Breaking Illinois political news: Lisa Madigan just announced she will run again for attorney general and will NOT challenge Governor Pat Quinn, as has been widely anticipated.
This would be her fourth term as AG.
Pat Quinn faces at least one other dem who is considering running, Bill Daley, part of the Chicago Daley dynasty.
Republicans who are in the race include state Treasurer Dan Rutherford, state Senator Bill Brady, state Senator Kirk Dillard, and a venture capitalist Bruce Rauner.
Illinois has been solid blue on the presidential level for a while, but Mark Kirk (R) did take Barack Obama's Senate seat. He's running again, despite continuing to recover from a severe stroke. He's starting to do more meda.
But the Republican party on the state level has been in dire straits for a while. No one is happy with Pat Quinn, who was considered a reformer before moving up to Governor during the whole Blago fiasco.
Quinn backed raising state income taxes from 3% to 5% (temporarily for 3 years), and no one is happy about that. Our budget remains a complete mess, and the state legislature is back in special session, trying to fix our state pension systems.
So, anything is possible.