By John Dempsey, WLS-AM 890 News
(CHICAGO) Former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is dodging questions about whether he would run for office again, but he is promoting a petition drive to impose term limits on Chicago’s Mayor.
Quinn told “The Big John Howell Show” on WLS that he misses being in the limelight, but would not say if he is pondering another run for office.
Quinn was on the show to promote his new website, http://www.takechargechicago.org, which is designed to gather signatures to put a binding referendum on the ballot to impose a limit of two terms for the office of Mayor of Chicago.
Listen to Pat Quinn talk with Big John Howell here:
“All the big cities in America have term limits on their Mayor. New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Houston. Chicago doesn’t. We’re the only big city out of the top ten. So the idea of term limits is to make sure that there’s opportunity for every day people to have a person as Mayor who listens to them and I think it’s important to always have the people set the rules for the Mayor, and not the Mayor set the rules for the people.”
Quinn denies his effort is targeted at Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has seen his popularity plummet in the wake of the LaQuan McDonald shooting video.
He was asked about the current state budget standoff, in which Governor Bruce Rauner, who defeated Quinn in 2014, is engaged in a battle of wills with Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan.
“Well, I was Governor for six years, I dealt with all of the leaders including the Speaker of the House, and I think the best way to operate is civility in life. If you’re on a baseball team or a sports team, I was on a lot of teams in my life, you know you want to be civil to your opponents as well as your teammates. I think that’s been lost in Illinois. We need to have much more of that. You solve a lot more problems that way. It doesn’t mean you take away your principles.”
Quinn also said the way out of the current crisis is for Rauner and the leaders to sit down and negotiate and pass a budget that includes enough revenue to pay for all of the programs the state provides.
“Well you’re dealing with the whole State of Illinois if you’re the Governor. And you have to advocate a balanced budget that has revenue that equals the expenditure. That is fundamental. It’s in the constitution. I think they have to sit down and have a civil conversation and come up with a budget.”
Quinn got in a dig at Rauner by pointing out that the Illinois unemployment rate has been steadily rising.
“Illinois’ unemployment rate has gone up six straight months. We have the highest unemployment in the country. Clearly not having a budget has really harmed the people. For those who are wanting services whether it is education or health care or public safety which is quite important obviously right now and all the time, you need to have enough revenue to pay for those things. When you have no budget at all it causes harm to the economy and a lot of good people see the unemployment rate go up. When I left the Governor’s office the unemployment rate had declined or been stable for 25 straight months. Now we have six straight months of unemployment going up and an unbalanced budget with deficit spending galore. It’s not good.”
@ 2016 WLS-AM News
