Thompson: Illinois government a mess
August 21st, 2008 at 01:29pm Chuck Sweeny
James R. “Big Jim” Thompson came to Rockford Wednesday to stump for Republican state’s attorney candidate Chuck Prorok. In a news conference at Cliffbreakers, he talked about the state of state politics and government. The state’s longest-serving governor — 14 years — said he is not amused.
“The current situation in Springfield is one of the most distressing I’ve ever seen. Certainly waht I hear on the streets from Democrats and Republicans alike is that there’s plenty of blame to go around,” Thompson said. “There’s an inability to agree on most challenging problems. We haven’t had a construction program since Gov. George Ryan,” he added.
“There’s failure to agree on how to finance a program, failure of Democratic legislators to trust the governor to fairly appropriate money for programs; that’s something I’ve not seen before,” he said.
By way of contrast, Thompson, a moderate Republican and Chicagoan who worked with mostly Democratic majorities in one or both houses of the General Assembly, said he got everything he wanted from lawmakers “except a World’s Fair. I wanted to have a 1992 World’s Fair in Chicago, and they said no.”
Thompson, a supporter and campaigner for John McCain, conceded the Arizona senator won’t win Illinois — Barack Obama’s home state — “but I think McCain has a good chance to win the presidency. The polls I’ve seen have McCain ahead. The electoral count is very close,” said Thompson, who said Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Colorado are some swing states where “McCain has a decent shot.”
Entry Filed under: Big Jim Thompson
2 Comments Add your own
1. Bruno Behrend | August 22nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
A lot of that blame “to go around” rests squarely on the shoulders of Jim Thompson, so forgive us if we chuckle at his thinking that Illinois is a “mess.”
Did he notice a looming “mess” when he converted the Republican Party from a party of ideas to a party of patronage hacks seeking contracts and pensions?
Did he notice a looming “mess” as he filled his party with future clients that he would be “defending” as they ended up under indictment?
Did he notice a looming “mess” when he viewed the Constitution as a set of “guidelines” instead of rules?
Why does anyone care about what Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar think? They are part and parcel of everything that is wrong with Illinois.
There is ONLY ONE thing that will fix this poor state, and that is for all of US to vote “Yes” on the Constitutional Convention in November and put 118 new fresh faces into the delegate seats.
Dems and Reps can’t fix this state. They are the ones who wrecked it. Only YOU can fix Illinois. Vote “yes” in November
yesforillinois . com
Did he notice that
2. Craig Knauss | August 22nd, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Big Jim almost bankrupted the state. He had a whole slew of megabucks projects that he pushed. And almost every one was for Chicago. The McCormick Place expansion was more than a half a billion dollars. There was a $200M stadium so the White Sox wouldn’t leave town. There was something like $250M spent on the new state office building that bears his name. And he pushed for a multi-billion dollar Chicago Worlds Fair. He spent so much money, the Republicans complained about it.
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