Tonight\u2019s Illinois primaries will go a long way towards\u00a0determining who will be the next person elected to be governor of Illinois.<\/p>\n
Pat Quinn has the job now. As Lieutenant Governor, Quinn inherited\u00a0the governor\u2019s chair after his boss, Rod Blagojevich was stripped of the\u00a0job following the January 2009 Impeachment Trial. (The trial was the first\u00a0the public got to hear some of the wiretapped phone conversation which\u00a0will be a key focal point of the federal government\u2019s corruption case against Blagojevich.)<\/p>\n
Now, Quinn wants a full term and fellow Democrat and State Comptroller\u00a0Dan Hynes stands in his way. Both candidates see tax increases, including\u00a0income tax increases, as the only way to avoid dramatic state service cuts.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because the estimated state budget deficit is around $13-billion or roughly\u00a0half of the state\u2019s current operating budget. The Quinn\/Hynes contest was a statistical tie\u00a0in polls leading up to Primary Day.<\/p>\n
The Republican primary field is, again according to the polls, knotted up with three\u00a0candidates. Jim Ryan is the former State Attorney General who ran for Governor\u00a0eight years ago, losing to Blagojevich. There is also Andy McKenna, former Illinois State\u00a0GOP Chairman, and State Senator Kirk Dillard, who is endorsed by the last elected Governor\u00a0NOT to be indicted, Jim Edgar.<\/p>\n
All three GOP\u2019ers – Ryan, McKenna and Dillard propose a cut-the-budget-first solution to the\u00a0massive budget deficit.<\/p>\n
Both primary contests are tight\u2026too close to call. But the Illinois Republican Party believes\u00a0in this race\u2026whoever wins their primary will have a distinct general election advantage.<\/p>\n
You could call it the “Blagojevich Advantage”. \u00a0Blagojevich\u2019s corruption trial is set to begin this Summer. There is talk Blagojevich\u2019s defense\u00a0team may ask for delay to late Summer or early Fall. Whenever it begins, it will be front page\u00a0stuff, reminding voters again of the reign of this scandal-plagued Democratic administration.<\/p>\n
Combine that with the general anti-incumbent sentiment found among voters these days\u00a0and it may provide an opportunity for Republicans to capitalize in a state where now there\u00a0are no GOP\u2019ers in any statewide elected office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tonight\u2019s Illinois primaries will go a long way towards\u00a0determining who will be the next person elected to be governor of Illinois. Pat Quinn has the job now. As Lieutenant Governor, Quinn inherited\u00a0the governor\u2019s chair after his boss, Rod Blagojevich was stripped of the\u00a0job following the January 2009 Impeachment Trial. (The trial was the first\u00a0the public […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267551","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\/4732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}