Posts Tagged ‘Illinois’

From Chicago Tribune:

They lost the governor’s race and are still a minority in the General Assembly, but Illinois Republicans say voters have offered up no mandate for Democrats to raise taxes or continue “out-of-control” borrowing.

As lawmakers return to Springfield this week for their fall session, Republican leaders aren’t swaggering about their party’s overall gains in midterm elections. But neither are they conceding that Gov. Pat Quinn or his fellow Democrats in the legislature can continue to run government the way they have.

Quinn’s win won’t mean carte-blanche support for an income tax increase, they say, even though he’s advocated one for nearly two years before winning election on that pledge, claiming for his own the post he took over when Rod Blagojevich was impeached and ousted.

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From EvanstonReview:

And the Virginia-based Republican State Leadership Committee has infused the Illinois GOP with $800,000 this month alone, which is a major reason why marginally competitive races have turned into battlegrounds.

Karl Rove, former top political strategist in the George W. Bush White House, explained the timing of the national group’s spending. In a Wall Street Journal essay this year, Rove wrote that the State Leadership Committee intends to help the party gain control of state legislatures so it can benefit when it comes time to redraw congressional districts in the next term.

The outside money has enriched state political committees late in the election. Both the House Republican Organization and the Illinois Republican Party stand to nearly double their year-to-date spending in the month of October.

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From Saukvalley.com:

But the House Republicans point to recent history as a guide. Two years ago right about now, they thought they were doing OK against the Barack Obama Democratic tide. They believed their losses would be manageable. By mid-October, the Obama wave was in full force, and there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

Pretty much the same thing happened in 1994. September polling showed problems, but the Democrats thought it could be contained and they derided the House Republicans for jumping into several new races where nobody gave them a chance. By the middle of October, the bottom fell out. And it was even worse come Election Day when Democratic voters failed to show up. The Republicans won just about every one of those contested races.

It’s no coincidence that the House Republicans say they’re planning a move into new races in the coming days. They’re following their own playbook.

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Illinois State House has made the REDMAP Report list of potential chambers that could flip to Republican.  Check out the report:
http://www.statenewsshot.com/?p=8244

From Sj-r.com:

A Democrat has represented the 98th District in the Illinois House for three decades, but that could change in January.

Thanks partly to an electoral environment hostile to Democrats, Republican Wayne Rosenthal is locked in a close race with Democrat Charlie Landers in the 98th, which takes in parts of six counties south of Springfield.

Winning the district could be vital if Republicans want to take control of the Illinois House and replace longtime Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago with House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego.

Landers and Rosenthal agree that the race is about jobs and the economy. Last week, they traded charges over who wants to raise taxes. Both said they are against tax increases, but Rosenthal said an increase possibly could be sold to Illinoisans if deep cuts are made first.

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From Northwest Herald:

Illinois Democratic Party chairman Michael Madigan has urged candidates to deal with the issue of Blagojevich “head on.” He said they should remind voters that it was a Democrat-controlled Legislature that impeached and removed Blagojevich from office.

Democrats face difficult questions about their ties to Blagojevich. It will be hard for Madigan and Gov. Pat Quinn, Blagojevich’s former lieutenant governor, to argue they have clean hands because they both supported him four years ago.

Democrats say they’ve got other ways to fight back. They can remind voters the state’s last Republican governor, George Ryan, is in prison after being convicted of corruption. They can highlight that Giannoulias’ Republican opponent, Congressman Mark Kirk, was caught embellishing details about his military service in the Naval Reserves and other episodes in his life. And they can target Republican candidates over their voting records in Congress and in the state Legislature.

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From the News-Gazette:

The No. 1 Republican in the Illinois House said voter anger will fuel a drive this year to allow the GOP to control the Illinois House for the first time since 1996 and to regain the governor’s office.

“What I think that drives so much of the voter anger is that I don’t think they think that those in charge are listening,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross of Oswego.

He gave a short pep talk Wednesday afternoon on behalf of GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady to about 35 Republican loyalists at the Champaign Public Library.

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From SouthTownStar.com:

Illinoisans are tired of the partisan blame game and they deserve better. In his recent column, Speaker Michael Madigan calls for an end to “partisan games,” all the while attempting to shift blame for Illinois’ fiscal crisis to Republicans at the state and federal level. Engaging in partisan finger-pointing serves no purpose, I will simply explain factually why Speaker Madigan’s arguments are not valid.

What we can all agree upon is that our state’s fiscal crisis is one of the most severe in the nation. Speaker Madigan tries to make the case that Illinois’ fiscal difficulties are due to a poor national economy, and are no different from those faced by other states. The problem is that a number of independent rating agencies that review finances for all 50 states to determine their stability and credit-worthiness don’t share this view. In fact, Illinois is tied with California as the worst-rated state in the nation by Moody’s Investor Service and is the second-lowest-rated state in the U.S. by the influential Fitch Ratings.

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