For the GOP, McKenna
For the GOP, McKenna
January 10, 2010
Chicago Tribune
Given their legacy in Springfield -- the state is spent dry and
foolishly indebted, the corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich looms --
Illinois Democrats are entirely capable of losing the governorship in
November. Whom should Republicans have ready to take command of state
government -- and to restore a financially responsible, reform-oriented
and jobs-friendly Illinois?
Democrats may still control the legislature next year. If so, a
Republican governor will have to succeed on the strength of
business-minded priorities, muscular executive orders, and the ability
to persuade Illinoisans that previous governors approved far grander
spending commitments than current and future taxpayers possibly can
afford.
We're attracted to several of the GOP candidates: As a group they
comprehend that Illinois governance needs to be dismantled and
reinvented. But this primary race has convinced us that businessman
Andy McKenna has the best skills set -- disciplined policy proposals,
but also a level demeanor -- to pull Illinoisans together.
McKenna would aggressively push new ideas for education and job
creation. He would be a no-nonsense governor after a decade of too many
FBI probes and too much insolvency. We see him as a just-the-facts
executive who could set, and sustain, a course to ethical and financial
stability. When he and other candidates appeared before our editorial
board, McKenna cut to the heart of Springfield's tendency to placate
powerful constituencies by bulldozing billions of dollars their way.
Nothing will happen to begin unraveling Illinois' financial fiasco,
McKenna soberly offered, "until somebody says, 'Here's the spending
level we're going to live with.'"
You can spend decades in Illinois and never hear a governor speak those words.
Instead you hear governors try to explain why this pension sweetener,
or that fat labor contract, or some supposedly crucial construction
project, is worth the high cost in taxes to today's generation -- and
the lazy borrowing that will steal from tomorrow's.
If he's nominated Feb. 2, McKenna wouldn't strike Illinois voters over
the next nine months as a man running for people-pleaser-in-chief.
We sense instead that, come Nov. 2, voters would know exactly what
they'd get in a Gov. McKenna: an honest, dependable candidate who ran
to solve problems and not because he needed the job or its power. (By
way of disclosure: His father, Andrew McKenna Sr., served on the board
of Tribune Co. until 2002.)
Visit chicagotribune.com/elections
to read McKenna's questionnaire responses and to view the videos in
which he and other GOP contenders explain their plans to rescue
Illinois. Ponder: Which candidates would put Illinois under adult
supervision. Which would demand that state government be more
economical and more effective. Which would look calmly at House Speaker
Michael Madigan or Senate President John Cullerton as often as needed
and say, "No."
Andy McKenna wouldn't perpetuate the pay-to-play culture that has
bankrupted Illinois and, amid humiliating scandals and federal crimes,
broken its spirit. We hope Republican primary voters give him a shot at
reviving Illinois.
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