You probably don't know this, but Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn has attended all but three of the 92 wakes and/or funerals held for Illinois servicemen and -women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. The three he missed (because he was out-of-state) were attended by a top member of his staff.
There are some important milestones in every statewide campaign. The benchmark polling is the first. In the race for governor, Judy Baar Topinka won that one hands down, but wasn't as far ahead, perhaps, as she should have been.
A little-remembered 1975 Illinois law might cause a whole lot of trouble in the coming year or two. The Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 was passed in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade opinion, which overruled most state laws banning abortion.
It's now becoming clear to people around Richard M. Daley that the Chicago mayor himself might very well have a fat federal target on his back. Up until last week, most people figured that the mayor would never be personally touched by the ongoing federal probe into his administration.
Last week, I told you about some Republican candidates for governor. We'll finish handicapping the long list of candidates this week. • Senator Steve Rauschenberger - Apparently, running a strong third in the U.
Now that the state's political season is about to kick into a slightly higher gear, let's take a moment to look at how some of the Republican candidates for governor are stacking up. We'll look at the rest of the pack next week.
Yet another statewide survey shows big trouble for Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Glengariff Group's poll of 600 registered Illinois voters found Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka leading Blagojevich 33-31.
Representative John Fritchey's spring legislative session was going extraordinarily well ... until he smacked into the past 10 days. Fritchey (D-Chicago) was the prime motivator behind the unprecedented compromise between pro-life and pro-choice groups earlier this session.
Governor Rod Blagojevich was declared a "winner" by the Chicago media after the spring legislative session ended last week. Adjourning the session by May 31 while, for a change, getting along with other Democrats, upholding his promise not to raise taxes, and coming up with lots of new programs and comprehensive medical-malpractice reform made him look pretty good in many eyes.
If you're wondering why Governor Rod Blagojevich would flip-flop on his solemn vow to reform the state's massively underfunded pension systems, you don't have to look much farther than the most recent poll. A survey of 1,000 registered Illinois voters taken a week ago showed Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka leading Democrat Blagojevich by almost 10 percentage points.

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