Republican Governatorial Candidate Dan Proft

Folks, Republicans and Independents cannot win with re-runs of those Republicans who have been part of a failed Illinois State Government all these years.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Proft Responds to Jim Edgar's Endorsement of Kirk Dillard

October 12, 2009

In response to former Governor Jim Edgar’s endorsement of his friend State Sen. Kirk Dillard today, conservative Republican candidate for Governor Dan Proft issued the following statement:

This election is not about politicians endorsing other politicians. The challenge and opportunity for the Republican Party in Illinois is to nominate a candidate for Governor who can and will provide constructive policy form to the anger and frustration felt by people who play by the rules and who have been gamed by a system set up to benefit and advance the political careers of Chicago Democrats.

If we have a gubernatorial nominee that blurs the lines of distinction between the two parties, then we will continue to lose elections. Sen. Dillard is a perfectly fine gentleman, but he has been a part of the failed go-along-to-get-along approach in Springfield for the past 15 years. Nothing more clearly illustrates this than Sen. Dillard’s decision to appear in a television commercial for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign in which Sen. Dillard offered the following review of Obama:

"Senator Obama worked on some of the deepest issues we had and he was successful in a bipartisan way."

"Republican legislators respected Senator Obama. His negotiation skills and an ability to understand both sides would serve the country very well."

I disagree with Sen. Dillard that either President Obama’s “negotiation skills” or his “ability to understand both sides” is serving our country well.

Sen. Dillard is content to manage the decline of this state. He has voted for tax increases, more borrowing, and expanded gambling—all policies advanced by Chicago Democrats to finance the status quo.

We need a gubernatorial nominee who will take the fight to the Chicago Democrats and present a clear, contrast, conservative reform vision for what Illinois could be and where our state could go if we completely rethought and reordered all of the big-ticket systems in state government, not a single one of which is financially sustainable in current form.

I am the only candidate in either party proposing tax cuts and spending caps to revitalize our economy by rewarding entrepreneurship and encouraging work and investment.

I am the only candidate in either party with a plan to overhaul K-12 education in Illinois to end the discrimination against children based on their address and household income.

I am the only candidate in either party who has a proposed a market-oriented reform to Medicaid to control the program’s costs while improving the access to quality care for Medicaid-eligible Illinoisans.

If the Republican Party wants to win in 2010, we have to define our constituency as the people who play by the rules in Illinois and take the fight to the Chicago Democrats on their behalf with our policy vision.

As far as Sen. Dillard taking up this fight? Just this weekend on the Jerry Agar Show on WGN-Radio (AM 720), Sen. Dillard said, “I can go helmet-to-helmet with Speaker Madigan, if I have to.”

After 15 years in Springfield, Sen. Dillard has apparently not yet seen the need to go “helmet-to-helmet” with Speaker Madigan. And therein lies the problem in Springfield and the fatal flaw of Sen. Dillard’s candidacy.

###