Green candidate Whitney seeks victory, not growth
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SPRINGFIELD — Rich Whitney , the Green Party candidate for Illinois governor, insists he can win the election. He pretty much has to say that. Every candidate does, even ones who barely cracked 10 percent the last time out. The more interesting question might be how much Whitney can capitalize on voter dissatisfaction to increase the Greens' influence in Illinois.
Could he attract enough Democratic votes to cost Gov. Pat Quinn the election? Could future major-party candidates feel the need to court Green supporters?
Whitney says those questions aren't on his mind. His focus is victory.
"We can win this thing. I'm not taking anything else as a goal," he said last month, insisting that voters are eager for an alternative to the major-party candidates.
But Scot Schraufnagel, a Northern Illinois University political science professor who studies third parties, said he doubts voter dissatisfaction will translate into a surge for the Greens.
"Nobody wants to waste their vote on someone who doesn't have a chance of winning," Schraufnagel said.
Even so, the Green Party has an unusual opportunity this year.
Whitney's 10 percent showing in the 2006 race for governor earned the Greens a new status as an "established" political party in Illinois and meant its candidates could qualify for the 2010 ballot without going through the laborious petition process that often blocks third parties.
In theory, that meant Green candidates could focus on campaigning, not collecting signatures.
But Whitney raised less than $32,000 during the first half of 2010, records show, and he's trying to campaign while working nearly full time as an attorney in Carbondale.
Green Senate candidate LeAlan Jones didn't report raising any money at all, nor did the party's other statewide candidates.
Still, Whitney says he's a realistic alternative to the better-known candidates.
Democrat Pat Quinn is the incumbent but he wasn't elected to the office. Instead, the former lieutenant governor inherited the job when his boss, Rod Blagojevich, was kicked out of office. Since then, Quinn has repeatedly failed to achieve his major policy objective, an income tax increase, and has taken heat for a botched prisoner-release program and raises he gave to his staff.
"It's kind of hard to run when you shoot yourself in the foot as often as he does," Whitney said.
Meanwhile, the Republican candidate, state Sen. Bill Brady, is more conservative than most voters on issues such as abortion, gun control and gay rights. Brady is vague about how he would solve the state's budget problems beyond promising massive spending cuts that Whitney says would gut state services to the poor and sick.
"Those aren't conservative values," Whitney said. "That isn't conserving anything — it's destroying."
Quinn and Brady say they're not worried about competition from third parties.
"There'll be a lot of choices for voters on Nov. 2. I don't think that's a bad thing," Quinn said recently.
Schraufnagel, the NIU professor, said third-party candidates only do well when they have name recognition and credibility from past connections to a major party (like Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a former Democrat), when they're in the middle of the political spectrum or they have lots of money to spend.
Whitney has none of those advantages, but he does face some significant obstacles.
First, voters will need to hear about his campaign. That won't be easy when his campaign budget may not amount to 1 percent of what each major-party candidate is likely to spend.
That won't allow serious broadcast advertising, but Whitney does seem more active than he was four years ago. He has opened three campaign offices around the state and is more aggressive about contacting reporters to get out his views.
Still, reaching voters is tough. During an appearance at a Springfield coffeehouse last month, Whitney had an audience of fewer than a dozen people.
Second, voters will have to like what they hear. Whitney is a former socialist whose current platform includes raising incomes taxes while lowering property taxes, taxing financial transactions, creating a state bank, legalizing marijuana and imposing fees on carbon-based fuels.
Whitney calls himself the only candidate with a real plan to balance the state budget and preserve vital government services. He claims Brady would slash services immediately while Quinn is doing the same thing more slowly.
"The choice between Quinn and Brady right now is like the difference between slow torture and a quick beheading," Whitney said.
But his plan may be too unorthodox for most Illinois voters.
Another obstacle is that Whitney isn't the only choice for dissatisfied voters. Also on the ballot for governor this year: Scott Lee Cohen, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, withdrew amid scandal and then launched an independent campaign for the top job; and Lex Green, the Libertarian candidate.
Whitney says he attracts support from Republicans and Democrats alike. His views on taxes and government services, however, would seem to match up better with Democrats.
Could he win over enough Democrats to cost Quinn the election? Schraufnagel doesn't think so.
"What Pat Quinn has to worry about," he said, "is those people staying home rather than voting for the Green Party guy."
