The whirlwind primary election campaign has gone into overdrive, with various developments — Harold from the grave, a surprising Cook County poll, Bob Schillerstrom dropping out — occurring almost too fast to report. With a week and a weekend to go, here's what to look for: For governor, the Democratic brawl between incumbent Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes is still intensifying, with Mr. Quinn yet to lay out a full response to Mr. Hynes' TV spot featuring Harold Washington talking about why he fired Mr. Quinn as city revenue director in 1987. The ad clearly hurts, because it strikes Mr. Quinn at his most vulnerable spot: competency. But Mr. Hynes equally clearly has left himself open to a counterattack. "It's sort of ironic for Hynes to bring it up," WVON-AM talk-show host Cliff Kelley told me in a phone chat. "If it were up to Hynes and his father" (Tom Hynes, who left the Democratic Party to run as an independent against Mr. Washington in 1987) "Harold never would have been mayor." Team Hynes responds that that's his father, not him — though the comptroller surely is being backed by many of the same folks who backed his father 23 years ago. But Mr. Kelley makes an interesting point: The last time Mr. Hynes ran for office other than comptroller, he ran for the U.S. Senate, against a fellow named Barack Obama. Expect to hear more about that, too. And don't be at all shocked if the Hynes folks have a counterattack to the counterattack: film of Mr. Quinn saying lots of nice things about Rod Blagojevich. On the GOP side of the race for guv, Bob Schillerstrom's decision to drop out removes one of three relative moderates from the field — thereby helping those who remain. That's why conservatives like Dan Proft and Andy McKenna Jr. are squawking so loudly about the move. But which moderate? Mr. Schillerstrom endorsed Jim Ryan, whose campaign had stalled a bit of late and who now ought to get a nice boost. But like those two, Kirk Dillard also lives in DuPage County and had been appealing to centrist voters, so he could get a bit of a pop, too. Watch now to see if any of the remaining conservatives — Messrs. Proft and McKenna, Bill Brady and Adam Andrzejewski — follow Mr. Schillerstrom out. Back in Cook County, I was a bit surprised with results of the Tribune poll, which showed Toni Preckwinkle with 36% of decided voters. Dorothy Brown has 24%, Terry O'Brien 16% and Todd Stroger 11%. The surprise wasn't that Ms. Preckwinkle has moved up, or Ms. Brown down. The surprise was Mr. O'Brien's 16%, given that racial makeup of the field, and given that he was on TV weeks earlier than any other contender. Polls always underestimate the strength of candidates backed by powerful Democratic ward bosses, as Mr. O'Brien is. But he clearly has his work cut out — particularly now that Ms. Preckwinkle can go to African-Americans as the poll front-runner and tell them not to waste their votes. Perhaps, as a friend suggests, Ms. Preckwinkle's school-marmish TV ads are what voters are looking for after the wild Stroger days. And perhaps Mr. O'Brien will go negative on her in days to come. We'll see. * * * 2:15 p.m. update: Ms. Preckwinkle just picked up a big dividend from that Trib poll. The Service Employees International Union, which represents lots of county workers and had been holding off over concerns that Ms. Preckwinkle couldn't win, just endorsed her The unions praised her "record of distinguished public service" and said she will "deliver quality health care to those who need it most." If Mr. O'Brien does want to go negative, a good way would be to question whether Ms. Preckwinkle can both cut the rest of Mr. Stroger's sales-tax hike, as she's promised to do, and satisfy one of the tax's bigger backers: SEIU
via www.chicagobusiness.com
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