Miles south of Springfield, much less Chicago, the 59th district
state senate race at the southern tip of Illinois between incumbent
Democrat Gary Forby (pictured) and Republican challenger Mark Minor is often a
contest of who can best criticize Gov. Pat Quinn, the state’s Democratic
governor who hails from the Windy City.
“Beating up on Chicago is a time-honored tradition in southern Illinois,” says John Jackson a political
science professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern
Illinois. “The Democrat is running against the governor as hard as the
Republican is.”
Quinn is taking a beating for reasons that go beyond a general wariness of Chicago politicians.
The Illinois state legislature does not hold summer sessions, but
this year longtime Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, a Chicago
Democrat, took the extraordinary step of bringing the Illinois House
together for one day.
Madigan’s reason was to vote on expelling
Derrick Smith, a West Side Chicago Democrat federally indicted for
bribery. House members voted on August 17 100-6 to kick Smith out, the
upper chamber’s first expulsion since 1905.
Madigan appeared to
send the message that the state now took a zero tolerance approach to
corruption, even when the subject in question was not proven guilty.
Today, Smith is favored to win election on Tuesday for the 10th district seat
he lost in disgrace. And Madigan, along with some other powerful Land of
Lincoln politicos, have done nothing to stop him. Read more »
Presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s selection of
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) as his running mate has propelled the popular
Medicare program into the center of the nationally-watched 17th congressional district race between U.S. Rep. Bobby Schilling (R-Colona) and Democratic challenger Cheri Bustos of Moline.
Bustos has latched onto a theme of President Barack Obama’s re-election
campaign: The Ryan plan will cost Medicare beneficiaries $6,400 a
year. Meanwhile, Schilling is proclaiming that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), not
Ryan’s plan, will actually cut Medicare spending.
According to Politifact.com, a Web site that fact checks politician’s statements, the Bustos claims are closer to the truth. Read more »
The Chicago Tribune reports that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and
President Barack Obama will be both in Chicago this week, mostly to
raise cash.
The first debate in the nationally watched the 8th congressional district race between U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-McHenry) and Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth featured the incumbent saying that he would allow the student loan interest rate to double this summer.
Miles south of Springfield, much less Chicago, the 59th district
state senate race at the southern tip of Illinois between incumbent
Democrat Gary Forby (pictured) and Republican challenger Mark Minor is often a
contest of who can best criticize Gov. Pat Quinn, the state’s Democratic
governor who hails from the Windy City.
The Illinois state legislature does not hold summer sessions, but
this year longtime Speaker of the House Mike Madigan, a Chicago
Democrat, 
Presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s selection of
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) as his running mate has propelled the popular
Medicare program into the center of the 