Racial issues intensify Illinois gubernatorial primary

[alp227]

by Lois Romano, The Washington Post
February 2, 2010

CHIGAGO -- Here at Manny's legendary deli, where expansive pols have for decades stormed across the linoleum floor appealing for votes from the well-fed, Dan Hynes does not suit up as much of a dragon slayer.

Slight and pale, and a bland campaigner by Chicago standards, the Democratic state comptroller can't seem to entice folks to look up from their bulky corned beef sandwiches. But outside the restaurant, in a nasty, personal and racially tense race, Hynes has managed to come within a hair of knocking off Gov. Pat Quinn in Tuesday's Illinois Democratic primary.

In the final days of the contest, the men, both of whom are white, have taken the fight to the African American community, sputtering charges and countercharges of race-baiting as they brawl over the words of a revered dead black mayor, and whether Hynes for years ignored criminal activity in a historically black cemetery.

The latest polls from last week show that Hynes and Quinn -- who was up 26 points a month ago -- are locked in a statistical dead heat, with upward of 20 percent of likely voters undecided. Although the angry political climate is affecting incumbents across the country, the Illinois cliffhanger may turn less on national trends than on the notoriously rough nature of this state's politics. "Incompetent" is one of the kinder adjectives they have called each other.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020103478.html

[madrchsod]

1. nothing out of the ordinary during election time in chicago

i doubt it will ever change