McHenry County Blog

If there were any questions about whether former Congressman Joe Walsh was at least thinking about running for Illinois Governor, the following commentary on Pat Quinn’s State of the State speech ought to dispel them:

“Back in 2011, Governor Quinn came to DC and sat down with our Congressional Delegation.

“Over the course of that hour he talked about how wonderful things were going in Illinois.

“I remember leaving that meeting with a Democrat colleague of mine shaking our heads at how utterly out of touch he was.

Joe Walsh speaking to the Huntley Area Tea Party.

“The same thought went thru my head listening to Quinn deliver the State of the State Address yesterday.

• We’re the least credit worthy state in the country
• We have the highest unfunded pension liability in the country
• Our unemployment rate is 8.7%, near the highest in the nation
• We’re so far in debt that we cant pay our bills
• Taxpayers and companies are leaving Illinois at a faster pace than any other State in the Country
• Even before the 2011 income tax hike, Illinois had the ninth highest overall tax burden nationwide.

“To repeat — individuals and companies are flying out of this State permanently faster than out of any other State in this Country…and this Governor spends an hour talking about

• guns and
• gay marriage.

“Beyond belief, he proposes to raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, which will only make more companies and jobs leave Illinois.

“Yes, its very sad that our governor is so out of touch, but in truth, he’s not very relevant here.

“One Party runs this State and one man – Mike Madigan – runs that Party.

“That fact won’t change until there is an actual Republican party in this State that makes its case for freedom and limited government and fights like heck to win people over to that case.

“For too long, the Democrats and Michael Madigan have allowed Illinois to become the least business friendly

• most in debt
• most corrupt State in the Country

“For too long Republicans have been afraid to stand for anything and have been perfectly willing to accept whatever crumbs Madigan and the Democrats would give them.

“That has to change or Illinois will never recover.”

Joe Walsh

Listening to the radio mid-day yesterday, I heard a story about just-out-of office Congressman Joe Walsh coming out against gay marriage at a Tea Party meeting he addressed.

He also expressed support for the Second Amendment and repealing the Democrats 67% state income tax hike.

(That income tax hike, by the way, might be noticed for the first time by Illinois taxpayers in their next pay checks.  That’s because when it went into affect two years ago, it did so at the same time that the Feds cut Social Security tax by the same number of percentage points.  That cut existed until the Fiscal Cliff tax hike legislation passed.)

Dan Rutherford.

All the potential Democratic Party candidates, I would imagine, are on the opposite side of these three incendiary issues.

Add in abortion and Walsh and Pat Quinn (or whoever) would have four differences on cutting edge issues, economic and social.

So why is the media paying any attention (see the Daily Herald, Crain’s Chicago Business) to a politician that liberals wished were completely washed up?

In spite of being number one on the Democrat’s hit list.

It’s because Joe Walsh can still draw a crowd.

A hundred showed up Thursday night in Arlington Heights to hear him.

But, before getting the chance to face off against a Democrat, Walsh would have to win a Republican primary election in 2014.

There is one Republican who voted for civil unions while State Senator.

Not gay marriage, granted, but close.

He’s State Treasurer and former State Rep. and Senator Dan Rutherford.

The evidence is below:

As one can see State Senator Dan Rutherford voted, “Yes”,” on the civil union roll call.

Might Joe Walsh be positioning himself for a race against Dan Rutherford for the GOP nomination for Governor?

Chicago Crain’s Business reporter Greg Hinz reports that McHenry County State Rep. Jack Franks “is a decent bet” to join the race.

As McHenry County Blog has been reporting, Hinz also notes that Pat Quinn challenger Dan Hynes is “getting all the publicity.”

Franks says he will made his decision a few days after Labor Day and indicates he wants to be sure his kids are “cool” with his running.

Meanwhile State Comptroller Hynes is holding a fundraiser in Chicago tonight for which McHenry County have been solicited.