I can only thank the deity I don’t believe in that I left IL in 1968, taking only what I had paid into their non-existent (i. e. unfunded) pension fund with me. What a mess.
Correct. The state being dragged down mostly by Cook County ( Chicago )
It will be interesting to see if one of the largest states in the union has regional issues among its geographical counties with the South and Central part of the state pointing their fingers at the North East Corner where Chicago politics has got them into a gigantic hole.
I have no idea which way Illinois will go next election, but neither party has anything to be proud of. Republican AND Democrat governors have both been corrupt and incompetent.
Just which party (or what candidate) can possibly say “Vote for us, we’ll fix this mess” and expect to be taken seriously?
Illinois is broke, Cook (pronounced Crook) County is broke, Chicago is broke. This didn’t happen overnight. The state, county, and city have been run by Democrats for decades.
It’s essentially a one political party state. The office of governor is redundant. Illinois governors have historically been ineffective, or convicted of felonies.
Michael Madigan runs the Illinois House, his daughter, Lisa, is the state’s attorney general, and the mayors of Chicago turn out Democrat Party voters en masse. Vote early and vote often - Chicago-style.
The voters are still paying for their mistakes at the polls.
Illinois resident here…and yes, the state is in a colossal mess…but it remains a blue state despite having a republican governor. Rauner actually ran a good campaign running as an outsider, but I’ve always thought the real reason he won is that Pat Quinn made the terrible mistake of breaking his promise to keep a temporary raise in the state income tax temporary. It had been 3 per cent, then it was raised to 5 per cent, but only for a short period of time (two years I think).
Then Quinn than came up with the brilliant campaign strategy of reversing his policy and proposed the 5 per cent rate become permanent, flip-flopping in the process. Illinois voters were none too pleased, and Quinn paid dearly for it on Election Day. As a result, the income tax hike never happened, and now it is at 3.75 per cent. Give it, time though.
I suspect that Rauner will be a one-term governor, for reasons others have posted. I know Lisa Madigan has always had her eye on the governor’s mansion. Regardless, I don’t see Illinois becoming a red state anytime soon. It hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.
Eight of the top ten welfare states that get more in federal aid than they pay in are solidly republican.
The voters are still paying for their mistakes at the polls.
That’s not a left or right issue, that’s an everybody issue.
If Illinois is really heading towards a major crisis, then it wouldn’t even be *in *the GOP’s interests to win the governorship, since the GOP governor would be the one to take the blame when the storm hits.
There are too many states going broke under governors of both parties for me to dwell on Illinois. Historically, my Republicans have tried to pose as the fiscally responsible party, but it’s been ages since I could take that seriously (yeah, I’m looking at you, Jindal).
Lisa Madigan just announced that she will not be running for reelection as Attorney General in order to move on to her “next challenge”.