State Political Profile: Illinois
Governor
In the state's biggest 2006 race, the battle for governor is between two political insiders. In a March primary, voters picked Republican state Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka to face Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The race pits the first-term governor's record on education and health care against claims that he mismanaged state money and used his office to reward political pals.
Blagojevich ran as a reformer and promised to clean up a state government sullied by allegations of fraud, bribes and favors handed out by his predecessor, Republican George Ryan, who is on trial in federal court. But Blagojevich's administration has been beset by its own scandals, including documented ties between contracts and big donors, allegations by the governor's father-in-law that state appointments were traded for campaign cash, and federal investigations into hiring.
Pre-primary polls showed the governor's approval rating hovering around 40 percent; one found only one in three voters polled wanted him re-elected. While Blagojevich easily won the Democratic nomination, his primary challenger's stronger-than-expected showing suggested he could be vulnerable in November.
Blagojevich's problems have energized a state Republican Party that in the past two elections was battered by infighting and haunted by Ryan's legacy. Topinka, the only Republican statewide officeholder in Illinois, herself was battered in a bruising five-way primary campaign that drained her campaign treasury and widened the divide between the conservative and moderate wings of the party.
Her primary challengers tried to link her to Ryan and say her moderate views on abortion and gay rights don't match those of the Republican Party. Now the GOP is pinning its hopes on her ability to grab the votes of independents and Democrats unhappy with the incumbent.
In early April, a poll showed Topinka and Blagojevich about even in the governor's race. But while her campaign coffers were emptied by the primary battle, he only started dipping into an estimated $15 million fund in the days after the March 21 primary. In his advertising, Blagojevich stepped up efforts to link Topinka to Ryan. At the same time, she has argued his administration is bloated, spending more than it can afford and sliding into the same ethical morass as Ryan.
While staying out of the primary fray, Blagojevich stepped up efforts to publicize feel-good, populist issues. Backed by a Democratic Legislature, he passed a program to fund health insurance for every child in Illinois. He also used his State of the State address to push for a $3 billion road- and school-building program. Part of that plan -- to use keno to fund school construction -- backfired and quickly fizzled.
U.S. House
Most attention is focused on the 6th District seat in the Chicago suburbs being vacated after 32 years by Republican Henry Hyde.
Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth, a helicopter pilot who lost her legs in a grenade attack two years ago, narrowly won the Democratic nomination in a three-way race. She will face state Sen. Peter Roskam, a well-to-do lawyer and conservative from Wheaton who ran unopposed in the GOP primary. He has Hyde's endorsement and the support of other conservatives.
Thailand-born Duckworth, who spent months recovering from her wounds at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., was heavily recruited by Democrats eager to give the national party more credibility on security issues. She is the best-known of the handful of Iraq war veterans who want to go to Capitol Hill.
Though it has long been considered a safe haven for Republicans, more Hispanics have moved to the 6th District in recent years and Democrats contend they will aid them at the polls. Democrats also are optimistic after their 2004 nominee, Christine Cegelis, lost to the congressman with 44 percent of the vote in what was their best showing ever against Hyde. Cegelis was defeated by Duckworth in the March primary.
In another suburban district, the 8th, businessman David McSweeney won a six-way primary for a House seat that was held by the GOP for decades before Democrat Melissa Bean won it two years ago. The district leans Republican and the GOP is itching to take back the seat
-- Associated Press
