Via Capitol Fax.com J. B. Pritzker is far and away the leader among the Democratic candidates for governor with Daniel Biss a distant second and Chris Kennedy coming in third:
JB Pritzker maintains his large lead in the Democratic Primary – nearly twenty points ahead of his nearest competitor. JB currently leads with 41% of the vote, ahead of Daniel Biss at 22%, Chris Kennedy at 16%, and 20% of voters undecided.
Pritzker is running on a platform of increasing taxation and spending. He has put forward no plan other than increased taxation for solving Illinois’s public pension problem, among the worst in the U. S. Unless that problem is dealt with increasing spending on anything is a pipedream.
I think that’s the wrong platform. Illinois is already losing population, income, and jobs, driven away by increasing taxes and the state’s adverse regulatory environment. Conducting an experiment to see how many people you can actually drive out of the state doesn’t seem prudent to me.
“Conducting an experiment to see how many people you can actually drive out of the state doesn’t seem prudent to me.”
The usual Schuler diplomatic understatement. The usual Guarneri hyperbole: Its insanity, and that’s the clean version.
Really all this tells me is that the elite crowd are simply ideologically incapable of dealing realistically with the current environment. Unlike most politicians, from what I know I don’t question Pritzker’s good intentions. But I don’t think he understands how much disservice he would do to the state and his intended beneficiaries.
I can only speculate that the Powers-That-Be here have decided to take the ride to the end of the line and then retire to Florida or California, leaving the rest of us to deal with the damage they’ve done.
There is still the Too Big To Fail card — if you bail out Citibank; why not the state of Illinois.
No one got arrested for the financial crisis and a lot of the folks in charge got their bonuses etc.
Perhaps you question Pritzkers motives. I have no direct knowledge. That Madigan is evil is self evident. I had/have contacts (I’m sure you do to) who considered Obama a pretty, smooth talking empty suit with bad intent. I feel vindicated. But YMMV. Pritzker? I just don’t know more than I respectively disagree philosophically. And they don’t have to move…….