After Barack Obama became president, ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich allegedly considered appointing himself to Obama’s vacated Senate seat, partly out of frustration at being “stuck” as Illinois’ chief executive.
Arguably, Blagojevich might have been onto something when his ill-fated political brainstorming was memorialized on a federal wiretap. There truly is a certain amount of logic in not wanting to be governor of Illinois right now.
State government’s $12 billion pit of red ink continues to deepen, heightening the chance the next governor will wear the collar for a tax hike. One out of every 10 working-age adults here is out of a job. Foreclosures are soaring. And nearly three out of four Illinoisans believe the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Undoubtedly, that daunting list of troubles will play a role in deciding the February 2 primary elections, where nearly a dozen Republican, Democratic and Green Party candidates have lined up for state government’s highest office. But Blagojevich and the huge stink he left behind in Springfield is the true wild card in this historic campaign season.
Not since 1928, before the Great Depression, have Illinois voters been confronted with elections for governor and U.S. senator simultaneously without a duly elected incumbent from which to choose for either office.
Blagojevich is a persistent theme in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who took over for Blagojevich after his January ouster, has faced a barrage of attacks from Democratic rival Dan Hynes, the three-term comptroller who has called Quinn Blagojevich’s “chief cheerleader.”
For his part, Quinn contends that voters desperately want to forget the Blagojevich saga and instead want someone to turn around the state’s economy and make state government solvent again.
“Frankly, voters see Rod Blagojevich in a rear-view mirror. Politicians may still want to bring up Rod Blagojevich, but the voters don’t,” Quinn told Illinois Issues in an interview. “They see me as having accomplished a stable transition from the chaotic, disgraceful situation back in December and January to the situation where we have great challenges on the budget and economy. They have a governor they have confidence in, who’s an honest person and runs an honest government.”
On the Republican side, Blagojevich’s collapse has created a vacuum that has seven candidates vying for the party’s nomination for governor. The last time a Republican gubernatorial primary had more entrants was 1936, when eight candidates were on the ballot.
The lineup appears formidable. Sen. Bill Brady and Sen. Kirk Dillard are in the mix, as are former state GOP chief Andy McKenna, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, political consultant Dan Proft, businessman Adam Andrzejewski and former Attorney General Jim Ryan, who lost the 2002 gubernatorial election to Blagojevich.
“The corruption issues and general incompetence of the Blagojevich administration give us as Republicans a great opportunity to come in and say there’s a different way of doing this,” Schillerstrom says.
The respected Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan political newsletter based in Washington, D.C., that monitors campaigns across the country, has characterized the Illinois governor’s race in 2010 only leaning Democratic, not solidly in Democratic control — a sobering assessment given how blue a state Illinois was in 2008 during Obama’s historic presidential ascent.
“It’s Blagojevich baggage,” says Jennifer Thomas, an analyst with the newsletter who monitors races for governor and U.S. Senate. “If that had not happened, we would not be having this conversation. I really think that Republicans at least sense that there is a wish among voters to do things very, very differently.”
Fairly or not, no one has had to atone more for Blagojevich’s sins than Quinn, the impeached ex-governor’s two-time running mate. As recently as 2006, when both Blagojevich and Quinn last appeared on the ballot together, Quinn described Blagojevich as someone who has “always been a person who’s honest and one of integrity.”
“I stood up on many, many occasions to speak out and criticize the abusive budget practices and the mismanagement of state government that we were experiencing under Rod Blagojevich. Pat Quinn stood silent,” says Hynes, whose first serious tangle with Blagojevich came in 2005 with a refusal to pay for undeliverable flu vaccines Blagojevich ordered.
“He was basically a partner of Rod Blagojevich’s throughout the first term,” Hynes told Illinois Issues, referring to Quinn. “Once they were safely re-elected, then yes, he started speaking out on things. But it showed, when it was really more difficult to do so, one of us showed leadership, and the other did not.”
But Quinn insists he broke with Blagojevich early and often. A Blagojevich emissary threatened him with “political divorce” in 2004 for offering a more aggressive plan to clean up the scandal-ridden Illinois State Toll Highway Authority than what Blagojevich then had on the table, Quinn says.
In 2007, Quinn opposed Blagojevich’s failed gross receipts tax. A year later, to underscore his disgust with Blagojevich, Quinn launched an initiative to change the Illinois Constitution to allow voters to recall corrupt or inept governors. With Blagojevich working against the plan behind the scenes, the idea stalled in the state Senate but passed in 2009 and will go before voters for final approval in November.
Besides recall, Quinn says he has taken steps to improve the state’s ethics climate by approving caps on campaign contributions, rewriting the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and dumping most of the Blagojevich-appointed University of Illinois board of trustees after an admissions scandal.
The governor faced criticism from Hynes, Republicans and others for not embracing all of the ethics recommendations of his Illinois Reform Commission, led by former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins. The governor and his task force clashed over caps on the political funds controlled by legislative leaders, a reform that ultimately wound up on the cutting-room floor.
“Most of their ideas, not all of them, were enacted into law,” Quinn says.
The governor also has been hit for failing to deliver on his immediate pledge upon taking office to “fumigate” state government after Blagojevich’s departure. While the new governor did can some senior Blagojevich aides, the Chicago Sun-Times reported in November that at least 70 Blagojevich hires whose personnel records had been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors remain in the Quinn administration.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people running state government right now are the same people who were running it under Rod Blagojevich,” Hynes says. “Sixteen hundred people hired by Blagojevich making over $70,000, Pat Quinn refuses to scrutinize those positions and eliminate half of them and save $100 million, which is what I think we need to do.”
Quinn, however, says he doesn’t intend to fire those Blagojevich holdovers after getting a request from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office “not to do anything that might interfere with the investigation” into hiring-related abuses under Blagojevich.
On other fronts, the governor continues to push for an income tax increase. He proposed raising the income tax rate from 3 to 4.5 percent and sought to raise the personal exemption, so taxpayers earning $60,900 annually would end up paying more while those under that threshold would pay less. A similar plan died in the House. Another version with a higher tax increase, which Quinn also supported, passed the Senate and is awaiting a House vote.
By contrast, Hynes has called for an income tax increase for those earning more than $200,000 annually and has hit Quinn in campaign commercials, alleging his tax plan would affect the middle class.
Quinn champions the passage of two capital construction bills that eventually will result in $33 billion in spending on schools, roads and other bricks-and-mortar projects. The last major capital program occurred under former Gov. George Ryan. While Quinn notes the “Herculean effort” involved in getting that passed, Hynes has condemned the governor for not signing the borrowing plans quickly enough and getting construction money out the door to be used during last summer’s construction season.
“We’re losing jobs, and his one claim to fame, the capital bill, was delayed because of his own inconsistency and indecisiveness in signing the bill and getting it implemented in time for the construction season,” Hynes says.
Despite any naysaying from critics, Quinn believes he has had a productive 12 months.
“Since I’ve been governor, we’ve accomplished a great deal in a relatively short period of time, especially with integrity,” Quinn says.
Hynes wants to “demonize me, and it ain’t working. I can tell you that,” Quinn says. “He’s spent $2 million on carpet-bombing me with negative commercials. It ain’t working. My view is he who slings mud loses ground, so he’s not getting anywhere with this. It’s unhelpful to the people of Illinois. But if that’s the way he wants to run his campaign, so be it.”
Quinn held an early lead over Hynes in a mid-October poll taken by Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. The survey of 800 people found nearly 34 percent of those who planned to vote in the Democratic primary supported Quinn, compared with just under 17 percent for Hynes.
Green Party candidate Rich Whitney of Carbondale, who received 10.5 percent of the vote in 2006, is uncontested.
On the Republican side, the primary race is less defined, largely because of the last-minute entry of two-term Attorney General Jim Ryan, Blagojevich’s vanquished 2002 Republican opponent.
Unlike in the past two gubernatorial elections, Republicans are energized this time around. They have the Blagojevich scandal and his summer trial with which to work. And the party sees how Obama’s sliding popularity has boosted the fortunes of other Republican candidates for governor, like in Virginia and New Jersey where Democratic incumbents were defeated.
It’s difficult to say who is ahead of the pack among Republicans in Illinois. A late-October poll by Rasmussen Reports identified Ryan as the leader in name recognition among declared GOP gubernatorial candidates, with 16 percent of voters surveyed holding a favorable opinion of him.
Ryan faces two serious blemishes that threaten his candidacy. In November, after a DuPage County jury sentenced Brian Dugan to death for the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, Ryan issued an apology for refusing to prosecute him while he had been DuPage’s state’s attorney. Instead, Ryan sent two innocent men — Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez — to death row for the Naperville girl’s murder. As recently as 2002, Ryan demonstrated no regret for those actions.
Ryan also has faced scrutiny for his relationship with college buddy Stuart Levine, Ryan’s former finance director who helped raise $500,000 for the former attorney general’s 2002 gubernatorial campaign.
Levine pleaded guilty to federal fraud and money-laundering charges for scheming to shake down companies that wanted business from the Teachers’ Retirement System or the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, state boards on which Levine served.
As part of his plea agreement, Levine admitted to a 2004 scheme to squeeze an investment firm for a $1.5 million contribution to Blagojevich in exchange for $220 million in business from the pension system.
Ryan, the only major gubernatorial candidate to refuse an interview request from Illinois Issues, has said he had no knowledge of Levine’s lawlessness but has appeared agitated when asked about the relationship by reporters.
“Jim knows regardless of what he said, no one will believe it. The perception of Stu Levine and Jim Ryan is something that he can’t overcome, and it really gets to him,” says Brady, the Bloomington Republican running for governor. “You know what the Democrats will do to him on that.”
Before Ryan’s entry, Brady — the only downstater in the seven-way GOP primary field — stood atop the SIU poll, with backing from 10 percent of those surveyed. With an estimated 50 percent of the Republican vote downstate, Brady could benefit from having four of the seven gubernatorial candidates from DuPage County, carving up that GOP-heavy enclave of suburban Chicago while he lays claim to downstate.
But Brady’s colleague in the state Senate, Kirk Dillard, does not buy into that thinking. A state senator since 1993, Dillard goes into the primary with backing from the GOP’s beloved former governor, Jim Edgar, who once employed Dillard as his chief of staff.
“I’m a statewide and not just a DuPage County candidate. The endorsement of former Gov. Edgar helps me in every corner of the Land of Lincoln,” says Dillard, who ruffled feathers in his party for appearing in an Obama campaign commercial during the presidential primary season.
Others, such as Proft, are trying to get a populist message out to GOP voters that builds on the Democratic fatigue that could be being felt after nearly eight years of total Democratic dominance in Springfield.
“The fix is in for the nine Chicago Democrats who run this state and their political functionaries, and the fix is against the people who play by the rules of this state, who finance state government and who receive very little back in services or benefits,” Proft says.
Casting a similar theme, Andrzejewski says his lack of background in government is a strong point among conservative Republican voters fed up with Blagojevich and insider dealing at the Capitol.
“Nine months ago, my biggest weakness was I didn’t have Illinois political experience. But now, it’s the great advantage because Illinois political experience simply means political baggage. My opponents are weighted down by it, and I’m free of it,” the Hinsdale activist says.
But in this race, Blagojevich’s long shadow can’t be avoided. McKenna, the former state GOP chief, has drawn national attention for his short campaign film mocking the ex-governor’s perfect coiffure. A Blagojevich-esque toupee was digitally affixed atop the Capitol dome, and the piece featured truck drivers, pedestrians — even babies — all wearing Blago’s mop top.
“His hair, in many ways, is a symbol of the culture in Springfield,” McKenna says. “The leadership there too often has been self-serving and put its own personal interests before the interests of the people. Those elements all were very much a part of the Blagojevich administration.”
A commercial about Blagojevich’s hair, as frivolous as it may be to some worried about state government shutting down, touches on something that could be a key to the governorship in 2010, McKenna says.
“He’s a symbol of something that makes people very angry.”
The U.S. Senate race
If anyone needs a reminder how important Illinois’ open U.S. Senate seat is, simply go back a year and replay that deliciously infamous line from Rod Blagojevich: “I’ve got this thing, and it’s f---ing golden.”
Most everyone now knows Blagojevich was referring to the Senate seat once occupied by President Obama, a post now sought by a dozen Democratic, Republican and Green Party candidates in one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate campaigns in Illinois history.
Truth be told, the sprawling field of candidates in the February 2 primary aiming to replace Democratic Sen. Roland Burris, Blagojevich’s scandal-tarred appointee, probably attaches the same value to the seat as Blagojevich once did.
Especially the six Republican candidates.
For any Republican to win this seat would deal an enormously embarrassing blow to Obama and other Chicagoans in the White House and could threaten the president’s midterm congressional agenda. Love or hate Burris, his vote has been important to Obama’s efforts to find consensus on a health-care plan and to pass the $787 billion economic stimulus program.
“Republicans will put a lot of money into this. To pick up Obama’s Senate seat would be a wonderfully juicy thing for them to do,” said David Yepsen, director of Southern Illinois University’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.
Illinois has been as blue a state as there is. But Blagojevich and Burris’ mishandling of Obama’s old seat, coupled with Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s decision to stay out of the race despite being courted by Obama, have left this race a toss-up. That recognition has given the state’s moribund Republican Party its first true measure of hope in a marquee race against Democrats since the 1990s.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, a centrist five-term congressman from Chicago’s North Shore, is considered a favorite in the Republican field. The Democratic side appears to be essentially a three-way race, with state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias considered a front-runner.
An early December survey by the Rasmussen Reports polling firm had Giannoulias leading Kirk, 42 percent to 39 percent, in a general election matchup.
“The Democratic field is not certainly what national Democrats had hoped it would be. In other words, Lisa Madigan isn’t in it. It’s sort of a quirky primary, but let’s see who comes out of it. I suspect Giannoulias has done the work he needs to do,” says Jennifer Duffy, an analyst of U.S. Senate and governors’ races with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
“On the Republican side, if Kirk is the nominee, this race is a toss-up. Kirk knows how to win tough races. He knows how to raise money. He’s from the right part of the state and knows how to take away votes from Democrats,” Duffy says.
In an interview with Illinois Issues, Kirk says part of his strong standing in the polls has to do with how turned off voters have been with Burris’ tumultuous appointment. Polls have shown Burris with the lowest approval rating of any Illinois official because of how he gained the seat over the objections of Obama and other party leaders. He misled and the House impeachment panel about his lobbying for the appointment and was subsequently admonished by a Senate ethics panel.
“We prefer to call this the ‘Roland Burris’ seat,” Kirk says. “It reminds folks of how we got here.”
An abortion-rights advocate who has scored low marks with the National Rifle Association, Kirk says his moderate views position him well for a general election, which he says he believes will be a matchup between himself and Giannoulias.
“I am a fiscal conservative, social moderate, national security hawk. And I think that’s also where most of the people of Illinois are,” he says. “Obviously, when we’re in a primary, we have party divisions. But at the moment, things look pretty commanding, and our job is to take nothing for granted, roll to the primary election and then look to what will be the most vigorous race for Senate in the United States in the general election.”
Kirk was one of seven House Republicans to vote last June for Obama’s cap-and-trade legislation, which limits greenhouse emissions and has drawn GOP scorn as a “national energy tax.” Now, Kirk says he is against the plan, which narrowly passed the House 219-212.
“I voted for it because it was in the narrow interest of my congressional district. But when you study the wider Illinois economy, the legislation is inappropriate,” says Kirk, who has said he would vote against it as a U.S. senator.
Duffy, with the Cook Political Report, regards conservative real estate developer Patrick Hughes as Kirk’s most viable opponent in the GOP primary. Other Republicans in the race include Donald Lowery, Andy Martin, Kathleen Thomas and John Arrington.
“There’s a giant disparity between Congressman Kirk and I,” says Hughes, who has the backing of conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, among others. “His policies, both fiscal and social, are to the left of even a moderate Republican.
“The base will be behind me,” predicts Hughes, who credits Kirk’s cap-and-trade vote as his reason for entering the race. “They’re apoplectic on cap and trade and realize he’s off the reservation on our platform in significant ways.”
On the Democratic side, Giannoulias faces Chicago Urban League chief and former Blagojevich spokeswoman Cheryle Robinson Jackson and former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman. Other Democrats on the ballot include lawyer Jacob Meister and Robert Marshall.
Elected treasurer in 2006 with Obama’s support, Giannoulias clashed with Blagojevich by being among the first Democratsto oppose the ex-governor’s gross receipts tax. Last year, Giannoulias made headlines with his threat to pull the state’s $8 billion investment portfolio from Wells Fargo bank if it shut down the Hartmarx clothing plant in Des Plaines. Wells Fargo, the suit maker’s main creditor, later agreed to sell the plant, preserving 600 jobs.
“We saved a company from being liquidated. I’m the only candidate who’s done that. That’s something voters will pay attention to,” says Giannoulias, who has lined up significant labor support and backing from key Democratic Party leaders such as Illinois Senate President John Cullerton.
“It’s one of the most important, most high-profile races in the country. It’s the president’s Senate seat,” Giannoulias told Illinois Issues. “As Democrats, we have to make sure we have the best candidate who can keep this seat so we can focus on health-care reform, so we can focus on rescuing a planet in peril, so we can unfreeze the credit markets.”
As for vulnerabilities, Giannoulias’ family bank, Broadway Bank, is financially troubled and once did business with convicted Blagojevich fundraiser Tony Rezko, as did some other Chicago banks prior to Rezko’s indictment. Giannoulias own a 3.6 percent stake in the bank but emphasizes those are nonvoting shares.
Hoffman, who spoke out against Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s controversial deal to lease public parking meters when he was the city’s inspector general, says Rezko’s ties to the Giannoulias family bank raise questions about the treasurer’s abilities in a general election.
“Both as a substantive matter and political matter, being able to say I have no connections whatsoever to Blagojevich, Rezko or any other problem players is a major distinguishing feature between the other candidates and me because it speaks to my independence from the political establishment, and it speaks to my electability in the general election,” says Hoffman, a member of Gov. Pat Quinn’s Illinois Reform Commission.
Jackson, the Chicago Urban League chief, is positioned to draw support both from female and African-American primary voters and says she is more attuned to the economic plight now facing most Illinoisans.
“What sets me apart is that I’m strongest on the issues that people are most troubled by and are struggling with today, those bread and butter issues like jobs, struggling to hold on to my home, struggling to keep the doors open to my small business, frustrated with schools that don’t educate,” she says.
Among all those in the Senate race, Jackson is most directly tied to Blagojevich but downplays the association, noting that as Chicago Urban League chief she spoke out against Blagojevich’s failed gross-receipts tax and is behind an ongoing civil rights lawsuit filed originally against Blagojevich’s administration for inadequately funding public schools.
“The campaigns are saying it’s an issue, but for people it’s not an issue,” Jackson says.
Also on the ballot
The contested down-ballot races in the February 2 primary pit state lawmaker against state lawmaker and include the GOP’s 2006 candidate for governor, who wants to resurrect her political career in a new job.
Thirteen Democratic, Republican and Green Party candidates have filed to run for lieutenant governor, an obscure political outpost from which Pat Quinn ascended to become governor when former Gov. Rod Blagojevich was ousted.
The six-way Democratic field for lieutenant governor includes Sen. Rickey Hendon of Chicago, Sen. Terry Link of Vernon Hills, Rep. Arthur Turner of Chicago and Rep. Michael Boland of East Moline. Other Democrats who have filed for a spot on the ballot include Scott Lee Cohen of Chicago and Thomas Michael Castillo of Elmhurst.
The six-way Republican field for lieutenant governor includes Sen. Matt
Murphy of Palatine and Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole. Others include Don Tracy of Springfield, Jason Plummer of Edwardsville, Randy White Sr. of Hamilton and Dennis Cook of Orland Park.
The Green Party candidate for lieutenant governor is Don Crawford of St. Elmo.
Seven candidates have filed for comptroller, which is being vacated by Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Dan Hynes. Among them is former three-term Republican Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka of Riverside, who lost to Rod Blagojevich in the 2006 governor’s race. Other Republicans include Jim Dodge of Orland Park and William Kelly of Chicago. On the Democratic side, Rep. David Miller of Dolton is among three Democrats to file for comptroller. The others are Raja Krishamoorthi of Hoffman Estates and Clinton Krislov of Wilmette.
The Green Party candidate for comptroller is R. Erika Schafer of Chicago.
For treasurer, four candidates have emerged. The lone Republican is Sen. Dan Rutherford of Pontiac. Democratic candidates for the post include former Rep. Robin Kelly of Matteson, who has served as chief of staff for current Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias; and Justin Oberman of Chicago.
The Green Party entry is Scott Summers of Harvard.
Dave McKinney is the Springfield bureau chief of the Chicago Sun-Times
Illinois Issues, January 2010
