Rauner's approval rating at 36%

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I have faith in Rauner. He said from the start that he was never going to be Mr. Popularity, and what he's truly trying to do the best for Illinois. Staying with Quinn was never an option given the IL underemployment rate that was 6 points above the national average, and an unemployment rate that was a point above the national average. By 2018, I have faith that we'll all by thanking Rauner, for he will have saved Illinois.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

No wonder why he has disappeared from the radar again. This was done repeatedly during the campaign, while he made one on one press conferences avaliable to Dupage county voters. That's why Quinn caught up. Good luck with strategy Gov, its not working.

Rauner is invisible in Chicagoland because he's hitting Metro East hard this week. It's a big state and Chicago media doesn't necessarily cover events in the 90+ counties outside of its main area.

As for the polls, I would remind everyone about how Kasich started out four years ago (story from 5/19/11). Note that in Apr 2011 Kasich had only a 30% approval.

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Kasich only won re-election by such a large margin because he faced one of the weakest Gubernatorial nominees in the history of Ohio Democratic politics in the biggest Republican wave since at least the 1890s and ran an excellent campaign.  It's almost impossible to imagine Rauner finding himself in an even somewhat similar situation in 2018.

Even without Fitzy scandals, Kasich still would have won by 7-9 points. He was favored before the scandals (I moved the race from Toss-Up to Lean R in April, Fitzy scandals didn't arise until August), they just made him much more favored.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Lol. We all said the same thing about all of the GOP incumbents that survived in 2014.

Were any of them elected in Illinois?

Maine has similar levels of Democratic leans

Yeah, but Maine was solely the fault of Cutler:

Difference between LePage and Michaud: 29,408
Votes for Culter: 51,518