Credit where it’s due: Thanks to Rod Blagojevich, Illinois candidates of every persuasion have a template for how to wage cynical statewide campaigns in future years: Pile up millions of dollars, don’t ask where the money came from, and flog your opponent with negative TV advertising for months and months until voters think she’s human trash.
That has been Blagojevich’s relentless strategy since Judy Baar Topinka emerged as his challenger from a four-way Republican primary last March. We’ll learn Tuesday whether Illinois voters who claim to be infuriated by scurrilous campaign ads will endorse Blagojevich’s smear of Topinka by … re-electing him as their governor.
Remember Judy Baar Topinka? Voters elected her state treasurer three times, most recently in 2002. She alone prevailed when post-George Ryan revulsion eviscerated every other statewide GOP candidate. It’s fair to like or dislike Topinka’s politics, which resemble the moderate worldviews of Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar, whom voters selected to lead Illinois for 22 years.
It’s not fair, though, to portray Topinka the way Blagojevich has–as a loathsome consort of criminals. Blagojevich has spent millions of dollars crafting his phony image of Topinka as the kind of little-bit-nutty woman that her own son should be embarrassed to love.
Long after this ugly campaign ends, that is the image of Topinka that many Illinoisans will carry to their graves. Topinka is the same woman she’s always been, but a fresh St. Louis Post-Dispatch-KMOV poll finds that 58 percent of Illinois voters now have unfavorable opinions of her. Do you wonder what changed people’s minds?
The same poll puts Blagojevich’s unfavorable rating at 57 percent. And while 78 percent of respondents were aware that Blagojevich friend and fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko had been indicted on serious charges, only 37 percent said they believed Blagojevich when he says he didn’t know about Rezko’s allegedly illegal actions.
Yet Blagojevich leads Topinka 47-38 percent in the poll? How so? “They’re basically calling [Blagojevich] a liar, but they’re still going to vote for him,” Research 2000 pollster Del Ali told the Post-Dispatch. So much for pride.
The bottom line: Blagojevich came into office in 2003 determined to scare off potential primary challengers in 2006 (see Madigan, Lisa) by amassing an eight-figure campaign fund. Suspect fundraising tactics gave Blagojevich enough Rezko Bucks to flog Topinka. All he has to do Tuesday is outlive his own sorry reputation with voters. Hey, it’s a Democratic year, right? And Blagojevich is a Democrat, right? So …
If this gutter strategy pays off, get used to it.
The governor, incidentally, says his vile attack ads merely differentiate him from Topinka.
How convenient that Blagojevich is racing to his own defense. He won’t have to stand in line.
