Hooray! He's going to stay!

Keyes says he's going to stay and reform the Illinois Rethugs. They deserve it.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-round01.html

Think of the power he will have with his 23% showing!

Serves 'em right for picking him as their candidate.

How many think this is just an attempt to deflect the carpetbagger criticisms?

The only hope of the Illinois GOP now is how unpopular Rod Blagojevich is downstate. The GOP is dead this year but they have two years to rebuild.

I don't doubt Keyes is trying to deflect the carpetbagger label but Topinka was shown the other day distancing herself from him and his comments about Mary Cheney. The best thing about a loss by B$$$ will be the possibility of seeing this internal turmoil go national. If we can't resolve our own internal with Blago we'll be throwing an opportunity away. That seems to be the way these things go though.

Democrats can hold on if we get our act together, but it doesn't look good. Our own state House and Senate leadership can't work together with a Governor of the same party, and the meager list of progressive legislation since Democrats took over state government is pathetic.
Right now I can guarantee that Blago will lose Springfield and Sangamon County because of the lousy way he has treated state workers. Downstate got him elected last time and he hasn't done much to thank them.
If Illinois Democrats let Republicans gain new ground in two years it will only be our own fault.

I'll admit it is not enough to secure his re-election, but his work on import drugs and his out front attitude about importing flu vaccine has really played well with a lot of people--especially the seniors.

If Blag keeps this up he may not be in as bad of a shape as you might think. I still look for him to face a primary just on principle, but I doubt it will go very far unless labor abandons him completely.

Laura

A lot of Democrats in that town hate Blago.

But he has $10 million in the bank so I think we're stuck with him.

I deal with a few of the offices at IL Dept of Revenue, and I can tell you that those folks are struggling to deal with the budget cuts he's made. I also know of a few union folks who have been absolutely screwed over or at least made to fear job loss. You are right when you say he's not well liked there in Springfield.

Frankly, I'm not sure I can think of a county that isn't either pissed off at Blag, or hasn't been pissed off at him during his term.

The biggest thing he has going for him, IMO, is that he DOES have money on hand, and he holds the office now. He can generate any amount of free press with a single press release. He can get huge amounts of news coverage by taking a couple of days to do "drive by" stops in some of the towns. He's in a very good spot right now if he wants to campaign.

I have heard a number of folks talking about Blag and the mess he had to clean up when he assumed office. Several of them have said they think he's done all he can to fix up Ryan's mess. Additionally, a lot of folks say they think that the state NEEDS to lay off a few workers just to get rid of a perceived surplus. (I'm not in agreement with that attitude, but it is out there.)

I can think of two people right now that could take Blag on in a primary and MAYBE stand a chance of winning: Lisa Madigan and Dan Hynes. I have heard the rumors about Madigan, but Hynes is just a speculation. I have no idea what amount he spent in that Senate primary, but he's got good name recognition without a huge amount of negatives. Lisa has some negatives due to her last name, but even at that, she's got a pretty powerful father...

I dunno--I think he'll have a primary challenge, but I'm a long way from counting him out of office.

Laura

is that most people have no clue how government budgets work.

After working in state civil service for 15 years, one thing you learn very quickly is that there's usually enough money in the total budget but the restrictions with spending set it up to be inefficient. Line items can be crossed, the line items of budgets are increased by percentages and at the end of the fiscal year it is a spend it or lose it game. Department heads do not have the flexibility by law to be able to make adjustments that would greatly improve being able to wisely spend the tax dollars.

For example, I worked in the College of Education for 7 years. Year after year, we would be hurting terribly on our travel and contractual services line items. Mandates were put in place for the minimum visits the faculty supervisor would have to visit the student teachers and observe...yet, the travel budget was always one of the first thing's cut when the crunch came. Cuts were mandated from top levels with little or no input from those trying to run a department according to the needs.

Contractual services was another line item that suffered year after year. Yes, it's a big dollar budget. But when you get to the point that xerox copies are limited to 100 copies per month per professor (and you have 34 professors trying to be effective supervisors in the field!), it doesn't bode well for efficiency,effectiveness, or quality.

But every year our commodities line (office supplies like pens, paper clips, calculators, desk sets, and other items $100 or less) had to be completely spent by September 30th or the budget would be reduced by at least that much for the next year. I got a new desk set, calculator, file stacker, rolodex...whatever, just to make sure the money was spent.

HR budgets are a whole 'nother can of worms. Those are set and approved by the Provost...but the Dean and Department Head still have to manage them.

Anyway, I know Blago's not very well liked but I give him a lot of credit and think he's done a good job with straightening out the mess he was left with.

will fight tooth and nail to expose the liar fraud Blago! I voted for the man but never again! He lied about not allowing unethical behavior in his administration. I exposed alot of said behavior,on the part of IDOC, to his office, and other "powers that be". The FACTS that I presented to these people were ignored. I got so close and exposed key figures, that a young man from Julie Curry's office who was helping me with my quest, had his job threatened by thugs from the DOC. He was told to have "...no further contact with ...". Needless to say, Otis backed off. I have a folder FULL of evidence of wrongdoing that I intend to circulate far and wide when the time comes!

Jenn

LOL

It will be the true death of the GOP throughout the state! Woo HOO!!!

the money ...wait, I just figured it out. He will do his ranting- preaching show for five bucks a head at fundie churches.

already. They cannot get it together. Keyes will be a pariah. Welcome to the Ill GOP Mr. Keyes. Thanks for ensuring a future of Democratic leadership here in Illinois.

The funniest thing is, they would have been better off sticking with Ryan instead of turning on him. Ill GOPers do turn on each other often. I sit back and enjoy watching all the fractures in their party play themselves out. Keyes will rip them apart even more.

around. HA HA GOP! YOU MADE YOUR BED, NOW LIE IN IT!