By now, it should be self evident that Bruce Rauner has locked up pretty much all the big money in the Republican primary race for governor. Last week’s pension reform vote provides even more evidence. Rauner has built an impenetrable fortress of high-dollar campaign contributors. Ron Gidwitz, long known in GOP circles for being the […]
political columns
Posted inOpinion
Unions mull endorsement options
Illinois union leaders are reportedly mulling several options about what to do in the governor’s race. But the only thing the leaders appear to agree on so far is that anti-union Republican gazillionaire Bruce Rauner cannot be allowed to win. Some union honchos are looking at endorsing a candidate in the Republican primary. State Sen. […]
Posted inOpinion
Recent numbers on governor’s race
Back in mid-August, near the end of his summertime TV advertising blitz, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner scored 14 percent in a Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll of likely GOP primary voters. That was up a tick from the 12 percent he got in a June 20 poll by the same firm. His campaign has […]
Posted inOpinion
The passage of the Illinois gay marriage bill
Perhaps the biggest loser in last Tuesday’s historic passage of a gay marriage bill in Springfield was the National Organization for Marriage. The group, based in Washington, D.C., has been at the forefront of attempts to stop gay marriage in states throughout the country. A Maine investigation uncovered alleged internal NOM documents about the group’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Miller on Madigan
The rich irony of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan denouncing somebody else for attempting to be a “kingmaker” is so obvious and laughable that I can’t help but wonder why a guy who’s been a take no prisoners kingmaker himself for so long in this state would ever think of saying such a thing. You […]
Posted inOpinion
Gunning for legislation
Back when Richard M. Daley was Chicago’s mayor, hizzoner would hold a big, splashy press conference every year with cops and prosecutors and crime victims to unveil his new state gun control legislation. The Chicago media poobahs would shout their huzzahs, the NRA would fume and raise tons of money from angry members and then […]
Posted inOpinion
Money matters
Let’s take a quick look at the campaign finance disclosure reports filed last week by some of the statewide candidates, shall we? • Bill Brady – It goes without saying that the mere $66,104 Brady reported raising during the third quarter was beyond pathetic. But here’s how bad the Republican gubernatorial candidate’s performance really was: […]
Posted inOpinion
Rundown on Rauner
Bruce Rauner has closer ties to top Democrats in this state and nation than many Democrats do, is pro-choice and reluctant to say where he stands on gay marriage, so you wouldn’t think he’d have much chance at winning a Republican primary for governor. But the retired multi-millionaire is running a pretty smart campaign and […]
Posted inOpinion
Quinn vows to veto ADM, cites pension reform ‘issue of a lifetime’
Gov. Pat Quinn refused to say for several days whether he’d support a $1.2 million a year tax break for Archer Daniels Midland to move 100 jobs out of Decatur and open up a world headquarters and new tech center in Chicago. But last week he made it clear that without pension reform, the ADM […]
Posted inOpinion
Why Quinn is appealing
A bipartisan chorus seemed to rise as one last week to urge Gov. Pat Quinn not to appeal a ruling by a Cook County judge. The judge ruled that the governor had violated the state Constitution when he vetoed lawmaker salaries last summer. Quinn said he vetoed the appropriations because he was tired of waiting […]
Posted inOpinion
The right stuff
For a moment, let’s flash back to a poll I commissioned last month. The Aug. 13 Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll surveyed 1,102 likely Republican primary voters. The poll found that 74 percent of Republicans wanted GOP gubernatorial candidates to choose a running mate who was “more conservative” than the candidates themselves. Another 18 percent […]
Posted inOpinion
Tweaking pension reform
Several members of the Illinois General Assembly’s special pension reform committee told me last week that they believed a final proposal would emerge within the next week to 10 days. The conference committee has been working on a solution to the state’s pension problems since June, after urgings by Gov. Pat Quinn to find a […]
