Cook County and Illinois voters are poised to make sweeping changes in government, possibly creating one of the more liberal state governments in the country. As such critical issues as civil rights, healthcare, crime and education all face the chopping block due to budget crises, who will be making those cuts will be determined next Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The Democrats are seeking to take control of the state Senate, and keep control of the state House, while they also keep their eyes on a prize that has eluded them for more than two decades--the governor of the state.
Polls indicate Democrat Rod Blagojevich is ahead of Republican Jim Ryan, but because voter turnout is so critical, mid-term elections are notoriously hard to predict.
Over the past few weeks, Windy City Times has interviewed key candidates and activists, including openly gay Hank Perritt running in the 10th Congressional district, and both the top state Treasurer candidates. In this issue, we complete our candidate interviews with gay Judge Sebastian Patti ( up for retention ) , Attorney General candidate Lisa Madigan, and gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich.
Windy City Times does not endorse in political elections because the GLBT community is among the most diverse communities in this city and country. There are GLBTs of all political persuasions.
Our goal at Windy City Times is not to tell people how to vote, but to present our readers with as much information as possible so they can make educated decisions on election day.
In this 14-page section, which you can take into the polls, we have listed the candidate rankings, ratings, and endorsements from a variety of groups. Those groups include Equality Illinois, a gay-rights political action committee; Human Rights Campaign; the Chicago and Illinois chapters of the National Organization for Women; the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization; Personal PAC, a pro-choice PAC ( which endorses 100% pro-choice incumbents over any challengers ) ; the AIDS Foundation of Chicago; and the AFL-CIO labor group.
For each race, we also sent out a Windy City Times questionnaire ( different questions for federal, state, county, and judicial candidates ) .