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http://www.pantagraph.com/blogs/main/?p=2905
July
6, 2008
Bloomington Pantagraph
Kurt
Erickson
It's 2008. There's a
presidential election under way. One of the candidates is
from Illinois.
You'd think that'd be
enough fodder to keep us busy.
But what have we been
hearing about lately?
The 2010 governor's
race.
Already, people are
prognosticating on who will run.
The latest name to
surface is state Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont, who
has attempted to carve out a niche among the Senate GOP
as a budget expert.
Lately, Radogno has
been traveling around the state with state Sen. Dan
Rutherford of Chenoa in a push to bring some sanity to
the process the state uses to open and close prisons.
Speaking of
Rutherford, he also has signaled that he's up for another
statewide run after having lost a bid for secretary of
state in 2006.
Perhaps the two of
them are working out a deal as they travel from prison
town to prison town.
Radogno's emergence
comes as state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington continues
to say he'll be in the gubernatorial mix in 2010.
Brady, who was unable
to win his party's nomination in 2006, is a conservative
Republican with credentials as a longtime legislator,
small business owner and real estate developer.
Also making noise as a
potential Republican candidate is DuPage County State's
Attorney Joe Birkett — another veteran of a couple of
statewide campaigns, none successful.
Several Democratic
toes also are being dipped in the electoral waters.
Comptroller Dan Hynes
has been positioning himself for a move up the ladder.
Attorney General Lisa
Madigan's name continues to surface as a potential
contender.
Alexi Giannoulias also
is getting some play, although the political rookie is
less than two years into his first term as treasurer.
Former Chicago Public
Schools chief Paul Vallas has been making noise about a
possible run.
Chicago Mayor Richard
Daley's brother, Bill, also has popped up on the scene,
but we're guessing that's more about the mayor toying
with Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Blagojevich, of
course, could always run for a third term. He continues
to raise campaign money, despite the black cloud of a
federal corruption investigation and the threat of
impeachment by the House hanging over his administration.
It's probably safe to
say all of this talk about the 2010 race is premature,
given what could happen if Barack Obama wins the
presidency.
If he were to beat
John McCain in November, it would launch a game of
political dominoes in Illinois that likely will have an
effect on the 2010 governor's race.
For one, Blagojevich
would have to appoint someone to replace Obama in the
U.S. Senate.
He could pick any one
of the gubernatorial wannabes — including himself — thus
changing the dynamic of the 2010 governor's race.
There's even one
slightly bizarre story going that Obama could appoint
Lisa Madigan to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court if an
opening there arises in his first term. Perhaps Hynes or
Giannoulias would rather leap from their statewide
offices to her attorney general post.
Or, Blagojevich could
pick someone out of the state's congressional delegation
— Luis Guitierrez or Jan Schakowsky — to serve out
Obama's Senate term, thus starting a game of dominoes at
the legislative level.
A new name in the
Senate appointment mix is Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war
vet now serving as Blagojevich's director of veterans
affairs.
In any case, until the
2008 presidential campaign has run its course, it may be
a little to early to get too worked up about 2010.
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