Last night, Thursday 23 January, the four Republicans running for their primary’s governor nomination debated at WTVP in Peoria. The debate and live blog comments are available at the Sun-Times site < http://voices.suntimes.com/... > and at Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax blog, < http://capitolfax.com/ >.
The comments there provide more enlightenment than the debaters.
My own comments below the Orange Spaghetti Monster.
Billionaire Rich Rauner brought his balding blondness, height, and wide-eyed ingenuousness to attack “government union bosses” and “bureaucrats.” He likes Michigan governor Rick Snyder, Florida governor Rich Scott, and Mitch Daniels who “turned Indiana around.” He expects to govern by executive order.
He is clever. He has not only swamped the state with his TV commercials, but asked for advice on the internet. I was reading Rich Miller’s Capitol Fax comments one evening when Rauner interrupted and asked the readers for input, which he received, in spades. He has excellent dog whistles—I hope he keeps using “the government union bosses that control Springfield.”
I suspect he will lose the primary, which is a pity. He is vulnerable through Romney-scale scandals—he pressured a Chicago magnet school to bump an applicant so his daughter could enroll, classified employees as contractors, hired jailbird Stuart Levine while investing teacher pensions, and cultivated Democrats Arne Duncan and Rahm Emanuel. The “drip-drip-drip” of scandals would make us lucky to run against him.
Dan Rutherford is state Treasurer, and was most comfortable of the four. He actually sought input and advice from his office’s stakeholders, and tried to do his government job. I’m about four hundred dollars richer because he posted a searchable database of unclaimed property that listed my old insurance policy.
Kirk Dillard shares Hinsdale roots with our Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, and is state senator from Westmont in DuPage County. He wants to cut the gasoline tax, and is vulnerable because he has received past union support. Like the other three, he still wants more “pension reform” than the recently-passed COLA cuts.
Bill Brady of Bloomington, another state senator, lost the last election to Quinn by about half a percentage point, and wants another go at him. He is the stiffest of the candidates and looked like a toy Ken Doll with recorded talking points every time someone pulled his string.
I think Quinn might have a challenge in Rutherford or Dillard, and an easier time against the starched undertaker or the entitled billionaire. Quinn is this boring guy who passed a temporary tax increase, managed pension reform by cutting part of my COLA, legalized same-sex marriage, and stabilized the state after two governors in a row headed off to prison . He selected Paul Vallas as his running mate, which should draw moderate republicans and conserva-dems. The Republicans have a chance, but it is a thin one.