He's a nice guy. Lots of good ideas. Very smart--er--well, unless you look at his screw up with the Lt Governor running mate. He announced a running mate--a good solid progressive. Then a few days later announced that he was not running with that person because of differing views on an international issue. Either they didn't vet that first person before the announcement, or he bowed to pressure to more further to the right because his replacement running mate is a lot closer to the mainstream Dem positions. Pissed off several progressives I know with that one stunt. It's shame, too, because Biss will talk happily about the concept of an Illinois single payer system and how it can be accomplished.
Kennedy is a non starter in my area. He was the grand poo-bah of the U of I Board of Trustees when all the nastiness with Steven Salaita went down. Bad enough that the Trustees reneged on the offer the university made to the professor, but the lies and destruction of emails by university officials after they un-hired Salaita is what really peeved a large number of the university folks. I honestly don't know a single person outside Chicago that says they are supporting Kennedy. I'm sure they are out there, but I've not met them.
I've also heard that Pritzger is the one the party insiders have embraced. Last I heard was Pritzger's large bank roll makes the IDP all excited because they think he'll self fund his campaign and that means party cash can be spent on down ticket races. Not gonna start on how freaking lazy that is, but I am gonna do a short rant about Pritzger's stance on not discussing or supporting single payer in Illinois. His stance is to allow people to buy into Medicaid instead. Dunno what planet his policy people are living on, but where I live, the doctors refuse to accept any Medicaid patients, period. I was at a luncheon with one of his people recently, and I brought it up to him. Swear to gawd, it was like I farted or something. I told that staffer that maybe they need to look at that little factoid at the next policy meeting.
It nauseates me to have to say it, but much as I personally like Biss, I really can't get past that colossal screw up with the Lt Governor announcement. I can't feel at all good about Kennedy after what the Board of Trustees did to silence a professor's political speech on his own time. I'm probably going to walk in to vote on primary day still feeling torn up, and I'll probably vote Pritzger out of practicality.
Bottom line? Ruiner has GOT to go. Doesn't matter to me who we run as long as they can beat that asshole. Illinois is in a really unique situation this election, because we have an incumbent Republican polling someplace in the 30's, a Republican in the Whitehouse, who is also polling in the 30's, and we have a situation where both those Republicans have pissed off their base. We can pick up seats not just in the state and local races, but also in Congress. I think we will see a depressed Republican turnout, and if we are spending money and energy on the down ticket races, we will drive our own GOTV for the entire ticket.
YMMV,but that is how I'm seeing it.
Laura
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