Sangamon County is eerily quiet during this election campaign. True, Illinois as a blue state isn’t in play for the presidential election, so that cuts us out of a lot of hoopla. But what about the area state representative races, where the three incumbents running were all hand-picked by Gov. Bruce Rauner, supposedly the most controversial governor in years? We had expected this election to be a referendum on Rauner’s policies, but in two of the contests little is heard from either the incumbents or their opponents, and one doesn’t even have an opponent. Rauner’s self-funded warchest may have put a damper on debate – if the challenger has no chance to win why bother? But, when so much is at stake, the lack of a robust local campaign is surely disappointing. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2016.
