The Chicago Tribune endorsed Republican Mark Curran over incumbent Democrat Dick Durbin today.

The 24-year incumbent is not endorsed because

• Durbin is Washington-centric, not Illinois-centric.
• Durbin has a hands-off attitude toward the abysmal situation in Illinois.
• Durbin has “no sense of anger or urgency” about the corruption in his party.
• Durbin “has lost touch with the day-to-day issues” in Illinois.

Mark Curran, on the other hand, needs someone who

• “will hold failed leadership in this state accountable.”
• “will focus and route federal programs to the right receptors.”
• will woek “to stem the exodus of corporate headquarters from places like Decatur and Peoria.”
• encourage “the use of tools such as Opportunity Zones with serious hand-holding, alongside developers, to make projects happen.”
• “lives here.”
• “is not a highly partisan creature of any establishment.”
• is intolerant of corruption. (“Shortly after the arrest of Rod Blagojevich, Curran said: ‘I’m walking away from the party of corruption. To suggest that Rod Blagojevich is an aberration and is not typical of machine politics in the city is an outright lie.’ He left his party for its corrupt ways. Durbin won’t even speak of his party’s corrupt ways.”
• as Lake County Sheriff, he diversified his 500-person staff to better reflect the county’s population.

The editorial concludes,

Curran is surely the underdog in the five-way race. Also on the ballot: businessman Willie Wilson, Green Party candidate David Black and Libertarian Danny Malouf.

But Curran is a qualified candidate who has shown independence and political courage in office. He gets our endorsement.