Animal Farm

After significantly ratcheting up his brief bid for Senate last week, Illinois GOP Chairman is scaling it back down now.
A close source told the Daily Herald Friday McKenna was "dead serious" about his run and could enter even if U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk of Highland Park finally pulled the trigger.
Over the weekend it was clear that top national Republicans were asking McKenna to back down and let Kirk have a clean shot at getting to the general election.
McKenna then put out this statement today:

“As Party Chairman my goal has been to build Party unity. Mark Kirk and I met last evening as part of an ongoing discussion about the U. S. Senate race. I reassured Mark that if he chooses to be a candidate, I will not oppose him.”

A day after Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan backed off a gubernatorial or senate bid, another formidable challenger to Gov. Pat Quinn is emerging.
Three-term Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes posted a note to friends on his facebook page today saying he is taking a "serious look at running for Governor and what we can do together to solve our problems."
It is a noticeable step beyond a statement he made to the press Wednesday when he said he was considering his options.
Hynes asked his friends to weigh in on his decision, which he said he will make in the coming weeks.
Hynes would enter the race with high name recognition and a political apparatus in place. He had nearly $3 million in the bank this spring.

Unfortunately, the General Assembly chose a short-sighted scheme with narrow political goals that addresses some but defers more far-reaching, difficult choices for yet another year.”

Gov. Pat Quinn?
Wrong.
That's from Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri's statement in reluctantly signing the budget lawmakers sent him last month.
I suppose Quinn could take some comfort in that there appear to be very few happy governor's around the country.

If Crystal Lake Republican state Rep. Mike Tryon's take is even close to accurate, it doesn't sound like Gov. Pat Quinn made much progress convincing suburban lawmakers to vote for his tax hike.

And Tryon rhetorically asked the one question that is probably the biggest political hurdle Quinn faces.

“Would you give these guys more money to spend?”

Here's Tryon's postgame recap ...

“It didn’t go too well. I don’t think the governor won any votes for his tax increase,” Tryon said.

He suggested Quinn start over and put education and health care on the chopping block even if it means losing out on some federal stimulus dollars.

Gov. Pat Quinn's billion-dollar budget cuts calls on state workers taking a dozen unpaid furlough days this budget year. The catch is that there's no provision for furloughs in the state's contract with its employees' union. So the union would have to agree to the furloughs. As of this afternoon, the union says there's been no formal request for furloughs or for that matter notices of layoffs. The contract requires 30 days notice.

Perhaps Quinn could announce furloughs like this (from the1958 Blake Edwards film "The Perfect Furlough").