Gubernatorial Race

  • The first Gubernatorial debate happened last night. The real source of contention? Who is the “jobs Governor.” Bill Brady thinks he would be because he’d cut taxes and spending, and Quinn thinks he would be because…Bill Brady would cut taxes and cut spending, and “perish the thought” of that happening! What a surprise that Bill Brady’s still up in the polls…
  • Meanwhile, Bill Brady picks up an endorsement from former Gov. Jim Edgar.
  • And liberals are nervous that Bill Brady might stop them from using social engineering in Illinois. And who can blame them — they’ve been spoiled by Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama!

Senate Race

  • Mark Kirk makes the wise decision to court Illinois’ downstate voters and downplay his own connections to Chicago, which has the Huffington Post in a…well, huff. His new ad is below:
  • And in a breaking story, Kirk releases his statement on the most recent bailout…er…jobs bill:
Following the failure of the Stimulus, the House approved yet another government bailout program. According to Sen. Snowe of the Senate Small Business Committee, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported the untested new lending program could cost taxpayers over $6 billion with funding that runs ‘completely counter to the measures we have taken over the past two years to improve the quality of assets and underwriting in the financial market.’ The bill would reward high volume rather than high quality lending, raising the too familiar risk of moral hazard at the taxpayer’s expense. Even the TARP’s Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) warned, ‘A capital infusion program that provides financial institutions with cheap capital and a penalty for banks that do not increase lending runs the risk of creating moral hazard by encouraging banks to make loans to borrowers who are not credit worthy.’ The COP went on to warn of ‘imprudent lending activity’, a ‘commercial loan bubble’ and ‘diminishing credit quality.’ Haven’t we seen this movie before?
  • Meanwhile, Alexi Giannoulias has some severe problems with his resume. Namely, he actually stayed at the corrupt Broadway Bank for a year longer than he says on the campaign trail, by which time the bank had made some rather dodgy loans. So for those who say this election is between a crook and a liar, they can now vote for Giannoulias and get all of the above!

House Races