Massachusetts at the President’s Home State?

“The Massachusetts episode is coming to a blue state near you” appears to be the motto.  That means if a state as blue as Massachusetts can elect Republicans, so can any other state in the country.  We can be one step close to seeing that.

Alexi Giannoulias has become the Democratic challenger to Mark Kirk for the President Obama’s former senate seat.  As we know, Roland Burris decided not to run.

At the offset, I see it to be a good election for Kirk.  Not only is there an anti-incumbent, anti-insider wave hitting statewide elections.  Giannoulias is regarded as an insider with problems with his own family bank.  To make matters worse, the President’s former Senate seat has been a source of controversy after he vacated it to assume his current role.  Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat tried to put the seat up for sale.  Shortly after being seated Burris was somehow implicated in the scandal despite initially denying it, hence he decided not to run.

Blago’s replacement, Pat Quinn is locked in a tight primary battle.  After 99% of the vote is in, the incumbent governor is only leadingby 7,000 votes.  Why is it so close?  It appears voters have a problem with higher taxes and a deficit as far as the eye can see.  So in this semi-final, the race for the governorship is far from over for now.

So this anti-incumebent wave will be expected to be brought to new heights here in Illinois.  It will be Kirk against the machine.

Blago Out, Quinn In

I don’t know if I was going to expect a quick decision on Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment trial. I know they can last for up to a month, maybe more.

But setting time it took aside, the verdict wasn’t in doubt. With a decision of 59 to nothing, Blago was voted-off from the governorship of Illinois. This all stemmed from wanting to sell Barack Obama’s senate seat as well as a threat to cut off funding for a local children’s hospital, among others.

In his final plea, he reminded politicians how the game of politics is played and the realities they faced. This apparently backfired. Instead, they were reminded of how he played this game to his advantage.

Pat Quinn, then Lieutenant Governor automatically and immediately succeeded Blago and promised a new era of politics. We don’t know how well he will do. This is given the long history of corruption in the land of Lincoln.