Nice guys finish last
Pat Quinn tries to win votes by being honest about bad news
POLITICS | Patrick Yeagle
When he’s not governing, one might find Gov. Pat Quinn blowing off steam while shooting some hoops at the Fenwick High School gym in Chicago – the same school he attended as a young man and where his youngest brother now coaches basketball.
“Sometimes I’ll have her (a staffer) come to the gym with me, and I’ll be shooting, and she’ll be taking notes,” Quinn says, joking that he is a man with two full-time jobs: running for governor and actually governing.
“Since January of last year, it’s been the busiest time of my life,” Quinn says between bites of roasted pork chop while sitting in the Commodities Pavilion at the Illinois State Fair. He says he likes to relax by reading, going to movies and taking walks to meet new people.
“I do have a life outside of politics,” he says, “but you have to put it in perspective; we have some serious challenges for our state.”
After about 40 years in Illinois politics, Quinn knows a thing or two about challenges.
Formerly the lieutenant governor, Quinn succeeded ousted governor Rod Blagojevich in January 2009, inheriting along with the governorship a crushing state debt and widespread public dissatisfaction with state government. Now, the longtime outsider Democrat is tasked with overcoming misplaced public anger about state funding cuts and an anti-tax fever that threatens to push Illinois into the waiting arms of a Republican. These factors are likely to give him plenty of steam to blow off at the gym before the Nov. 2 general election.
Patrick J. Quinn, 61, first ambled onto Illinois’ political scene in 1973 as a staffer for then-governor Dan Walker. After Walker lost the 1976 Democratic primary for governor, Quinn began a series of petition drives, collecting signatures to increase the power of public referendums, give citizens the power to recall elected officials, stop legislators from taking their full salaries on their first day, and reduce the size of the state House of Representatives from 177 to 118. The latter two measures passed, giving Quinn an image as a populist reformer to some and a troublemaker to others. The causes to which he clung decades ago still seem relevant, however, and a new constitutional amendment to allow citizens to recall the governor will appear on the same ballot that asks voters whether Quinn deserves a full term.
Charlie Wheeler, a former journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times and current professor at the University of Illinois Springfield, says Quinn was seen as sort of a “gadfly” during his early days in Illinois politics because he often championed populist causes.
“When he won the 1990 Democratic primary for state treasurer, there was a lot of apprehension among politicians and curiosity among reporters as to whether Pat Quinn would behave himself on a statewide ticket,” Wheeler says. “To his credit, he did behave himself, and I think he did a good job as treasurer.”
Quinn served as state treasurer from 1991
to 1995, and lost his bid for secretary of state in 1994. Before holding statewide office, he served as commissioner of the Cook County Board of Tax Appeals from 1982 to 1987, though he was fired by then-mayor Harold Washington. Asked why he wants another crack at governing the state, Quinn says he wants to help people.
“I believe in social justice, and I think the governor of Illinois can do a lot to help people have better lives,” he says. “Whether it’s health care, education, helping veterans, I think it’s important to have a mission of social justice.”
Quinn says his campaign is focused on jobs, education and rebuilding Illinois’ infrastructure. His $31 billion “Illinois Jobs Now!” capital plan hopes to stimulate the state’s economy and create 439,000 jobs, though paying for the plan relies on uncertain federal funds, higher taxes on things like alcohol, candy and driver fees, and a video gambling scheme that has yet to even collect enthusiasm, much less the $300 million Quinn projected [see article page 10].
