McCaleb: Scratching the surface of gov’s race

Comments (...)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Comments

Share

Excited about Illinois’ race for governor yet?

I’m with you.

The general election still is more than a year away.

The stench that Rod Blagojevich left on the office hasn’t faded yet.

And, let’s face it, there are too many more interesting things to be excited about. (Prep, college and pro football, for three).

But the Feb. 2, 2010, primary is barely more than three months away.

And the state is in such bad financial shape that our kids, our grandkids, and their grandkids will inherit our mess if we don’t do something drastic about it.

The good news is, there are plenty of candidates to choose from.

The bad news is, there are almost too many candidates to choose from, with at least four Democrats and six Republicans.

That means we’ve got a lot to learn about a lot of people quickly.

Below is the Democratic Party’s candidates for governor. Next week, I’ll introduce the Republican Party’s candidates.

I can’t possibly write in depth about each in this space. But in the coming weeks, we’ll offer plenty more coverage.

• Gov. Pat Quinn: It came as no surprise when Quinn formally announced his bid Thursday for a full term as governor.

As he likes to point out, Quinn, previously lieutenant governor, inherited a budgetary mess when he took over for Blagojevich in January. Quinn has proposed raising the state’s income tax by 50 percent, with exemptions for the state’s poorer wage earners.

He’s been a proponent of the Recall Amendment, which Illinois voters will decide on next November. He’s also been a proponent of more open government, helping to pass the new Freedom of Information Act. But while he claims to be a reformer, there’s been little progress on that front since he’s held the top job.

• Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes: Hynes is in his third term as the state’s chief fiscal officer. An attorney by trade, Hynes has been attacking Quinn on multiple fronts over the past few months.

Hynes also proposes an income-tax increase, though a graduated one that would levy higher rates on those earning more than $200,000. He advocates cutting operational spending back to 2005 levels, and trimming statewide grant funding by 7 percent.

• Attorney Edmund Scanlon: A trial lawyer with no political experience, Scanlon is a dark horse in the Democratic primary. He’s distinguishing himself from his two primary opponents by opposing tax increases.

Scanlon’s biggest campaign issue is pension reform. He says that he will eliminate pensions for new public employee hires and replace them with 401(k) plans. Quinn made a similar proposal earlier this year but caved to the powerful teachers union lobby.

• William “Dock” Walls: A community activist, Walls ran an unsuccessful campaign in 2007 against Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Walls also opposes a tax increase, and says the state must focus on education, senior care, child health and safety and long-term job creation.

That’s it for now.

Admittedly, I barely scratched the surface here. But I intend to keep scratching.

• Dan McCaleb is editor of Northwest Herald. E-mail him at dmccaleb@nwherald.com

Comments