* Rasmussen Reports has a couple of new polls out today. The first has Attorney General Lisa Madigan leading all candidates for US Senate…
Among all Illinois residents, Madigan attracts 25% support, closely followed by [Congressman] Jackson with 23%. Duckworth is next with the backing of 21%. Schakowksy has seven percent (7%) support, with [Emil] Jones at three percent (3%). Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided.
Among Democrats, however, Jackson leads…
The Chicago congressman who has been openly campaigning for the job has the support of 36% of Illinois Democrats, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state taken Tuesday night.
Tammy Duckworth, director of Illinois’ Department of Veterans Affairs, is next with the backing of 29%, followed by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan with 17%.
Frankly, it’s interesting to see Duckworth doing so well in a statewide poll.
* More…
Madigan is the leader among men with 28% support, while Jackson is the favorite of a plurality of women (29%). Next for women is Madigan with 22% backing. Second for men is Duckworth (24%), who gets 19% support among women. Just 15% of men support Jackson.
Eighty-one percent (81%) of African-Americans favor Jackson, compared to 10% of whites. Madigan gets the highest level of white support (31%), followed by Duckworth with 22%. Statistically, Madigan has 0% support among blacks.
* And the guv still isn’t popular…
Just 15% now say Blagojevich is doing a good or excellent job as governor, while 61% rate his performance as poor.
* Meanwhile…
Two-thirds of adults in Illinois (66%) are opposed to a presidential pardon for former Governor George Ryan, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.
Just 23% say Ryan, the Republican convicted on federal corruption charges in 2006, should be pardoned. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided. […]
Twenty-eight percent (28%) of men favor a pardon for Ryan, compared to 19% of women. Seventy percent (70%) of whites oppose a pardon, compared to 22% who support it. Blacks are closely divided, with those opposed to a pardon having just a four-point edge.
Members of Ryan’s own political party are more unforgiving than his former political opponents. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Republicans oppose a pardon versus 59% of Democrats. Twenty-six percent (26%) of both parties favor pardoning Ryan. Among those unaffiliated with either major political party, just 15% support a pardon, while 77% oppose one.
Opposition to a pardon generally rises with income level.
Except Ryan isn’t asking for a full pardon, so the poll is flawed.
*** UPDATE 1 *** [Posted by Kevin Fanning] Joe Birkett enters the debate over Ryan’s possible commutation with a letter to President Bush:
While we empathize with Ryan’s family and their plight, I do not believe the hardships they face in his absence are reason enough to free inmate George Ryan. All inmates have families, not just those who led privileged lives prior to their incarceration. The suffering faced by former Governor Ryan’s family is no greater than that experienced by the families of thousands of other inmates across Illinois. That Senator Durbin would ask for special treatment for a man who for decades enjoyed special treatment at the expense of taxpayers is a slap in the face of justice.
[…]
Please help Illinois restore its once proud image of open, honest government by denying Senator Durbin’s request for leniency for a pubic official who has disgraced himself and the great state of Illinois.
* And John Patterson takes us on a stroll down memory lane like only he can…
Turns out, Gov. Rod Blagojevich had a nose for corruption back when he was in Congress.
The Chicago Democrat sat on a House committee looking into President Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardons, including the controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich.
Rich’s wife gave more than $1 million to the Democratic Party and nearly $500,000 to Clinton’s presidential library.
Blagojevich said at the time he thought the pardon was shady. He apparently could see a conflict of interest at that time when it came to massive donations and the distribution of government largesse.
“I think the pardon would not have happened if not for the campaign contributions,” Blagojevich was quoted as saying then.
Blagojevich also made clear then that he thought Rich’s pardon was an abuse of presidential power. He called it “indefensible and reprehensible.”
Funny how things change.