There was a time when State Rep. Jack Franks was among those mentioned as a Democratic candidate for Governor.
There were times when Franks was among those mentioned for the office.
He even raised a lot of money (mainly from his family and family friends) right before the June 30, 2009, reporting deadline to make him look gubernatorial.
In another, Franks mentioned running for the office himself. That happenedmore than once.
Jack Franks’ name does not appear in this article about potential Democratic Party challengers to Governor Bruce Rauner.
The most recent article, by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown, does not.
Dick Durbin gets the biggest boost.
Lisa Madigan is on the list.
State Treasurer Michael Freichs is there.
And so are State Senators Daniel Biss, Andy Manar, Kwame Raoul and Heather Stears.
Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza is, too.
And so is Pat Quinn.
Christopher Kennedy makes it, as does Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
But no Jack Franks in the Sun-Times article.
When he announced he was running for McHenry County Board Chairman, however, he did get mentioned on the “Big John” Howell WLS radio show.
As I’ve said over and over again, Jack Franks cannot win a statewide Democratic primary.
In fact, he couldn’t win MANY Democratic primaries, regardless of the office.
He’s way too conservative.
When was the last time a Dem as conservative as Franks was a statewide candidate that won a primary?
Glenn Poshard won the Democratic Party Primary for Governor in 1998.
He beat Roland Burris, John R. Schmidt and Jim Burns.
HEY EVERYONE, CAL SKINNER JUST ACKNOWLEDGED JACK IS CONSERVATIVE!
**Glenn Poshard won the Democratic Party Primary for Governor in 1998.**
1998 was a LONG time ago.
“Conservative” Jack Franks recently voted to kick the can on Chicago Police and Fire pension funding, which will in the long run hike taxpayer costs to those pension funds and create more financial chaos.
Rather than reform the pensions, the decision was made to kick the funding can.
Less contributions now, higher contributions later, and overall higher costs because there will be less money in the fund to generate investment returns in the next few years than there otherwise would have been.
Senate Bill 777 (SB 777) in the 99th General Assembly.
The bill also adds a funding guarantee to more tightly bind taxpayers to pension funding, akin to IMRF.
The General Assembly (State House and Senate) overrode Governor Rauner’s veto of SB 777, which then became Public Act 99-0506 (PA 99-506).
Tax Hiking Franks in action.
Illinois General Assembly in action.
Same game they have repeatedly played since the pension sentence was added to the Illinois State Constitution on December 15, 1970 which had no kick the can prohibitions and no prohibition that benefit hikes should be fully funded and had not prohibition that benefit hikes cannot be enacted when pensions are already underfunded.
Illinois Pension Scam.
**“Conservative” Jack Franks recently voted to kick the can on Chicago Police and Fire pension funding, which will in the long run hike taxpayer costs to those pension funds and create more financial chaos.**
Is Dave McSweeney “conservative” (with quote marks) too?
Are you also aware that if SB777 wouldn’t have passed, it would have meant a massive property tax hike for Chicago?
1998 is when Jack Franks promised to only serve three terms.
That would have meant he would have voluntarily retired after the 2004 election.
I understand that.
But that has nothing to do with my point of Franks not being able to win a statewide primary.