Judging by the early hot-air movements in the gubernatorial race, Illinois’ political weather is headed for several months of turbulence, marked by dense smog, non-stop yadda-yadda and occasional mud showers. Voters hoping for intelligent discussion of the two most important issues confronting the state–the equally daunting budget and ethics-in-government crises–are advised to stay indoors until the situation clears. Let’s pray it’s soon.
A television ad for Republican Jim Ryan first aired downstate on May 31. The half-minute spot contends that Democratic nominee Rod Blagojevich favors same-sex marriage, backed legislation raising the fees for gun owners and opposed a measure that would have required parental notification before a minor can have an abortion.
Even before deciding whether Ryan’s charges are true or not, a more pressing question looms: Are these the issues that are first on Jim Ryan’s mind?
Some may argue that Ryan was just trying to reassure his conservative base that on the gays-guns-abortion trifecta his views are more simpatico than Blagojevich’s. Has it not dawned on Ryan that the GOP’s long run in the governor’s office has been accomplished by Republicans–Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar and George Ryan–who enjoyed strong downstate support while adopting centrist positions and adding voters from other parts of the state, including the Chicago metropolitan area? Victory is a game of addition, not alienation. Ryan ought to be outlining his vision for fiscal and ethical reform, something he and the rest of the candidates largely failed to do during the primaries.
Blagojevich’s ad, which premiered about a week later, also in TV markets outside of the Chicago area, charges that Ryan failed to investigate the license-for-bribes scandal that has tarnished Gov. George Ryan and complicated GOP efforts to retain the governorship.
The ethical cloud over state government is a tremendously critical issue. But Blagojevich’s attempt to link Jim Ryan to George Ryan is specious. When Jim Ryan’s office got its first whiff of scandal in the secretary of state office, it also had information that the U.S. attorney’s office was looking into the same information. Should Jim Ryan have barged in? No. Jim Ryan says it would have been inappropriate to launch an attorney general’s investigation when the feds were already involved. He is right.
Try as he might, Rod Blagojevich cannot fashion this as a race against George Ryan. He is running against Jim Ryan. He ought to be discussing Jim Ryan’s record.
As a campaigner, Blagojevich is remarkably disciplined; he is talking all-scandal all the time. But he’s starting to sound like a Stepford candidate–not so much remarkably disciplined as remarkably programmed. It would be novel to start hearing more about how Blagojevich would balance the state budget. Would he cut jobs? Would he spare social services?
Huge budget deficits. Plummeting public confidence in state government. Death penalty reform. There’s no shortage of important problems in the state. So far, just a shortage of ideas from the two men who would be governor.
