Posted By: Michael Sweeney
Oct. 28, 2009
Andy McKenna is a loser…
Oh, he may actually end up winning the 2010 Illinois Republican Gubernatorial primary – mostly out of some vague, "Eh?" shadow of name recognition versus such unknown and undistinguished competition as Bill Brady, Dan Proft, and Andy Andrzejezewejrzski (uh…OK, I may have – accidentally – tossed an extra "Z" or "J" or something in his name (or, heck – maybe I even left one out [shrugs]), but, c’mon, nobody but the "Would be lucky to break 15% in the primary!" candidate himself is even likely to notice…). But I can guarantee you this: Short of some kind of bizarre, joint Pat Quinn-Dan Hynes sex / bribery / murder scandal erupting between now and Nov. 2, 2010, McKenna will NOT become the next Governor of "The Land of Lincoln, Butkus, and Obama."
(In fact, should some strange, taking-down-the-Dems scandal erupt, I imagine SOMEHOW that the powers that be in the state (from ALL sides – except maybe the most extreme right wing) would roll out a red carpet for state Attorney General Lisa Madigan to accept the coronation as IL Guv that nearly everyone here assumes is her eventual destiny anyway…)
Recently-announced candidate McKenna may even yet have a tough battle (even against the other half-dozen mostly lesser-known opponents in his primary) to claim his own party’s Gubernatorial nomination, since he is not well-liked – personally OR professionally / politically – within the IL Republican Party that he headed as Chairman for the past half-decade. Let’s check that IL GOP scorecard under McKenna’s leadership: Zero current IL Republican statewide officeholders; the last statewide electoral victory for the Republican Party was is 2002; and – pretty much – the ONLY state party figure of non-isolated or -extreme support is moderate GOPer Rep. Mark Kirk, Congressman from the suburban 10th District, who is running for the US Senate seat once held by President Obama (and strongly believed – I currently give it about an 80% chance – to be going to state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in ’10). Bottom line: Since the moderate Dirksen-Percy-Thompson-Edgar branch of IL Republicans have become all-but-Kirk-extinct, it has evolved into quite the "Blue" state (via Paul Simon, Dick Durbin, Obama, etc.) – and looks very likely to stay that way for the near future.
Plus, McKenna (who ran and lost – finishing 4th – in the ’04 IL Repub primary for Senate) was sniped at by plenty of other GOPers during much of his term as state party Chairman for the perceptions – which he used to dismiss – that he was too busy burnishing up his own image in consideration for future runs for US Senator or IL Governor. No, no, McKenna used to tut, it’s not about ME, it’s about our party – all the while he was (apparently) still polling to see where he might have stood in the various races he was contemplating AND maybe even trying to call in whatever chits he might have had (even in the near-powerless state opposition party) to try and assist him in this vainglorious, ain’t-no-one-clamoring-for-THIS run for what would be his first-ever public elective office.
…Still, there goes McKenna, launching his bid for the Governor’s Mansion with a TV ad showing various figures and state images all topped with the iconic Rod Blagojevich mop of hair. Ah, (semi-)clever enough. We get it: Time to clean up this state after the Blago-pocalypse…Except for these 2 facts: 1) The current Governor, Pat Quinn, while (indeed) elected Lt. Governor while B-Rod held the top spot on the ballot (which, in IL, is NOT any sort of a linked ‘ticket" – the positions run separately…and, even just a generation ago, we actually have had Gov. / Lt. Gov. winners from opposing parties during the same election), actually had little-to-nothing to do with the corrupt, tossed-out former Guv and current reality TV whore (it was said that they had merely spoken with each other maybe one or two times in the last two years of Blago’s time in office)…and Quinn has been fighting during his 9 months in office (exactly, as of tomorrow) to try and straighten out the state; and 2) One of the images (with the added Blago coif photo-shopped in) that McKenna’s commercial shows is that of the last Republican IL Governor, George Ryan…who is still currently serving prison time for his rampant corruption while serving as IL’s Secretary of State and Governor. Oops! So – BOTH sides sucked mightily in the recent past, and…uh…well, then why don’t we just give the populist, no-hint-of-corruption guy who inherited the job in a tough situation a chance to try and fix things?
…That is the sort of – quite logical – argument that is likely to make it tough (even during this "hard times," perhaps anti-incumbent period) for McKenna (OR even Hynes, in the Dem primary) to knock off Quinn…
Well, THAT, and – of course – the facts that McKenna is completely unproven, previously perfectly unsuccessful as his party’s leader, and unpopular even among those he was chosen to lead. AND that he is pretty much a complete loser thus far in all aspects of his political career – can’t forget THAT little nugget…
For more coverage of Illinois politics, look for my regular posts here on The Stonecipher Report. (And, for a free subscription to my twice-weekly e-mail column on politics and pop-culture, "And, in the News…" send a note to: m_l_sweeney@hotmail.com)
