Political gamesmanship abounds in debate: Candidates who support plan may pay steep price
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Political organizations are churning out news releases. Hesitant candidates are gradually taking positions. Politicians are trying to steer the debate their way.
Even candidates on the same side of the issue can end up using sharply different language.
Gov. Pat Quinn announced Sunday that the Obama administration is looking into buying a prison in Thomson to house terrorism suspects who are now being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The revelation brought a national controversy to Illinois and put other politicians on the spot: Did they support transferring these suspects to Illinois?
Quinn focuses largely on the jobs that would accompany housing the Guantanamo Bay detainees in an Illinois prison.
His chief rival in the Democratic primary, Comptroller Dan Hynes, bases his tentative support on the idea that Illinois should do its part to help President Barack Obama move prisoners out of U.S. military detention center in Cuba.
Republican Senate candidate Mark Kirk has fiercely attacked the idea, warning of terrorists in our neighborhoods and making Illinois “ground zero” for terrorist activities. Democrats accuse him of using irresponsible scare tactics lifted from the Bush-Cheney administration.
The Illinois Republican Party has sent out multiple press releases demanding that congressional candidates take a position. And party chairman Pat Brady argues the Thomson proposal fits into a larger pattern of Illinois Democrats ignoring the public’s wishes and mismanaging the state.
Some politicians have found new twists on positions taken by their colleagues.
When U.S. Rep. Phil Hare announced Wednesday that he supports the plan, he did it by going on the offensive and accusing some critics of displaying an un-American level of fear.
“This is the strongest nation on the planet, and I think it’s about time we start acting like it,” said Hare, a Democrat whose district lies near Thomson.
Gubernatorial candidate Bob Schillerstrom didn’t join his fellow Republicans in an outright rejection of the proposal. Instead, he called on Quinn to convene a special legislative session to debate the idea.
“It is time to move past the emotional tone of this debate and deliver concrete information that will allow residents to separate fact from fiction,” Schillerstrom said.
Political insiders of all stripes agree, however, that the issue shouldn’t be decided by what’s most popular with voters. The question, they insist, is what’s best for Illinois and for the country.
But they acknowledge the answer to that question carries major political consequences.
The conventional wisdom is that housing terrorism suspects in Illinois will be unpopular. So the candidates who support it could pay a steep price unless they can offer voters a convincing argument. Candidates on the other side stand to benefit politically unless they stumble.
Quinn chooses to focus mostly on the economic benefits. He claims it could bring 3,000 jobs to Thomson. He says relatively little about Illinois taking the prisoners as part of a national strategy for facing terrorism.
Talking about jobs may help sell the idea to the public, but it also opens Quinn to criticism on two fronts. Critics can argue that he is pandering instead of addressing people’s legitimate concerns and that he’s revealing the weakness of his economic development efforts.
“Is this Pat Quinn’s idea of a jobs plan?” asked Lance Trover, spokesman for Andy McKenna, a Republican candidate for governor.
Likewise, Kirk’s harsh attacks on the idea have generated plenty of attention, while the Senate candidates on the Democratic side have been nearly invisible. But the congressman also has received scathing criticism in newspaper editorials, and Democrats argue he sounds like former Bush adviser Karl Rove.
“We’re seeing leadership and honesty from Democrats, and fearmongering and hysteria from Republicans,” said Kathleen Strand, an adviser to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. “I think Illinois voters long ago grew tired of this kind of Rovian rhetoric.”
