Many years ago, back in the early 1980's, I was employed by Lerner Newspapers and vividly recall having a conversation with the then-publisher, the late Louis Lerner. Louie, as I knew him, told me that keep an eye out for this Pat Quinn guy. "He is a real up and comer and reform-minded and is going to be governor one day," Lou would gleefully tell me. At the time Quinn served on the Board of Tax Appeals and was pushing for "tax reform." That would be his mark, tax reform for the little guy. He was also instrumental in forming the Citizens Utility Board or CUB.
The point of this is that becoming the governor of Illinois for Patrick Quinn is the culmination of a dream come true. And now that he has become Governor Pat Quinn, there is no way he will let this go. And he made many political and personal alliances over the years that I believe will sustain him throughout the next two years and beyond: in 2010 when Patrick Quinn will run for and win election as the Governor of Illinois.
First, he will have a built-in alliance with veterans and veterans families for all the attention he has given them. Governor Patrick Quinn, as Lt.. Governor, attended every single funeral service for every soldier that died in the service of their country in Iraq. Veterans are a huge constituency and one that he will be able to build upon.
"I believe he's attended almost every single funeral of our Iraqi and Afghanistan veterans and that just goes to show you the soul of this man," said Roy Dolgos, former IL Veterans Affairs Director.
Governor Quinn will also address the Illinois budgetary shortfall and will likely raise the state income tax. He has great political cover in that he can blame former Governor Blagojevich's neglect in forcing his hand to raise taxes. He also announced today that he will meet regularly with the other constitutional state officers, all of whom have professed an interest at one time or another in becoming governor. Like most men, I love to quote the Godfather movie: "keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer."
No, Patrick Quinn has worked much too hard toward his dream of being governor all these many years and he will not let it slip away. Not without a fight.
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