While I still think things
will eventually calm down and Gov. Rod Blagojevich's insistence that senior
citizens be given free rides on all mass transit systems will one day be viewed
as a welcomed entitlement, it's obvious that lots and lots of Illinoisans don't
feel that way right now.
Blagojevich stunned the state
this month when he announced that he'd flip-flop on his election pledge and
finally agree to a regional sales tax hike to bail out Chicagoland's
mass transit systems as long as seniors rode free. The response, almost
uniformly, was anger at the governor's latest political stunt. This ploy may have been the last straw
in an ongoing public disillusionment with the same man Illinois reelected
barely more than a year ago.
For almost a year, the entire
state has been treated to an in-depth and disheartening lesson in legislative
and gubernatorial politics.
Starting with the uproar over
skyrocketing electric rates and the foot-dragging by Senate President Emil
Jones and Gov. Blagojevich in finding a solution, to the governor's disastrous
proposal for a Gross Receipts Tax in the Spring and his failure to pass a health insurance bill, through the
long, hot, frustrating summer of budget negotiations and the governor's
resulting veto of much-needed local projects, to the fight over Cook County
property tax "relief" last Autumn, the school funding brawls and
stalls in early winter, the seemingly complete acceptance of (and the
governor's flip-flop on) a Chicago-owned casino and the never-ending battle
over transit funding, the public has had a bellyful of information - all of it
bad.
Through it all, the
governor's polling has dropped lower than his law school grade point
average. The latest statewide
poll, taken by Fako & Associates earlier this
month, had Blagojevich's favorable rating at an absolutely miserable 20
percent. More than 63 percent of
registered voters had a negative view of the governor.
And those numbers likely
dropped again when Blagojevich made what would normally be a politically beneficial
move by grafting a proposal onto the mass transit bailout bill to give senior
citizens free rides.
Blagojevich's amendatory veto
of the transit bill to insert the senior freebie resonated loudly throughout
every region of the state.
Legislators reported receiving dozens, even hundreds, of calls and
e-mails from furious constituents urging that the freebie be rejected. Even many senior citizens were
angry. It was if the entire state
had morphed into the Illinois House, which always has a negative reaction to
anything the governor does and draws together as one whenever Blagojevich makes
one of his goofy plays.
The fall from grace isn't
over yet. Blagojevich, Jones and
the House and Senate Republicans risk irking voters again with their push to expand gaming in Illinois and
Chicago in order to pay for a capital construction plan.
The public is not happy with
this expansion plan. According to
that Fako & Associates poll, just 38 percent say
they back a plan for a Chicago-owned casino along with two more boats, slots at
tracks and expansion at current riverboats, while 57 percent oppose the
idea. The poll of 801 registered
voters was taken January 3-6 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.46 percent.
Moreover, the public is
incredibly cynical about how the cash will be spent and how the new casinos
will be operated. For
instance, 60 percent of registered voters agreed with the statement:
"Politicians in Springfield and Chicago canŐt be trusted to keep their
promise to actually use profits from casinos for mass transit and
infrastructure projects," while 67 percent agreed with this:
"Politicians in Springfield and Chicago cannot be trusted to expand
gambling in Illinois and would be influenced and corrupted by stakeholders in
the new casinos."
67 percent said they thought
organized crime and gambling addiction would increase with expanded gaming, 72
percent said Chicago can't be trusted to run a casino without scandals and
corruption and 71 percent acknowledged that casino revenues aren't a stable
funding source.
The numbers likely show one
reason why House Speaker Michael Madigan has dragged his feet on gaming
expansion during the run-up to the February 5th primary. This is not a popular idea. And it's just one more public opinion
bomb waiting to go off in the governor's face.
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Rich Miller also publishes
Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.