Quote:
Originally Posted by Centropolis
if illinois can elect a moderate, union tolerant republican as governor, that would be great. it's a rare species. i have always held out hope that the republican party could pull itself together enough to field some moderate canidates so that the democrat party would also get it's shit together, and not take it's base for granted.
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Union tolerant is exactly what we don't need. The problem the GOP has had in Illinois is that they love to nominate ultra socially conservative whack jobs who are completely out of touch with Chicago. Rauner at least knows and appreciates the city and isn't a Chicago vs Downstate partisan. He also is much more temperate when it comes to absurd socially conservative rhetoric.
I think we have a good situation now in Springfield. Rauner doesn't have all that much power backing him up (i.e. no control over the legislature) so he will be forced to work with, rather than against, the democrats. Hopefully he will be able to rally the Democrats (many of whom also recognize the toxic pension issue) to more aggressively address some of the festering long term issues Illinois government is facing.
I am also similarly optimistic in the inverse about Federal politics not that Obama has no legislative power. I don't think it is a problem to have the executive branch split from the legislative branch, but it is an issue to have the House divided from the Senate.