Politics Boobies and Beer: Part 3

On March 18th we once again have an opportunity to fulfill our civic duty and head into the voting booth. Some say that voting is an obligation, some say a right, others would have us believe it is revocable privilege. I personally believe it is a combination of all three.
March 18th is the primary for Illinois. It is an opportunity for citizens to select those candidates that will be the vanguard of their party in the general election. This primary has set itself up to be a doozey, something deserving of a  Fellini movie. If Salvadore Dali were to paint an election in his abstract style, this Illinois Primary of 2014 would most certainly be the model, it is just that bizarre!
The big enchillada this election will be the selection of the GOP candidate for the seat of Governor. This race is worthy of a sitcom, or a Crighton novel, or an entire show from Cirque du Solei,. At a time when our state is considered to be not just a punch line to other states, but the entire joke, we have both Democrat and Republican contenders that are nothing short of amazing in their antics...truly a plethora of entertainment value.
Let's start with the perennial candidates, Rutherford, Dillard, Brady and Quinn. Governor Quinn is a likable fellow, ascended into the Court of Madiganistan by default (actually an indictment and conviction of his predecessor) and later defeated Brady in a legitimate slug fest for the Governor seat. His opponent is virtually unknown, in fact, I can't even recall his name and I follow this stuff! So, Quinn is a definite shoe in for the Democrat Party despite his naivety (how could you be Lt Governor and NOT know what your Governor was up to?) and his weak leadership. For the purposes of this piece, we will just call it a day and select him as the figurehead for the Donkey Brigade.
On the GOP side, we have 3 candidates, (Dillard, Rutherford and Brady) with a combined total of over 60 years in office running against a neophyte candidate ( Bruce Rauner, formerly known as Bruce Who?) that happens to be a gazillionaire. His company managed pension funds for the state of Illinois with an average annual yield (that means profit to the pensions folks) of 17.5%. The other 3 candidates were in office when Rauner's services were declared "no longer essential" by the State pension gurus as they were going in a different direction, a direction that later turned into a 160 Billion dollar unfunded pension liability. Essentially, those 3 career politicians (Dillard ,Brady ,and Rutherford) were in office when the pension crisis began, were in office when the first alarm bells went off, and remained in office as the crisis ballooned into an insurmountable burden for every man woman and child in Illinois...but all 3 claim they can fix the problem through their expert leadership.
Let's look at their leadership, shall we? Brady touts himself as a squeaky clean businessman with high moral standards. He is anti LGBT, anti- abortion and anti equal pay for women. Apparently, he is also anti- pay-your-damn-bills Senator as well. He was found in default on numerous loans that culminated in a judgement against him McClean County for several MILLION dollars. He was also found to have borrowed in excess of a million dollars from a downstate bank against property he owned, then defaulted and gave the property to the bank, that then sold the property at a loss for $250 thousand to Brady's mother, who then used Brady to negotiate the sale of the property to a developer for $750 thousand dollars, who then received a tax break that was pushed through by...Senator Brady! And yet, through it all, Brady insists that there was never any conflict of interest or wrong doing on his part. He's the guy that narrowly lost to Quinn last election. Wow! This is the guy that claims he has the base of support to defeat Quinn. If this is the case, I'd vote for Quinn!
Then we get to the most Bizarre Candidate Ever to Snatch Defeat From the Jaws of Victory...Dan Rutherford. I have never been a witness to a suicide, but my jaw dropped when I saw Rutherford's press conference when he pre-emptively announced that he was being sued by former staff member and accused Bruce Rauner of being behind it. He then went on to announce that his office was "vigorously" investigating the accusations against him via an independent contractor investigator the he, Dan Rutherford, had personally
selected...at the taxpayer's expense! He picked the guy to investigate himself...wow! That investigator costs us $250 per hour (plus expenses) and refused to interview any employees or witnesses that insisted on recording the proceeds. We are now over 100 hours into the investigation ($25,000 dollars PLUS folks) and have been told that (despite Rutherford's previous assurance that all investigation would be made IMMEDIATELY available to the public) that no findings will be released until AFTER the lawsuit runs it's course...a lawsuit that could have been avoided and never seen the light of day had Rutherford not chosen to publicly shoot himself in the face. Since then, Dan has had to answer questions about his sexuality, his forcing state employees to do campaign work on the taxpayer's time, and his "unusual" hotel arrangements that had him and his male assistant sharing the same room on numerous occasions. His overseas travel has been questioned (no other Treasurer in Illinois history ever took so many trips in so short a time) and his public behavior has been the subject of numerous conversation among GOP committee members through out the state. The irony of this situation is that Rutherford was the hands down favorite to beat Rauner in the primary before Danny boy publicly shot himself in the face. On the upside...well I simply can't find one other than he dresses well.
Now comes Kirk Dillard. Dillard has shown more sense than the other career politicians...he's kept remarkably quiet. In fact, if he was any more vanilla, he'd be pudding. That may be a good thing. But...unfortunately, he has neither the money nor the support base to defeat Quinn in the general election. Nor does he have a stellar voting record when it comes to Veterans. Like Brady and Rutherford, he voted against tax breaks for disabled veterans, and didn't exactly fight to keep the Service Members and Veteran's Commission from being cut, or the Veterans Court, or the other task forces and commission that assist veterans and service members. However, like Brady and Rutherford, Dillard has stated that he support our veterans and folks in uniform 100%...apparently as long as nobody actually asks him to put his stripes on the line.
And finally, we have Bruce Rauner. He gave million and millions to education in Illinois and trusted them to use it in a worthwhile way. Then, when he asked for an accounting found that 90% of his money went...well basically into the trash. He screwed up..he trusted them.
Now he wants to be Governor. He doesn't need the job, and didn't want the job. He was recruited by people from both parties to try and save our common good. He contributes to both parties (his wife is a Democrat) has favors owed to him by both parties and has a history of being able to pull victory from the jaws of defeat. But...he also has stated that he would bring the bosses from all parties into the same room and force them to unite for a common cause. Well folks, he's done just that...for the first time in history Democrats, Republicans and union bosses have united in a common cause....and that cause is to try and prevent Bruce Rauner from becoming a candidate for either party. The reason is quite simple. If Bruce Rauner becomes the GOP Governor candidate he can beat Quinn. And that means heads will roll, names will be made public, and misdeeds will be exposed.  And...we may actually get a handle on this fiscal mess that our "professional" politicians have made.
VOTE on March 18th!