We haven’t even gotten to the Republican Candidates and more Democrats are jumping into the Illinois Senate Race. Trial Lawyer John Simmons joins the race promising to largely self-fund. ‘
My first reaction is Who? What? Huh?
I suppose he has a point that a fractured field could lead to an opening, but something jumped out at me,
Simmons, 35, lives in Edwardsville, near St. Louis. As the only Downstate Democrat, he could grab much of the Downstate vote, while the six Chicago candidates split the metropolitan area vote.
The problem is that Southern and Metro-East Dems are labor heavy with Hynes already having much of labor wrapped up in the region and many of the state lege members such as Vince Demuzio. Costello hasn’t committed (AFAIK), but he looks to be backing Hynes. Simmons is going to have a hard time finding daylight in Metro-East with Obama taking the African-American vote. Central Illinois is either labor or goo–goo oriented also providing Hynes and Obama advantages. Hull has as much money and closer ties to the Governor so I’m at a loss as to how Simmons comes out looking well.
I have some other developments that will be coming out over the weekend for the Senate race, but I find Simmons entry curiuos.
And I’ll be covering more on my comments about millionaires running for office. Let me say, my comments came off far harsher on Hull than I intended. I have a problem with the class of people who run for office without public experience, but that doesn’t mean all of the individuals who do so are necessarily bad. And it extends to political legacies as well.