The endorsement sweepstakes in the campaign for governor intensified Wednesday as Democrat Dawn Clark Netsch accepted the backing of a statewide teachers union, while a manufacturers association announced it will support Republican Gov. Jim Edgar.
The endorsement game is an essential part of any campaign, and as much as the candidates relish the financial and organizational support that comes with them, the special interest groups covet the access they can obtain by picking the winner.
Edgar and Netsch used their newest endorsements to underscore fundamental themes of their respective candidacies and as ammunition for their campaign assaults on one another.
The political action committee of the Illinois Manufacturers Association announced that for only the second time in the group’s history, it will endorse a Republican for governor when it embraces Edgar outside a Bedford Park equipment manufacturer on Thursday.
The IMA endorsed Edgar in 1990 over Democrat Neil Hartigan, but it was often at odds with former Republican Gov. James Thompson in the 1970s and ’80s because of his cozy relationship with organized labor leaders.
Netsch accepted the Illinois Education Association’s political action committee endorsement at a Bismarck Hotel news conference in which she triumphantly reminded voters that the organization backed Edgar four years ago.
Reading from a campaign brochure that the IEA circulated in the 1990 campaign, Netsch gleefully quoted Edgar as having said: “There’s no question which political endorsement means the most in a campaign. The IEA is the best group to have out there working for you.”
And so the endorsement rhetoric flew back and forth Wednesday.
Netsch has made the issue of education funding the centerpiece of her campaign, proposing a $2.5 billion income-tax increase to be used for greater school spending and property-tax relief.
The IEA’s message was twofold, Netsch said: a commitment to her tax plan and a repudiation of Edgar’s record on education.
Echoing a point Netsch has been making about Edgar since her March 15 primary victory, IEA president Robert Haisman argued that “under this so-called `education governor,’ educational funding is in the worst shape it’s ever been in Illinois.”
Netsch termed the IEA’s a “prestige” endorsement and pointed out that the group’s membership of 84,000, mostly in suburban Chicago and Downstate, is equal to Edgar’s margin of victory in 1990.
“There’s just no question it can be a very important factor in a close election,” Netsch said.
The Illinois Federation of Teachers, which includes the Chicago Teachers Union, has already endorsed Netsch. Netsch has also picked up endorsements from numerous organized labor and women’s political groups.
Edgar, meanwhile, has made the state’s improving economy a major claim for re-election, and his camp sees the IMA’s support, along with earlier blessings from the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and a Downstate Teamsters local, as a reaffirmation of that message.
“The IMA board has been especially pleased that Gov. Edgar kept his promise not to raise taxes in his first four years, as well as with his redirection of economic development policy,” IMA President Gregory Baise said.
“Instead of smokestack chasing with the lure of public tax dollars as incentives, this administration is more concerned with keeping existing jobs in Illinois and improving the business climate to attract jobs,” Baise explained.
The IMA represents 4,200 firms with three-quarters of the manufacturing work force in Illinois. The Chamber of Commerce, which represents 7,000 firms employing one out of every four workers, made the first endorsement of a statewide candidate in its 75-year history when it opted to back Edgar.
Edgar’s press secretary, Michael Lawrence, called them “significant” endorsements that draw attention to the dramatically different records that the governor and Netsch have when it comes to creating jobs in Illinois.
“This kind of support indicates that the governor is viewed by the business community of this state as a pro-jobs governor,” Lawrence said.
The next big endorsement test comes Monday, when the political action committee of the state AFL-CIO announces its picks.
