{"id":453120,"date":"2010-03-20T15:32:14","date_gmt":"2010-03-20T19:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef0120a95af773970b"},"modified":"2010-03-20T15:32:14","modified_gmt":"2010-03-20T19:32:14","slug":"eclectic-group-auditions-for-democratic-lieutenant-governor-nomination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/453120","title":{"rendered":"Eclectic group auditions for Democratic lieutenant governor nomination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by By Rick Pearson and Michelle Manchir<\/em> at 2:31 p.m.
<\/br>
<\/br>An eclectic collection of prospective candidates for the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination met with top party officials across the state today in scenes reminiscent of "American Idol" auditions or a day-long wait at traffic court.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cWhy not Charlie? It used to be Sorry Charlie. Remember the Star-Kist Tuna?\u201d asked Charles Hayes, a 61-year-old unemployed sales consultant and admitted political novice from Chicago, in presenting his credentials to a panel of Democratic State Central Committee members conducting the judging at a downtown Chicago hotel. \u201cI represent a lot of people who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a desperate situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic leaders found themselves interviewing candidates ranging from out-of-work job-seekers to veteran politicians after the Feb. 2 primary winner, Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen, dropped out amid revelations about his personal life.
<\/br>
<\/br>Nearly 250 would-be running mates applied online, of which 116 prospective political second bananas\u2014 displaying a combination of ego, idealism, activism and some quirkiness\u2013showed up today for judging in Chicago, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, Bolingbrook and Springfield to narrow down the field.
<\/br>
<\/br><\/p>\n

Kelly Maynard, a research associate at the University of Chicago, touted her background as an academic but also said she would include \u201cjazzercise\u201d to help reach out to women. \u201cI would be out there exercising while I\u2019m out on the campaign,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the end, the various judging panels this morning ended up recommending 14 finalists who will appear before the entire 38-member state central committee for a decision on a winner on March 27. They included state Sen. Susan Garrett of Lake Forest, state Rep. Art Turner of Chicago, state Sen. Iris Martinez of Chicago, unsuccessful comptroller primary candidate Raja Krishnamoorthi. An afternoon session in Springfield also is expected to yield some finalists, including Sheila Simon, the daughter of late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.<\/p>\n

Hayes and Maynard were not among the finalists, however.<\/p>\n

Despite the proclamation by House Speaker Michael Madigan, the state Democratic chairman, that the job fair to decide Gov. Pat Quinn\u2019s fall running mate was an \u201copen, transparent process,\u201d the Chicago judging largely centered on Garrett, whom Quinn contacted about the job last week, and the reaction to her from top Democrats who will vote on a candidate next week.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cI said all along that I think the governor\u2019s entitled to great deference,\u201d Madigan said, adding that he has yet to decide on a contender. \u201cI will convey the governor\u2019s thoughts. He is entitled to that. But those (Democratic State Central Committee members) are the ones that will vote. Some members of the committee will be very interested in the governor\u2019s opinion. Some will not be so interested in the governor\u2019s opinion.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Garrett, who has served in the legislature for a dozen years, appeared at one of two downtown panels along with Turner, who finished second to Cohen in the primary. Turner, who has been a lawmaker for 29 years, touted his legislative experience over that of Garrett and said he was surprised that she had emerged as a leading contender.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cI\u2019m surprised because I thought that this was an open process and everybody\u2019s supposed to fill out applications and apply,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not certain where (the governor\u2019s) coming from or just what that\u2019s all about.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Garrett sought to downplay her emergence as the leading contender for the post.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cI have not been asked to be the lieutenant governor candidate,\u201d she told reporters after her appearance. \u201cNobody has made a commitment to me whatsoever. I hope that I am at least on the short list. But nobody has promised me anything.\u201d
<\/br>
<\/br>Garrett said she believed Quinn contacted her because she had expressed interest in running for the office in the primary but opted not to and instead backed her Lake County Democratic chairman and colleague, state Sen. Terry Link of Waukegan.
<\/br>
<\/br>Garrett voted against an income-tax increase that Quinn backed last year and did not commit to supporting the tax hike the governor is supporting this year.
<\/br>
<\/br>She said only if Springfield completes a comprehensive pension reform and makes spending cuts, Quinn\u2019s move to increase the personal income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent \u201cshould be on the table for serious consideration.\u201d But on pension reform, Garrett said she did not believe in a 401k-style defined contribution program for new employees, but backed an extended retirement age and having retirees pay into their health care.
<\/br>
<\/br>While she and Quinn share a liberal social ideology in contrast to the social conservatism of Republican governor nominee state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, Garrett said she hoped fixing the state\u2019s economy would dominate the campaign debate.
<\/br>
<\/br>\u201cI would hate to see a campaign based on the vast social disparities, differences between the Republican candidates and the Democratic candidates,\u201d said Garrett, who could help Democrats target socially moderate Republican suburban women. \u201cI think we have to focus on getting our state back on track and coming up with a job-creation program.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Posted by By Rick Pearson and Michelle Manchir at 2:31 p.m.An eclectic collection of prospective candidates for the Democratic lieutenant governor nomination met with top party officials across the state today in scenes reminiscent of "American Idol" auditions or a day-long wait at traffic court.\u201cWhy not Charlie? It used to be Sorry Charlie. Remember the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453120","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=453120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}