“Spend-To-Stay” Alive and Well in Illinois

Written by Russ Stewart

Remember that old verity, you get what you pay for? Often, you don’t. In Illinois politics, however, you pay for what you get, and the candidate who pays the most is the candidate who gets.

Bruce Rauner is Illinois’ governor because during 2014 he raised $78,191,560 and spent $58,426,802. Roughly $25 million of his receipts came from his own pocket. Self-funding, in essence, bought him the governorship.

Rauner beat Pat Quinn 1,823,627 to 1,681,343, getting 50.3 percent of the vote and winning by a margin of a margin of 142,284 votes.… Continue Reading

“Dysfunctional” Democrats May Keep House Supermajority

Written by Russ Stewart

Michael Madigan is a political genius, a durable Democratic leader, a successful and wealthy lawyer, and a horrendously dysfunctional speaker of the Illinois House.

Mayor Richard J. Daley once babbled some nonsense that “Good government is good politics.” He should have known better, as he spent a decade in Springfield, where the operative philosophy is “good politics may be good government, but if it’s not, so what?” Grasping, clutching and holding power is endemic.… Continue Reading