IL-Gov. 2018 Megathread

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

This is starting to resemble a slow moving car crash.

To Illinois/Chicago people with more knowledge; has Pritzker always been the crown prince? It seems strange that in a state full of Democrats, the top three worse people seem to be running for Governor?

My understanding (from when I was in Illinois early last year and paying closer attention) was that Pritzker was one of the first people to enter the field so he got a huge starter advantage. A lot of party and affiliated infrastructure embraced/endorsed him early to a void a nasty primary and to allow the campaign to provide an early united front for attacking Rauner (hilariously, this includes the AFL-CIO, who endorsed Pritzker in, like, March). Additionally, some people preferred Pritzker because he was wealthy enough to fund his own campaign, which I guess the party preferred to be able to spend elsewhere?

I don't know, Pritzker is a tire fire waiting to happen. Seems pretty short sighted and idiotic to try to eschew a competitive primary and end up with this but Illinois isn't known as a state with healthy state-level parties or government function of any type.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

- snip -

lmao, you can't respond to a post about how Biss is disingenuous and no better than Pritzker by pointing out how the things that OP accused Biss of doing are things that Pritzker also did. That's literally equating the two, which I'm pretty sure is the opposite of what you're trying to do.

If I still lived in Illinois, I'd probably vote for Biss (or maybe even Kennedy if he didn't strike me as so feckless) over Pritzker, but I wouldn't do it with any sort of illusion that the dude was totally honest or not an opportunist.

Thank god though that I don't live in that state any more though. Watching the state party bend over backwards to give the preliminary nod to Pritzker was pretty icky.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-jb-pritzker-bahama-offshore-shell-company-20180313-story.html

I don't know if I could tell anyone to vote for Pritzker in the general and keep my conscience.

Shady Pritzker turns into Garbage Pritzker. He's worse than Andrew Cuomo.

If Biss doesn't get the nomination, Bruce Rauner must be reelected. Illinois needs a governor who takes on corrupt Madigan.

Madigan wears Rauner's balls as cuff links. Even if Rauner wins reelection there is no way he win enough political capital to actually do anything against Madigan. Madigan's going to rule the state no matter who wins.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Rauner only winning by 6 points in Cook right now.

> wewlad.jpg

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Daniel Biss was my candidate that I campaigned and voted for, but since he lost to JB Pritzker, I will happily endorse Pritzker in the general to boot out Rauner or keep Ives out of there.  

Hope you enjoy the higher taxes as anyone with any education or ambition leaves the state

I left the state under the watchful gaze of the Rauner administration.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Those two Biss counties downstate are universities - Champaign (U of I) and Bloomington (ISU)

His lead in McLean is pretty small -- I think it's more likely than not that it flips to Pritzker when it's all said and done.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Those two Biss counties downstate are universities - Champaign (U of I) and Bloomington (ISU)

He'll probably win Jackson as well then.

Half of precincts are in and Pritzker is putting on a massacre with 60% of all votes.

This map is going to be all Pritzker plus Biss in Champaign. Wow.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Biss and Kennedy are apparently such lame candidates that it's easier to beat them in a primary than it is to buy a Senate seat, lmao

Jeez what an embarrassment

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Looks like Kennedy won one county (Hardin County) which is downstate by 14 votes over Pritzker.

lmao this is going to be such a hilarious and boring map

I blame Kennedy he should've dropped out months ago, his campaign was a joke. Pritzker would've lost in a proper 1v1 race.

Maybe. I think enough Kennedy voters would have defected to Pritzker to push him over the finish line though.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Weed is winning in Cook Co with over 68%

Yeah so what's the deal with this? Never heard about this until I checked returns earlier this evening. NYT's description is pretty nondescript.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Kennedy wins another random downstate county by two votes. His candidacy is so hilariously impotent that this result is more funny than it is anything else.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

We need not pretend that the Pritzker nomination is a result of the Chicago machine. He did well statewide. It's a result of $$$$.

I don't know about the Chicago machine, but the statewide party apparently embraced him early on (like almost a year ago) because he had the money to self fund. Which is hilarious (in a bad way)

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

How prominent will the name "Rod Blagojevich" be in this race? Will Rauner continue his focus on tying Pritzker to Michael Madigan, or will he switch to Rod?

Why not both? There is definitely a lot of overlap in the target audiences there, but there are definitely some people who will be motivated against Madigan but not Blago, and the other way around. I don't know at what point Dems start voting for Rs against Madigan, but I really can't see Rauner running ads tying Madigan to JB depressing his own turnout or energizing reliable D voters.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Part of Pritzker's package as a candidate was the ability to not need any money. The idea was that he arms-race Rauner in cash, and then the usual Illinois money and outside groups are diverted downwards, instead of heading for the topline race.

That's true. This might be the best year to focus a torrent of resources on downballot races too. There is a smorgasbord of state House races that could in theory give Democrats a comfortable super-majority if '16 presidential margins stick (even somewhat).

Democrats might need all the buffer they can create for when the state's fiscal / pension situation gets worse.

Yes, I think this has been the idea that the Illinois Democratic party has had the whole time. I remember hearing this narrative about Pritzker's self-funding since Spring 2017 (!)

If Pritzker turns out to not be hideously corrupt (big if) and rubber-stamps Democratic legislative initiatives (safe bet) then this will turn out to be one of the wisest political moves of the cycle. Then again, there is never a time to be optimistic about Illinois politics, just slightly less cynical.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/20/barack-obama-illinois-governor-race-789774

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Does Obama even need to cut an ad for Pritzker to win by a huge margin?

Yes. Pritzy is one of the most overrated candidates of the cycle. People on this site assume he's going to win by 20 just because muh Rauner and ignore huge numbers of undecideds who don't have a clear reason to break unanimously for Pritzker.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

JB hates minorities.

In Illinois politics this is a virtue. Many voters in Chicago and nearly all of downstate do.

Anyway, I'm glad I no longer live in Illinois so I don't have to vote for this piece of garbage.