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The seven Republican candidates for governor had different and, at times, highly entertaining ways to deliver the same basic message during Wednesday night's debate sponsored by the Better Government Association, the Illinois League of Women Voters and ABC 7. They all oppose Governor Quinn's call for higher taxes to help balance the state budget and they promise to do everything in their power to keep it from happening or to repeal an increase if it's enacted. They all favor massive spending cuts and a reordering of priorities to get the state out of the red. And they're all promising to take significant steps to make government more ethical and transparent. Not surprisingly, they all say the Democrats who run Springfield have created such a big mess that it's time for a change of parties.
For the record, the state is facing a budget deficit that could be as high as $14 billion -- that's BILLION, with a B -- and the unfunded public pension liability is estimated at more than $80 billion. That's B...you get the picture.
Former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan called himself an "authentic leader." State Senator Kirk Dillard emphasized a "unique blend of experience" that includes a stint as Former Governor Jim Edgar's chief of staff. DuPage Board chairman Bob Schillerstrom said he's the only candidate who has run a large branch of government, and he pledged to serve only one term as governor if he's elected. Businessman Andy McKenna said that he fought Democrats for five years as chairman of the Illinois Republican Party. State Senator Bill Brady, of Bloomington, said that he's the candidate who is best equipped to represent the entire state because the others are from the Chicago area. Businessman and philanthropist Adam Andrzejewski said that he has the best plan to cut the budget and make it transparent. And political operative Dan Proft said it's time to "turn government upside down" instead of tinkering at the margins.
Proft also got off the most controversial line of the night during a discussion of how seven well-healed white men could represent the interests of poor and working class people when he said, "Like everybody else I was born a poor black child too."
If only the challenges facing the next governor could be taken so lightly.
By the way, this debate was a lot less contentious than the face-off the night before among the five Democratic Senate candidates. Maybe that's because the moderator was ABC 7's Cheryl Burton, whose charm melted everyone in the room before the debate, including the panelists: ABC 7's Charles Thomas, Joe Ryan of the Daily Herald, and yours truly, BGA Executive Director Andy Shaw.
Our mission at the BGA is to end the "corruption tax" we pay when government is run for the benefit of the politicians and not the public, through waste, fraud, inefficiency, patronage, nepotism, cronyism, padded contracts and pay-to-play. So I asked the candidates what, specifically, they would do to make that happen. The answers covered virtually every area of Fairness, Accountability, Integrity, Transparency and Honesty, which happens to be F.A.I.T.H. -- an acronym used by the BGA to describe what we're striving for in our effort to restore good government.
It may be a long shot but it's worth fighting for, and it was exhilarating to hear it articulated during the debate.
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