IL-Gov. 2018 Megathread

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It's almost as if there's an army of morons standing in his way!

That "army of morons" has been in control for quite a while now. They've always been able to pass a budget. Even when there was a Republican governor, Thompson and Edgar and Ryan were all able to get a budget passed. That all seems to suggest the problem is not with anyone in the legislature or even with the party of the governor, but rather with the individual currently occupying the office.

The budgets normally passed by those Army of Morons have, very frankly, ruined Illinois.

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kennedy apparently told a bunch of old people "if you don't vote for me you'll die alone"

Link to an article/video, please.

friend of a friend was there

Once the goons of Pritzker and Madigan pick up on this, Kennedy might be dead. We better hope at least Drury runs.

Drury has no hope in the primary imo, and even if he did he'd have a hell of a time trying to rally the Dem base as Rauner-lite. 

Not trying to be snarky here, but I don't get your affinity for Kennedy.  He isn't a centrist, seems to have missed his relatives charisma gene, and is essentially piggybacking off his last name without a plan for anything else.

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Both Pritzker and Kennedy are awful candidates. Pawar is unelectable in a general and Drury is unelectable in a primary.

As I've said before, Biss is the man I'd want if I were a Democrat.

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Dunno what's more delusional, Democrats who thought Lincoln coukd survive in 2010 or Republicans who think Rauner will survive an election in Illinois with Trump at 35% approvals.

Blanche Lincoln voted for a piece of legislation that was an albatross around the necks of each and every member of the party of the sitting President, especially in her state and its political tilt.

Bruce Rauner is a moderate Republican who is a decent fit for the political tilt of his state.

This is accurate. Outside of the City of Chicago.

Democrats' only path to a loss is by nominating a candidate who won't turn out the base in Chicago and who will turn off the moderate Chicagoland suburbanites. Rauner's victory in '14 was propelled in part by the latter (moderate suburbanites in DuPage, Lake and Kane)'s distaste for Quinn's connection to Blagojevich.

There's absolutely the potential for the same to happen in this year's race. Rauner will hammer Pritzker on trying to buy office from Blagojevich.

Well yeah, I said Drury is unelectable in the primary, not the general. Everything you just listed means he isn't getting anywhere near the Dem nomination.

Biss is a decent public speaker, a solid fundraiser, and imo most suited to turn out Chicago liberals as well as win enough Suburbanites.

Edit: wrong quote, meant the one about Drury.

[Ye We Can]

They are being way to cautious on Illinois. I look forward to the Kirking and Democratic coming in and cleaning up Rauner's mess.

"Rauner's mess"

Lol. Whoever wins Illinois lost the day the state legislature started putting pensions on the tab.

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It's also worth noting that the State Legislature is a tangible enemy for Republicans to campaign against. IL state seats are severely gerrymandered: in 2014, the GOP was a point away from winning the popular vote in the house altogether but not a single seat flipped in the Democratic Supermajority. 

Those Madigan approval rates do matter here.

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Helps Biss in the primary but ehhhh in the general. Without some of the burbs' Dems aren't winning the general.

Stratton is generic D. I mean that as unless she does something stupid it won't help or hurt Pritzker.

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Democrats make costly mistakes in Illinois more news at 11

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Friendly neighborhood reminder that nobody cares about the light gov position unless their really really controversial. Some dudes/dudettes are a staple in Illinois.

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Drury drops his gubernatorial bid, appears to be in for Attorney General.

https://capitolfax.com/2017/09/19/drury-says-hes-in-the-ag-race/

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Drury drops his gubernatorial bid, appears to be in for Attorney General.

https://capitolfax.com/2017/09/19/drury-says-hes-in-the-ag-race/

A much better choice than running for Governor, hopefully he's able to win the Democratic nomination.

Meh. As someone in the Capitol Fax comments pointed out, he's still the same guy with no money and no friends. I doubt it.

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Since Drury is no longer in the race, I have decided to support Rauner's re-election.

Still do?

Rauner Signs Bill Allowing State Health Insurance, Medicaid To Cover Abortions

I support this, but man is Rauner taking a gamble with GOP support here. Good for him.

He's betting that Madigan will get the GOP Base out and this will help him with moderates.  I think it'll work tbh, but I'm obviously biased.

This will work for suburbanites who care more about their pocketbook than about culture war issues. Question is, will better numbers among those voters offset any decline among those in Rauner's base who care about the culture war issues. In other words, will this gain him more "I'm socially liberal, but keep my taxes low" DuPage, Lake and Kane voters than he sheds from the single-issue abortion voters he may lose?

The single issue Republican voters hate IL Dems more than they'll vote against Rauner at this point. Those muh fiscal conservative but social liberal votes are what pushed him over the line; he needs to shore them up more so.

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Was just polled today.  They asked about Rauner and Pritzker/Kennedy, and they also asked about a bunch of other R's:

Jeanne Ives
Kyle McCarter
Dan Proft
...Bill Brady?

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Why not?  They did before.  Sometimes you take what you can get.  I think there are tons of adamantly pro-choice people in West Virginia who voted for Joe Manchin each time.  (I know you think he is "fake pro-life" or whatever, but your standards are ... well, somewhat unreasonable from a neutral perspetive, IMO.)

Manchin's voting record speaks for itself, I'd say. He's "pro-life" the same way Capito is "pro-choice".

Back on topic, though... I agree that Rauner is probably the lesser of two evils, but in IL that's really not saying much (I'd vote for a third-party candidate if I lived there). And if he's such a "reasonable" Republican and a "good fit" for his state, why is his approval rating so low? If you ask me, he'll end up like Mark Kirk, even if Pritzker wins the D nomination.

Because he is running in a deeply Democratic state that is so broken that it needs to hit rock bottom before it's fixed.  Democrats in the legislature won't budge and he refuses to govern like a Baker or Hogan because, well, that wouldn't address Illinois' problems.  Rauner will be defeated but not because of some immense flaw in him as a politician, I don't think ... he said he'd come in and implement conservative reform to try to move Illinois in a different direction; he did, and SHOCKER the voters don't like that either.  At this rate, there won't be nearly as many voters in 20 years, so maybe the politics will adjust accordingly.

This essentially sums it up.

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None of this will stick, I can assure you all.

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Either Quinn or Raoul with an off chance of someone else. Lean Quinn.

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Was putting up signs a little while ago. Kennedy's signs are so yellow you can't even read his name. Like how do you mess that up even

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Was putting up signs a little while ago. Kennedy's signs are so yellow you can't even read his name. Like how do you mess that up even

The kennedy signs by me are green with shamrocks.  I like them.

I saw those, but he's got other ones where the sign is dark blue with the Kennedy/Joy in yellow. All you can read is the "for governor" from more than 5 ft away

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Just finished voting. Decent amount of people at my polling place. Voted for the GOAT ofc

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It just gets weirder every week in this race. Here's today's gem.

Pritzker Staffers File Suit Alleging Racial Discrimination

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Needless to say the spin machines on both sides are going nuts today.

Pritzker's response was even more tone-deaf, he just said some stuff about how hes gonna have the most diverse administration in state history instead of addressing the people complaining about race quotas lmao

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I don't even understand why Pritzker is going through all of this to run a state as messed up as IL, I don't get Rauner's reason either. What about IL fascinates these rich guys so much.

He's doing it out of the goodness of his own heart in order to help the good people of Illinois clean up the mess that Rauner has created over the past 4 years.

Ahahaha imagine actually believing this