Illinois Governor 2010: One Man’s Perspective

November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Chicago, Conservatives, Cook County, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Illinois, Republicans, State Government, Warner Todd Huston |

I had an interesting correspondence with Grant Noble of Lake Forest this weekend and he gave me the permission to post his thoughts on the 2010 Governor’s race. Mr. Noble is a former Republican precinct committeeman, Lake County coordinator for Steve Baer and other conservative statewide candidates, and is the former field director of Family PAC Illinois and Republicans for Poshard. (Glen Poshard was the 1998 Democrat candidate for Gov. that ran against the corrupt George Ryan, only our latest Ill. Gov. that ended up in jail. I let Grant know that I voted Poshard that year, too. It was the first time I didn’t vote Republican for a state wide office in my life as I just couldn’t stomach the corrupt Ryan.) — WTH

Illinois Governor 2010

If you want the Illinois income tax to go to 5% (minus a token property tax cut/increase in the personal exemption), then both major Democrat Governor candidates will gladly do that in 2011. If you want Chicago Democrats to control the Illinois legislature for the next 10 years and lose at least 2 Illinois Republican Congressmen to stop the Obama juggernaut, then allow the Democrats to control redistricting without a Republican Governor to veto their map. So that leaves the present Republican gubernatorial field.

Adam Andrzejewski is a nice guy but simply doesn’t have the business or political experience to be Governor. He has some money, but not enough to win a statewide primary. Jim Ryan has done little since being Illinois Attorney General other than leaving his law firm and seeing one of his chief aides convicted of corruption. After two colossal failures, the Ryan name is poison in Illinois politics.

As Du Page County Board President, Bob Schillerstrom spent big and raised taxes. As a strongly pro-choice candidate, he’ll fracture the Republican coalition. I supported Andy McKenna in his 2004 U.S. Senate primary run, but he was a mediocre candidate then and has been a bad Illinois Republican Party chairman since. If he wanted to run for Governor, McKenna should have resigned his party position immediately after the 2008 election and started his campaign then, not far too late in September 2009.

I supported Bill Brady in his 2006 Governor run, but like McKenna, he ran a so-so campaign. Brady voted “present” when Kirk Dillard ran for Senate Minority Leader against Illinois’ version of Dede Scozzafava, “Republican” Christine Radogno. Brady let his personal ambition trump the needs of the state and the desires of his constituents. After 4 years of running again for Governor, he hasn’t raised much money and a lot of people in his Downstate base know about his personal problems, such as the failure of the family business.

Dan Proft’s major experience in politics has been serving as a consultant for such liberal Republicans as Beth Coulson and as a spokesman for gambling interests and mob connected Cicero Township. Now he’s got the gall to run as a pro-life, anti-corruption, fiscal conservative. Unfortunately, he has fooled a few conservatives who are too lazy to do some Internet research, but he won’t fool the voters.

With a conservative voting record in the Illinois Senate and Jim Edgar’s public support (praising his work as Edgar’s chief of staff), Kirk Dillard can unite the Republican party and raise enough money to beat the Democrat. He has a credible record as a reformer—he shouldn’t be attacked for saying nice things about the only thing Obama ever did right (some ethics reform legislation). I opposed Jim Edgar in the 1990 primary, but compared to the other governors of the last 50 years, Edgar looks like a saint.

As we all know, the biggest problem in Illinois is the one party, two branches “Combine” of corruption… At every step of the way, it appears the “Combine” has tried to thwart Kirk Dillard. With ties to both wings of the party, he would have been an ideal Illinois Senate Minority leader, not ultraliberal Radagno. Two candidates with no chance to win (Schillerstrom and Ryan) have been sent in to cut up Dillard’s Du Page base. State Senator Mike Murphy drops out and another Cook County politician with no chance to win, Andy McKenna, pops up to make sure the Chicago area doesn’t consolidate behind Dillard.

In 1998, I got a lot of hate calls from my fellow Republicans for supporting Glen Poshard, but I was right about George Ryan being a disaster for Illinois and the Republican party. Kirk Dillard has the right record, the right friends and, most importantly, the right enemies to be a good governor of Illinois. I’m supporting him in the Illinois Republican primary and urge you to do the same.

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