What few people realize, however, is that there still isn’t a viable opposition party in Illinois so the safe money is on the Democrats still holding power after the 2014 elections. From Chad Stafko at American Thinker:
The Land of Lincoln and home state of President Barack Obama has become nothing short of a fiscal and economic disaster. The Illinois labor market continues to weaken and the State government loses money by the truckload every day. If you think the nation’s economic and fiscal conditions are bad, and they are, then pull up a chair and consider it could be worse…you could live in Illinois.
Illinois has a population of about 12.8 million, making it the fifth largest state in the Union. It has oustanding debt of more than $153 billion or nearly $12,000 per citizen of the State. Worse is the fact that Illinois is spending some $6 billion more than it is raking into its coffers.
[…]
These are indeed atrocious fiscal numbers, but the woeful economic conditions in the State are equally unimpressive. Consider that about 1 in 6 citizens are on food stamps in Illinois…1 in 6! Add to that, Illinois is currently sporting a whopping 9.5% unemployment rate. That is nearly three times the unemployment rate of North Dakota (3.3%), which is the state with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation and some 2% ahead of the national unemployment rate.
