The Next Spitzer?

Rich Miller’s weekly column has some fascinating info.

I had low expectations for Lisa Madigan going in, and she has surpassed every expectation I would have had if I had high expectations when she was elected.

It appears that she’s on the radar of the US Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove because they fear her as the next Eliot Spitzer.

The U.S. Chamber and other national business groups have a different take, however. They see Lisa Madigan as the next Eliot Spitzer, New York’s fiery and highly successful attorney general who is the odds-on favorite to become that state’s next governor. The business types don’t want Attorney General Madigan stepping into Spitzer’s national leadership role, so they’ve committed to spend millions to defeat her.

Bigtime money attracts bigtime attention. Cue Karl Rove.

Word from on high is that Rove is working on a strategy for the Illinois attorney general’s race that would theoretically benefit all the state’s Republican candidates. Some gubernatorial candidates have been asked to go on the attack against Madigan, but there haven’t been any eager takers to date.

From the newest Quinnipiac Poll

Spitzer has a 57 – 17 percent approval rating.

Even better

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the likely Democratic candidate for Governor next year, leads Pataki 53 – 32 percent, compared to 54 – 30 percent February 10.

Spitzer buries possible Republican candidate William Weld 60 – 16 percent.

And Rove is thinking of bringing Cheney in to campaign against her?

Please, please do. Cheney’s numbers hover around 40% approval nationwide and that tanks further in a blue state such as Illinois. While Rove has had remarkable success in Republican leaning states, he hasn’t had anything like that success in blue states and in fact, his pet project of a major reallignment in terms of a large Republican majority hasn’t come true and doesn’t appear to be changing–largely because the underlying demographics aren’t nearly as favorable as they were in Texas.

The stupidity of the entire idea is that the US Chamber can bury a candidate with a strong reputation–the reality is that when they attacked Spitzer, his stature grew. Lisa should send them some flowers.

Besides not having a candidate, the Republicans are trying to run the wrong campaign in the wrong state.