I honestly think his election was a fluke. Illinois will have enough sense to fire Scott Walker Rauner 3 years from now.
Illinois has a long history of electing Republicans as Governors, and had a longer streak than Massachusetts from 1977-2003. In the past 50 years, the only times the Democrats have won a majority of the vote were 1972 and 2002. 2006 Blago was unpopular and already scandal-ridden, but the Democratic wave that year probably saved him. In 2010, Republicans nominated a garbage candidate when they should've won easily.
If Hillary is President, I can see him skirting by in an inverse-2010 in 2018 if it's another low turnout Republican midterm wave, and he maintains his numbers in the suburbs (though even then, I wouldn't bet on it, personally).
Illinois isn't completely gone for Republicans at the state level, despite all the hate he gets from the red avatars on this forum.
1) It isn't 2003. The suburbs are much less Republican than they were even 10 years ago.
2) In 2006, Blago was unpopular and scandal-ridden and still won, and it has nothing to do with the wave. Topinka was a popular GOP candidate, Green candidate Rich Whitney got 10% of the Democrat protest vote, and the Dem still pulled out the win.
3) Saying Republicans would've won easily in the 2010 gov is like saying Mark Kirk won easily. Kirk was a popular Pub running against a terrible Dem in a big GOP wave year, and Kirk still won by a very narrow margin.
4) The suburbs like Rauner, yes, but they like Lisa Madigan more. You're forgetting that in one case Rauner was running as Not Pat Quinn and now he'll have to actually be his own candidate and not only that, he'll have to try and beat a good challenger, whoever that may be. Hopefully Madigan.
