Although he's dipping in polls, Republican candidate for governor Bruce Rauner is picking up newspaper endorsements.
The Daily Herald was first out of the gate with an endorsement for Rauner; saying that "installing a Republican governor while both houses of the General Assembly and the state Supreme Court remain solidly Democratic" will at least give Illinois "a fighting chance" for change.
"Well, it's not exactly a surprise," Gov. Pat Quinn said, at a minimum wage rally last weekend at a Chicago church. "I think the most important way to win an election is doing what we're doing right here. Organizing everyday people."
Since then, Rauner,a private equity investor, has gotten the nod from Crain's Chicago Business, which said "Rauner is the best candidate to pull the Illinois economy out of its low-growth rut," as well as from the Chicago Tribune, which says Rauner deserves voters' support because he'll say "no" to Springfield's "entrenched Illinois interests."
Chicago's other daily paper, the Sun-Times, no longer endorses candidates.
Many downstate papers (including the Southern Illinoisian, the Springfield State Journal Register, the Peoria Journal Star, and the Belleville News Democrat) have not yet published their favored candidate.
As the media industry shifts, political consultants question the value of endorsements. Still, it gives politicians something to brag about.
Unlike endorsements from interest groups, however, newspaper endorsements don't come along with money, and campaign workers to help get out the vote.
Recent polls put Rauner and Quinn just about neck-and-neck.
