a close eye on the ones who might replace them.<\/p>\n The anger was bipartisan. So was the deep sense of fear about the national economy and its repercussions here in Illinois. People said they were tired of war and terrified of terrorists, fearful of losing their homes and their livelihoods. Locally, concerns ranged from the corruption in Springfield to the privatization of Chicago\u2019s parking.<\/p>\n And everywhere, the four-letter word on everyone\u2019s lips was \u201cjobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Ed P. O\u2019Toole, 58, a retired mailman sitting on a bar stool in Jefferson Park, said he used to measure weakness in the economy by the number of unemployment checks on his route. \u201cIt never got as bad as it is today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr. O\u2019Toole comes from a military family, and said he wanted his elected officials to take better care of veterans, create jobs and make health care more affordable.<\/p>\n Leon McGee, 76, a retired chemist from the South Side, was born at the tail end of the Great Depression and cannot remember a worse economy. \u201cWe\u2019re like a third world country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On Jan. 23, about 65 people went to the wood-paneled Gurnee American Legion Hall for a Republican candidates\u2019 event sponsored by the Northern Illinois Patriots, a Tea Party group. Among them were Amy and Jesse Moore of Zion, who have a 2-year-old daughter and a mortgage they struggle to pay.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are wondering, Where is our money going?\u201d said Mrs. Moore, 28, a self-described staunch pro-life voter. \u201cWhat are we paying taxes for?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Moore, 28, lost his job in 2005, but quickly found work in Lake Bluff as a machinist. Mrs. Moore is a full-time mother. They said they considered themselves lucky even though their home had plummeted in value in the six years since they bought it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wish we had never bought the house,\u201d Mrs. Moore said. \u201cWe\u2019re stuck now.\u201d<\/p>\n She leaned forward in her seat as the candidates, including Dan Proft, a contender for governor, and Maria Rodriguez, the hopeful for the Eighth Congressional District, spoke and fielded questions about the economy, protecting gun rights and their plans to clean up corruption in a state where one in five former governors in the past century have wound up behind bars.<\/p>\n \u201cI would end the practice of committing felonies by the governor\u2019s office,\u201d Mr. Proft said. \u201cI promised my mom I wouldn\u2019t go to federal prison.\u201d<\/p>\n In nearby Zion, Rhonda Janus, 57, owner of the shop It\u2019s All Good Coffee and Espresso, wants tax breaks for small businesses like hers, paid for by cuts in the size of government.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we prosper, we\u2019re anxious to see others prosper,\u201d Ms. Janus said. \u201cWe\u2019re not hoarders, and our government seems to be hoarders.\u201d<\/p>\n Democratic politicians also face an angry electorate. When Daniel W. Hynes, the state comptroller and candidate for governor, made a campaign stop at a Riverdale hair salon recently, Donnie Hackler, a barber, was blunt. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard all this before,\u201d Mr. Hackler said.<\/p>\n Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, also a Democrat, was sitting at a restaurant in Tinley Park recently when a woman came by to offer sympathy. \u201cYou\u2019re certainly catching a lot of heat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Read the original article from the Chicago News Cooperative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finishing his breakfast at Valois Restaurant in Hyde Park last week, Craig Woods, a 55-year-old pipe fitter from Lake County, had to be reminded that there is a primary election on Tuesday. He said he tried to forget unpleasant subjects — like politicians and the \u201cpromises they always break.\u201d \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d Mr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-259818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259818","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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