Gov. Pat Quinn and state Sen. Bill Brady stand in stark contrast. Quinn is backing a 1 percentage point increase in the state income tax, while Brady is calling for $1 billion in tax cuts. Quinn happily describes himself as “progressive” while Brady’s voting record paints a legislator who is about as conservative on social issues as one can get.
“In a normal race, Brady and [GOP lieutenant governor candidate Jason] Plummer are the most conservative candidates that the Republican Party has run in recent memory. But conversely, Quinn and [Democratic lieutenant governor candidate] Sheila Simon are the most liberal ticket … in recent memory,” says Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus in political science at the University of Illinois Springfield.
Yet going into the general election, Quinn and Brady have more in common politically than expected. Both narrowly won their primaries and have faced some stumbles early in their campaigns. Both are in danger of alienating voting blocs that their parties have historically needed to win the governor’s seat.
“There is a sense in which they are both accidental candidates. … Neither one of them is typical in terms of the nominees that end up running in the general elections,” Redfield says. He adds that the election could ultimately come down to “which one has the steeper learning curve.”
Jamey Dunn, Capitol bureau chief for Illinois Issues, interviewed both major party candidates about their campaigns. Other governor candidates will be included in future articles. Here are condensed, edited transcripts of Quinn’s and Brady’s responses to her questions.
Gov. Pat Quinn
Q. Experts predict this will be a difficult election year for incumbents and Democrats nationwide. How do you plan to energize your base?
I think the issues I believe in are the issues the people of Illinois believe in — education, and related to education is jobs. I think I am the candidate who is best supporting education in our state. I have the best plan to get new jobs in Illinois and preserve the current jobs we have.
We’ve been rocked by a national recession. It caused great havoc in the American economy, including our own. This year we are going to be doing many, many job initiatives that bring new jobs to Illinois. We have to see this as an economic emergency. The governor has to do everything possible to help our economy. I think education and job initiatives are the way to do it.
Q. Are you concerned that you may lose unions’ support after passing pension reforms?
No. I think the workers of Illinois understand that we have to reform the public pension system in our state. And that’s what we did. It was a landmark reform.
If we didn’t do that, the systems themselves would implode. They would be insolvent. We have to have a decent pension for those who teach and work in state government. But by making these reforms, we help protect not only the pension systems but also adequate funding for health and education for our whole state, which would be eclipsed by ever-growing public pension requirements and costs that we couldn’t afford.
I think the rank-and-file members of unions understand that you’ve got to have fortitude and make decisions that are for the common good. We’ve had two governors before me who didn’t do that. I think the most important role of a governor is to be honest before and after elections. And that’s what I’ve tried to do all my life.
Q. With the corruption trial of your predecessor starting soon, how will you handle the connections that your opponents will undoubtedly draw between you and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich?
I ran in 2002 in the primary for lieutenant governor. Rod Blagojevich didn’t support me at all. I won on my own, and that’s what I have always been — on my own. I’m an independent Democrat. I disagreed with my predecessor on numerous occasions, particularly in the area of utilities and taxes. I didn’t agree with the gross receipts tax, and another one we disagreed on was recall. I’m the one who led the effort both in 2008 and in 2009 that finally got a recall amendment on the Illinois ballot this November. I am going to be campaigning for that up and down the state.
People know me. I have been doing this for 35 years. I think I have been a very good governor, particularly in the area of integrity. We have put in place an honest government and an honest governor. So if my opponents want to make an issue out of integrity, lots of luck. I think the voters know they have an honest governor.
Q. It looks as if the 1 percentage point tax increase you proposed may not pass before the general election. If not, do you plan to make it a campaign issue? If you lost the election, would you still push for a tax increase as you finished out your term?
There are some tough decisions I have to make. I am sure it would be easy to say ‘no new taxes.’ Well, the problem is, we wouldn’t have the proper amount of money invested in education. We have to have that if we’re going to have a good state.
I think it is much better to be straightforward and honest before an election. Go to the voters and say: Here’s our situation. I inherited a multibillion-dollar deficit. I didn’t create it. But the honest way to go about things is to balance the budget. If we have to raise revenue in a fair way to do so, then that’s what we should do. There will be a lot of people who say things that sound good — if you say them fast — running for governor this year. I would advise the voters to look at the fine print. The bottom line is, the plans of my opponents are blank pieces of paper when it comes to actually balancing the budget. I made it clear from day one that we’re not going to engage in the kind of practices that occurred before I came along, where information was really kept from the public regarding Illinois’ financial state.
Q. You won in a fairly close primary. Some of the same issues, such as the “Meritorious Good Time Push” program for prison inmates, will likely come up in the general election. What lessons did you learn from the primary that you will apply to the general election?
When I learned about that program, I immediately suspended it. I brought in people to watch over the system to make sure everything was done according to what I wanted.
It wasn’t done the way I wanted it. I think chief executives, when they see something not going the right way, they immediately take action. That’s what I’ve done.
I had no illusions that the primary would be easy or anything other than close. But I won the primary. And, I’m going to win the general election based on a principled position of making sure we pay our bills in Illinois, invest in education and have an honest governor and an honest government.
Sen.?Bill Brady
Q. Critics have called on you to give a comprehensive budget proposal. Other organizations, such as the Civic Federation and the Illinois Policy Institute, have presented detailed plans. In the middle of a financial crisis, don’t you owe it to voters to give them some specifics?
I have been very specific, in a macro sense, that I will balance the budget in the first year. That means I have to reduce spending by at least 10 percent. There are no sacred cows. Every area of state government is going to have to rid itself of waste, mismanagement, abuse and potentially fraud. I don’t have the resources that I’ll have during an audit to see exactly what that is.
The real solution is to live within our means and rebuild our economy. We’ve got to make Illinois a competitive place to live, work and do business, and that will solve our problems. I think all of the ideas that the Policy Institute, the Civic Committee, the Civic Federation, the Tribune have outlined provide a blueprint to start reconciling spending within our means. Every one of them needs to be fully examined. I don’t have the governor’s budget staff, but common sense tells me that we’ve got to live within our means. We’ve got to pay our bills on time.
Q. A lack of resources is the reason for you not putting out a more detailed plan?
To delve deep into it, it’s not resources in terms of money or people. It’s resources in terms of access to information. Gov. Quinn won’t tell us who we owe money to. His transparency is typical of the machine politician.
Q. Your strategy in the primary was to get out the Republican base. Some have said you are too conservative to connect with independents and suburban voters. How do you plan to reach out to more moderate voters who may not agree with your views on social issues, such as abortion and civil unions?
What people are looking for is a businessman who’s a fiscal conservative. That’s the kind of conservative they are looking for today. Their No. 1 concern is, “Am I going to keep my job?”
As important as the social issues are to people, it’s not their focus. People respect that someone may differ with them, but right now, the focus is about the economy, jobs and living within our means. People frankly don’t think they’ve got the luxury right now of debating social issues. This is about the fiscal issues.
I am what I am. I believe in what I believe. I think many people in Illinois share my views. There are those that don’t. I respect their opinion. Where we have very common ground is, I don’t know that I have run across hardly anybody who thinks a tax increase is the solution to Illinois’ problem.
Q. But you brought up the issue of amending the Illinois Constitution to ban civil unions shortly after winning the primary. Do you regret the timing of that?
That wasn’t a campaign issue. I am a state senator. I have a number of people in my Senate district who believe that marriage should be a protected institution between a man and a woman. As a state senator, I committed to them that I would file that constitutional amendment.
Q. You are calling for $1 billion in tax cuts. Do you think the state can afford that when it is facing a $13 billion deficit?
Let’s say you owned a major league baseball team, and you were only selling half the seats in your stadium. Would you raise the price? No. You could actually drive in more revenues if you fill it at 20 percent less the cost. Illinois’ price is too high. We’re pushing people out of the state. If we reduce the price, we keep jobs and people. We’ll have more revenues.
The gas tax is a typical example. We’re one of the few states in the nation that has a double tax on gasoline. It makes gasoline too expensive. If you’re within 30 miles of a bordering state, you’re going to drive over there to buy your gasoline, but you don’t just buy gasoline. You consume other products. We lose the sales taxes associated with those things. The employment taxes associated with the jobs. The property tax associated with the building. We lose.
Sales tax on gasoline is about a third of the cuts. Estate tax penalty is about a third of it, and about a third of it is taxes and fees. The fundamentals of what makes it affordable to be in Illinois are based on taxes and fees, regulation and litigation.
Illinois Issues, June 2010
