Hotly anticipated . . . the Jane the Actuary endorsements in this Tuesday’s Illinois primary.
If you’re voting on the Republican ticket
For governor, Jeanne Ives.
Yes, in the ordinary course of events this violates the Buckley Rule of the most conservative electable candidate — but I don’t believe that Rauner will win in the fall, so it’s a moot point. And, yes, Ives isn’t very judicious in the way she expresses her views on these social issues, but that’s one strike against her that’s balanced by a pragmatic recognition that it’s not sufficient to play the blame game of “I would have succeeded were it not for that dastardly Mike Madigan,” as Bruce Rauner is doing.
For 9th Congressional district, Sargis Sangari.
Yes, it’s not clear from the websites of either him or his primary opponent, D. Vincent Thomas Jr., who is the better choice — both of these men are educated professionals with military service backgrounds — but I’ll rely on the Chicago Tribune’s endorsement of Sangari.
For other offices, I plan to bring the Tribune list of endorsements into the voting booth with me, trusting them to have done their due diligence in assessing the candidates, especially in terms of weeding out the true stinkers.
If you’re voting on the Democratic ticket
Yes, I have to bite my tongue not to recommend Daniel Biss, on the premise that Ives, should she win the nomination, would have a better shot at winning if she were pitted against the Democratic candidate who’s most clearly off in left field. But I won’t, because he is, indeed, off in left field, promising to give Illinoisians an endless stream of goodies funded by a commodities transaction tax.
The Tribune has endorsed Chris Kennedy, and I suppose he’d be a fine choice, no better or worse a governor than Illinois deserves. I’m somewhat indifferent to the choice of Kennedy vs. Pritzker, as each of them is promising lots of goodies to the voting public, just not as many as Biss. It seems to come down to whether you find it more objectionable to pursue elected office based on your family name or your family’s wealth. Pritzker is, as of the latest poll, the clear front-runner, but it’a s mystery to me what the actual likely outcomes are, given the question of voter turnout and enthusiasm, so I don’t have a sense as to whether a vote for Kennedy is a wasted vote or not.
When it comes down to it, though, if you’re in Cook County, the most important thing you can do is to vote for Frederick “Fritz” Kaegi for Cook County Assessor. Since the GOP is not fielding a candidate, and any GOP candidate would have no hope of winning even if they did, this is the election that matters for that race, and as the Tribune has documented repeatedly, the current officeholder JosephBerrios is corrupt and should not be returned to office just because of his greater name recognition and his lie-filled advertisements.
Regardless of party
Print out the Tribune list of endorsements. Use it to ensure that no candidate slips through the primaries as the result of ballots being split among multiple candidates, and due to certain voters feeling the obligation to vote for a candidate, any candidate, to meet their civic obligation.
And whatever you do, if you’re in the 3rd Congressional district, please, please don’t accidentally vote for the Nazi Arthur Jones.
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