Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Loose Ends, Words And Deeds

I know that I never finished with what I think of Blago's chances of again being governor of Illinois. In a sentence, neither the primary nor the election are gimme victories for Blago. Eisendrath is a shrewd politician who navigated the choppy waters of the Chicago City Council in the 1980's (remember Council Wars?) If Blago makes it through, he will most likely face (at least in my opinion) Judy Baar Topinka. Of the rest of the GOP candidates, Ron Gidwitz certainly is rich (as is Jim Oberweis) and he is trying to take the education issue away (which is not hard with Blago). Topinka is an old Springfield hack, having served as treasurer under both the GOP and the Dems. Look for crossover votes and also the "Chicago-area Republican" factor here.

Now, there will be more interesting and national morsels of political goodness to come, such as the Alito confirmation and the State of the Union address. Remember there that the context is far more crucial than the content. Think mid-term election year here.

So, join me now. The SOTU is tonight at 8:00P.M., CST. But don't just be there.

Play along with the SOTU Drinking Game.

4 comments:

Lost A Sock said...

Ooh sorry I missed the drinking game. Aww hell who am I kidding...I don't drink anymore...though doing so during the SOTU would give me plenty of reason! Just thought I'd "de-lurk" for a moment and say hello. I passed your blog address on to my dear husband. We enjoy reading!

Anonymous said...

There are Chicago-area-Republicans?

Will Shannon said...

First off, welcome to the now delurked Lost A Sock. Always good to hear from my readers who number in the tens (maybe).

In answer to Jenks, only the city and some of suburban Cook County (like where I grew up) are solidly Democratic. All of the "collar" counties (DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, Grundy) are Republican strongholds.

In fact, both Judy Baar Topinka and her running mate, former DuPage county AG Joe Birkett, are Chicago area GOP. So too was former four-term governor and 9/11 commission member James R. Thompson.

It is interesting where I grew up to see the split in people and their politics. There were the transplants from the South Side of the city who are as Democrat as they come. Then there were the transplants from elsewhere in the state who tended to be GOP. There is a greater similarity between the City of Chicago and "the Region," with perennial congressman Pete Visclosky.

Anonymous said...

Mention the region and the Man appears! Will long time no talk, love the blog!Love Alito! There are Rep. in the region too Jenks.

Grilled any Spam lately?