"He’s one of the most unpopular governors in America. His state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. And he’s long been ripe for a primary challenge."
It barely took 30 words for WaPo's Sean Sullivan to sum up the challenges facing Illinois Democrats this election cycle - only a year after we finally got rid of Federal Prisoner Number 40892-424, Blago's lieutenant governor has absurdly high disapproval ratings but doesn't have a single primary challenger for re-election.
Since Bill Daley dropped out yesterday, I've already seen a Facebook page dedicated to drafting Dan Hynes, Quinn's progressive 2010 Democratic primary opponent who lost the nomination by a little less than 1% of the vote, a certain favorite daughter of Illinois backhanded Quinn as now being "entered into the Guinness World Records Book as luckiest politician," and the state's one-term Treasurer, Alexi Giannoulias, preemptively issued a statement saying he doesn't want the job.
To say Quinn has been a disaster as governor would be putting it mildly. He's taking pages from the Blagojevich's populist playbook and refusing to pay state legislators. Oh, and he even got booed at the Blackhawks Stanley Cup victory celebration, so there's that.
So right now, there's not a lot for Illinois Democrats to do but wait for Hynes (ok, I'm biased, he was my candidate four years ago) or someone else with actual credibility to pick up the ball and take the challenge to Quinn.
Illinois Democrats deserve a real choice next year, not an unpopular governor who doesn't have a shot in the general election.
Let's hope our fifth largest state gets a real choice for governor.