Are you looking for a nonpartisan voter guide to the Pat Quinn vs. Bruce Rauner vs. Chad Grimm Governor's race? One that will give you an unbiased, no-spin comparison of candidate positions on key issues? That's what our Campus Election Engagement Project guide will give you! We are a national nonpartisan initiative working with college and university administrators, faculty, and student leaders to increase student participation in America's elections. For the 2014 elections we have created and distributed voter guides to campuses in more than 20 states so they can provide their communities with accurate information for informed voting. Because these guides have been so well received and are useful for all voting citizens who want to be better informed, we are also posting them here.
We developed our guides by analyzing information from trusted resources such as www.votesmart.org, www.ontheissues.org, www.ballotpedia.com, www.politifact.com, www.factcheck.org, www.vote411.org and from candidate websites, public debates and interviews, and statements in major media outlets. We also showed them to groups like campus Young Republicans and Young Democrats at the schools we work with to verify their fairness and lack of bias.
So here are the issue-by-issue stands for Pat Quinn, Bruce Rauner and Chad Grimm, with additional links at the bottom for each candidate if you'd like to dig deeper.
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Education: Do you support increasing funding for K-12 education?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: Unknown
Education: Do you support providing vouchers to parents to send their children to private schools with public money?
Quinn: No
Rauner: Yes
Grimm: Unknown
Education: Do you support increasing funding for higher education?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: Unknown
Grimm: Unknown
Elections: Do you support requiring registered voters to present a photo-ID in order to vote?
Quinn: No
Rauner: No
Grimm: Unknown
Elections: Do you support increasing restrictions on campaign donations?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: Yes
Environment: Do you believe that human activity is a major factor contributing to climate change?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No. Has funded major think tanks that argue against human-caused climate change.
Grimm: Unknown
Environment: Do you support taking government action to limit the levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: No
Environment: Do you support government mandates and/or subsidies for renewable energy?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No. Does support oil and gas subsidies
Grimm: Unknown
Gay Marriage: Do you support gay marriage?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: Yes
Gun Control: Do you support enacting more restrictive gun control legislation?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: No
Healthcare: Do you support the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: Unknown
Healthcare: Should your state accept federal funds so Medicaid will cover people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty line?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No
Grimm: Unknown
Marijuana: Do you support efforts to decriminalize and/or legalize marijuana?
Quinn: Supports medical marijuana
Rauner: Supports medical marijuana
Grimm: Yes
Minimum Wage: Do you support raising the minimum wage?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: History of strong opposition shifting to current limited support. (Currently willing to support under certain conditions, but has previously talked of eliminating state minimum wage and largely still opposes. Public statements within past year have changed significantly from advocating outright elimination, to reduction only, to supporting federal increase that would increase Illinois minimum wage if it were combined with pro-business reforms.)
Grimm: No. Seeks to eliminate it.
Social Issues: Should abortion be highly restricted?
Quinn: No
Rauner: No
Grimm: Yes
Social Issues: Should employers be able to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if they disagree with it morally?
Quinn: No
Rauner: Unknown
Grimm: Unknown
Taxes: Have you signed the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge to oppose any tax increases to raise revenue? (The answer to this question is taken from the database of signatories of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, created by Americans for Tax Reform. Signers to the pledge promise to oppose "any and all tax increases" meant to generate additional revenue.)
Quinn: No
Rauner: No
Grimm: No
Taxes: Would you increase taxes on corporations and/or high-income individuals to pay for public services?
Quinn: Yes
Rauner: No. Seeks to reduce all taxes.
Grimm: No. Seeks to reduce all taxes and move toward zero income tax.
Learn more about the candidates:
Quinn: Pat Quinn Vote Smart pages and Pat Quinn On the Issues pages
Rauner: Bruce Rauner Vote Smart pages
Grimm: Chad Grimm Vote Smart pages
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Other gubernatorial candidates include Scott Summers (Green Write-In). Due to limited space, we can't include his positions, but invite you to check out his website.