Oct 24, 2007 6:07 pm US/Central
GOP Hopes To Exploit Gov's Weakness In '08
Republicans Hope To Take Advantage Of Blagojevich's Approval Ratings
(CBS)
There's good news and bad news Wednesday night for Illinois republicans hoping to rebuild their party.
A new statewide survey by Illinois Wesleyan University shows just 21 percent of voters approve of the job President Bush is doing; 69 percent disapprove.
But Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich doesn't fare much better. Only 23 percent approve of the job he's doing, while 60 percent disapprove.
CBS 2 political editor Mike Flannery explains how the GOP hopes to exploit the governor's weakness in next year's elections.
While their toddlers explored the conference room at the College of DuPage's Early Childhood Learning Center, a group of young mothers met with 10 Republican state representatives, all women themselves, on a statewide listening tour that they hope will help rebuild a political party that currently holds not even one statewide office.
Grayslake Rep. Sandy Cole said "I'm very much interested in hearing what you might have to say about what we can do better in the legislature."
After his own listening tour last summer, the party chairman has a few ideas that may show up on a Republican Reform Agenda during next year's election campaign:
-All tax increases might need a super-majority 60% vote in the General Assembly;
-tax breaks for families with school kids might be offered;
-banning "Pay to Play" contributions and contracts might also be included; it's an issue the Democrats have double-talked for years.
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andrew McKenna said, "There's chaos in Springfield. Every Democratic legislator is a part of that chaos. This governor has been a terrible governor."
One measure of how serious the Republican legislators are about their grassroots campaigning: among the young mothers they met were several self-described Democrats and a leader of Illinois Republicans for the group Barack Obama For President. Many, though, were turned off by Democrats proposing huge new tax increases.
Mother and Taxpayer Noelle Tolczyk said, "Any kind of tax increase that's taking away from our family money, that's not a good thing."
House Republican leader Tom Crosss said, "You've got an assault on business, you've got an assault on the taxpayer, you've got an inability to govern. All three of those things combined clearly show a distinction between the two parties right now in Illinois."
Republicans in Illinois hope to make next year's election a referendum on the feuding Democrats.
But as the voter survey by Illinois Wesleyan's professor Tari Renner showed, Republican George Bush has an even lower job approval than Gov. Blagojevich, not to mention his War in Iraq.
Democrats will remind voters of that every day.
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