It is a little odd that on Primary day in Illinois, when we are deciding the next Democratic candidate for President Obama's Senate seat, that there are no I voted diaries in the 'recent diaries', much less the 'rec-list'. Well, I voted, I was the 74th person to vote at noon. In 2006 I was just under a hundred on my way to work at 7:00 AM. For those of you that don't live in Illinois, a little background on the big races:
For Governor, Governor Pat Quinn, Rod Blagal;jaslhgphadogj's successor, is running against our Comptroller, Dan Hynes. Neither one is all that great, but Quinn has effed our budget, and refused to push a tax increase through to cover the second largest shortfall in the Country. We're angling to be the next California. He's a decent guy, but he just isn't strong enough against the machine. By that, I mean Michael Madigan, speaker of the house, and the extremely popular Lisa Madigan's father (thank god not biological, which might be why she rocks, and he don't so much). In addition, one of his initiatives inadvertently let 20 murderers out in an early release program for non-violent offenders. That's a solid point of attack for the righties, but I don't really hold him responsible. The program only looked at the offenses for which they were currently incarcerated, and it's not as if he signed-off on each individual case.
Hynes is fending off accusations that he ignored people who tried to inform his office about the Burr Oaks cemetery. He supposedly released information requested about the scandal today. Waiting until PDay to do so is kind of a dick move. It's possible there might be something there.
The Senate's going to be a sqeaker. Alexi Giannoulias, hereinafter Alexi, is facing off against David Hoffman, a self described Reagan Democrat, who magically found his progressive nature just in time for this primary. He told Morning Bloe that he was an Independent Fiscal Conservative. Great. Now if he just starts being an unabashed supporter of Israel we could end up with an extra Lieberman in our caucus.
Alexi has his problems too. Over the past few years his family's bank, which he holds a minor stake in, has paid dividends amounting to slightly less than they are in the red. The FDIC will step in unless they are able to raise 50 million dollars in capital. This could be bad in the general, but I still voted for him.
Basically I voted for two candidates that I believe the best, but they both have things that could haunt them come general election time. To all you out there who say, but they might not win, I'll admit they might not, but they are the 'better Democrats' that we talk about. Would you vote for Nelson in a primary? Didn't think so.
I'll close by saying that Mark Kirk, Repub running for Senate, was once the only kind of Repub that could get elected in Chicago, but he's gone full out Teabagger trying to secure the Republican primary. This will hurt him. In IL we don't vote for hard righties in statewide elections.
The Capitol Fax is a great place for more info