It was funny to receive an email blast from the Topinka campaign touting yet another poll showing she’s only 6 points behind. “See,” the campaign seemed to be saying, “we’re not dead yet – really, we’re not!”
Only the Jonestown-Kool Aid drinkers are heartened by this latest poll. You know the types. They’re like the legislators who do things like rationalize Topinka’s plan to throw billions more at the already bloated public school system. Or her plan to greatly expand gambling in Illinois, including placing a Casino in corrupt Chicago and Cook County.
Why would they engage is such rationalizing? Because they’re got a list of friends who need jobs or contracts that only a Republican governor can provide. Or they want to be able to tell their constituents that they’ve met personally with the governor on this or that issue. It makes them feel powerful – or at least relevant.
So what if Topinka disagrees with nearly everything in the Republican Platform except guns. The Topinka backers don’t care all that much about advancing Republican principles. If they did, they’d already be working to do so.
Regardless, our assumption is that this poll has about as much credibility as the NBC/Sun-Times poll.
A lot is going to happen in the next six and a half weeks. We know Rod has a lot of money to spend. And we know Judy still doesn’t have anything to offer the voters of Illinois.
And then there are debates. We assume Judy will spend much of her allotted time talking about silly $1500 gifts to Rod’s daughter and other things that cry “see, he’s more corrupt that me!” Rod will sound much like a highly programmed robot – expect a lot of repetition.
The debates should be fun. Heck, it’s going to be a fun month and a half.
