Illinois politicians crisscrossed the state trolling for last-minute support on the eve of Tuesday’s election, wrapping up a negatively charged campaign season that may have lacked great moments in statesmanship but was chock-full of memorable oratory.
Only in Illinois would a daughter’s declaration of love for her father become a campaign issue. In a state where political loyalties can shift with the wind, no one should have been shocked when a state party chair raised the possibilities of “indiscretions” committed by his candidate for governor.
More Top Picks Camp Chef Italia Artisan
And then there was “Mr. Potter,” the nickname Republicans have pinned on the state’s unpopular and cranky chief executive, who spent much of the campaign trashing his own party, which had unsuccessfully hoped for his quiet retirement.
On Monday, candidates up and down the ballot swallowed hard as they tried to put aside petty intraparty squabbles and display a face of camaraderie–at least until the polls close.
Democrats, anxious for success after watching the Republicans control the governor’s office for more than a quarter of a century, crowded the lobby of the Atlantic Aviation terminal at Midway Airport to send off the party’s statewide slate on a multicity flyaround.
“The Democratic Party has changed in the past four years,” said Tom Dart, the party’s candidate for state treasurer against Republican incumbent Judy Baar Topinka. “Instead of being a fractured party, a party that is fighting with itself, we are a united party.”
Concluding a general election campaign where the candidates for governor and attorney general raised a combined total of more than $30 million, the close of the election season means an end to the wearying and incessant mudslinging among the candidates in their TV ads.
From Jan. 1 through Friday, a staggering $41 million was paid to Chicago TV stations for commercials by candidates, organizations and issue groups, according to an analysis by the Alliance for Better Campaigns, which advocates free political air time on television to reduce the costs of campaigns.
But on Monday, it was a full-page ad in the Tribune paid for by Democratic attorney general candidate Lisa Madigan that raised a new focus on her campaign against Republican Joe Birkett. The ad said she stood for “sensible gun laws” and showed a photo of a “bullet hole” from the recent Washington-area sniper attacks as it tried to link Birkett to gun-owner rights groups.
“This is an outrage,” Birkett, the DuPage County state’s attorney, said outside his boyhood home in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood. “This is a new low in Illinois politics, to try to link me to the sniper attacks.”
Beyond the anticipated response from Republicans, Madigan’s ad elicited concerns from the campaign of Democratic candidate for governor Rod Blagojevich that it might backfire and hurt Democrats with Downstate voters. Though long a gun-control advocate, Blagojevich has worked hard to play down his position as he courted Downstate hunters and sportsmen.
Blagojevich joined Madigan and the rest of the Democratic ticket at a union hall in Marion, deep in the heart of southern Illinois, and vowed not to seek an increase in the fee for a firearm owner’s ID card–something he tried to increase dramatically while in the legislature from 1993 to 1996.
Blagojevich tried to reassure gun owners that he supports their rights.
“On Wednesday … let’s get a few people together and let’s go hunting,” he said. “My only request is, shoot straight, because if I get elected governor on Tuesday, I’ve got a big future ahead of me in this state.”
Unlike the sometimes forced unity of the Democrats, Republicans eschewed the joint appearance rally tactic and campaigned on their own throughout the state.
Blagojevich’s opponent, Jim Ryan, went on his own flyaround where speakers who introduced him got a script lauding the GOP contender.
“He battled back from cancer three times and has handled the toughest challenges a parent can ever face with courage, grace and dignity,” several speakers said, referring to the 1997 death of his daughter.
Trying to build on his personal story, Ryan egged on supporters, telling them he was on the “verge of one of the greatest comebacks in Illinois history.”
Still, Ryan conceded that heading into the election, “The Democrats have an advantage because they have so many labor guys out there. In many respects, this race is going to come down to turnout.”
Before heading to a final rally in his home DuPage County, Ryan appeared resigned to have done all that he could in the campaign. “We’re doing everything we can,” he said, “but some things are just beyond your control.”
One thing the candidates sometimes had trouble controlling in the campaign was the quality of their rhetoric.
In August, Blagojevich said a $300,000 state grant that Madigan’s father, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), awarded to a college classmate for a livestock show was “an example of arrogance.”
That prompted the speaker to fire back. “I don’t plan to be critical of Blagojevich,” Michael Madigan said. “I could talk about some of his indiscretions, but I don’t plan to do that because I plan to be a strong party chair and work to bring all the Democrats together.”
It also was a campaign in which the incumbent Republican governor criticized Lisa Madigan–not for being a Democrat, but for failing to support her father when she said she welcomed a probe into whether he spent taxpayer dollars for political purposes.
“She could have said, `You know, it’s my father. I love him to death,'” the governor said. That prompted Lisa Madigan a day later to declare: “I love my father. He loves me. I respect my father. He respects me.”
More Top Picks Best Activity Centers For Babies
The governor also attacked the Republican slate for scandal-mongering to win votes and accused one GOP candidate to her face of disloyalty.
“A friend who cuts and runs can’t be much of a friend at all … I’m damn disappointed,” the governor said.
Jim Ryan also gave an odd explanation when asked at a debate why popular former GOP Gov. Jim Edgar hadn’t been a bigger part of the campaign.
“He’s a good friend,” Jim Ryan said. “His wife and my wife just went to a battered women’s shelter together.”