“The people of Southern Illinois will be extremely pleased with who my running mate is,” said State Sen. Kirk Dillard when he announced who would run with him as he campaigns for the governorship in the Republican primary. She is Rep. Jil Tracy of Quincy, who was born in Carbondale, lived in Anna, and took her degrees from Southern Illinois University.
What Dillard did not point out is that Tracy has lived and worked in western Illinois for the past 33 years. The people of Southern Illinois might have been more pleased had Dillard chosen a Southern Illinoisan who thought well enough of the place to have stayed there.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2013.
