Governor Pat Quinn faces a new challenge in the upcoming legislative session.
What appears to be a close victory for Quinn on election day won’t be viewed as a mandate from voters. About half the Democrats voting went for his challenger, Dan Hynes.
But as the Democratic Governor looks ahead to the fall campaign, the next few months are high risk and high reward for him. That’s according to political expert Kent Redfield with the University of Illinois Springfield.
REDFIELD: He’s got an opportunity to show some leadership, to get the state budget under control. For people to feel he’s growing into the job and that he deserves to win. That’s an opportunity the Republican nominee doesn’t have.
But Redfield says it go the other way for Quinn if there are more missteps in which he gets blamed. He says incidents like the secret early release of prisoners can make voters feel as though he’s not prepared to be Governor.