Former Illinois governor Jim Edgar, a widely respected moderate Republican, has been critical of his party's candidate for the state's highest office this election cycle. So the Bill Brady camp must have breathed a sigh of relief at Edgar's announcement Monday night that the ex-gov would still be voting Republican in November.
"The incumbency has not been as good to [sitting Gov. Quinn] as I thought it might be," said Edgar, according to the Daily Herald.
Edgar has repeatedly ripped Brady, a conservative state senator from Bloomington, for his plans for a 10 percent across-the-board budget cut. He called the proposal "naive," and said he "was hoping that Kirk [Dillard] would be the [Republican] nominee." Dillard lost to Brady by roughly 200 votes in an extremely narrow GOP primary for governor.
At the same time, Edgar praised Quinn for proposing an income tax increase: "I give Governor Quinn credit for having the courage to call for a tax increase in an election year," he said during a talk at Elmhurst College in March.
Brady has repeatedly attacked Quinn for proposing a tax increase, arguing that "this is absolutely the wrong time to increase the tax rate."
Despite their disagreements, Edgar told a crowd at the University of Illinois's Springfiled campus Monday night that Gov. Quinn has failed to use his time in office to bring the massive budget deficit under control, and that he would be voting for Brady in November.
But he also said that he wouldn't be taking that support on the road, according to the Herald:
Edgar, however, said he likely wouldn't hit the campaign trail to help shore up support for Brady. He said he would rather sit this election out and spend more time in his role as an academic at the University of Illinois.
Nonetheless, the announcement comes as a welcome bit of good news for the Brady campaign, which is seeking respite from the tax-return flap of recent days. After Senator Brady initially refused to release his 2009 returns, he faced strong pressure from Governor Quinn on the issue. Finally, he agreed to allow the some members of the media to look at his tax documents for three hours last Friday.
Even the brief glimpse revealed that Brady has paid no federal income taxes in the last two years, a fact that the Quinn camp pounced on. And many members of the media have asked why they were only allowed such a brief window to examine the documents.
Brady has insisted that the tax return conversation is a distraction from the central issues of the campaign. Still, though, he must be grateful that Edgar's voice won't join the rising chorus of his opponents.