By Daniel Nardini
Long story short, I am officially endorsing current Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker to be reelected as governor. I do not say this lightly because I am thinking of the present and near future of the welfare of this state. But all of this comes at the price of what I had seen Illinois’ recent history in the early part of this century. After Governor George H. Ryan left office in 2002, the next governor was a Democrat named Rod Blagojevich. He was the first Democrat in Illinois in the 21st Century, and this was in good part because Illinois started to lean Democrat. Despite this, Blagojevich was a very corrupt official. His first term seemed promising with expansion in education funding and also his state-wide public smoking ban. However, his policies began to cause financial problems in the state. His real downfall was when he tried to sell the former U.S. Senate seat of Barack Obama who had become president. Blagojevich was then impeached by the State Assembly, and this did not help the state.
The next governor was a Republican named Bruce Rauner. He did very little to help the state’s finances. Rauner withheld funding for many things and from many organizations helping people in the state. This had a detrimental effect of causing poverty to rise, and jobs to disappear from the state. The end result was a growing exodus of people from Illinois. On a personal note, my wife and I almost considered leaving the state as well and go to Florida where my sister lived. Well, we stayed only because my wife had a job which kept us afloat. So, we lived in a state that had seen a drainage of both jobs and people, and businesses going out of business. When J.B. Pritzker became governor, I had my doubts about his ability. My doubts solidified with the Covid pandemic regulations and restrictions which made me doubt things would ever get better for the state under him.
After 2022, I saw things begin to gradually improve. Illinois’ finances greatly improved, and I saw companies and small businesses come in to Illinois. Because Pritzker was finally fixing the state’s finances, it helped to bring in money and investments that had not been happening for years. For the first time, I am seeing Illinois move forward with high-tech businesses and manufacturing quality products that is now making the state a manufacturing hub again. I had not seen this for a generation, and this is good not only for Chicago and the Chicago-area but for many small cities and towns that had seen their hometowns collapse because of the companies and industries that had left Illinois for either other states or overseas (mostly overseas). This change for the better is because of the governor and the people he chose to run this state. Having seen not-so-good governors for this state from both ruling parties in this century, I am happy that now we have a competent official to run Illinois. Let us see if the rest of the people of Illinois agree with me.
Looking Back at Illinois’ Recent History
By Daniel Nardini
The next governor was a Republican named Bruce Rauner. He did very little to help the state’s finances. Rauner withheld funding for many things and from many organizations helping people in the state. This had a detrimental effect of causing poverty to rise, and jobs to disappear from the state. The end result was a growing exodus of people from Illinois. On a personal note, my wife and I almost considered leaving the state as well and go to Florida where my sister lived. Well, we stayed only because my wife had a job which kept us afloat. So, we lived in a state that had seen a drainage of both jobs and people, and businesses going out of business. When J.B. Pritzker became governor, I had my doubts about his ability. My doubts solidified with the Covid pandemic regulations and restrictions which made me doubt things would ever get better for the state under him.
After 2022, I saw things begin to gradually improve. Illinois’ finances greatly improved, and I saw companies and small businesses come in to Illinois. Because Pritzker was finally fixing the state’s finances, it helped to bring in money and investments that had not been happening for years. For the first time, I am seeing Illinois move forward with high-tech businesses and manufacturing quality products that is now making the state a manufacturing hub again. I had not seen this for a generation, and this is good not only for Chicago and the Chicago-area but for many small cities and towns that had seen their hometowns collapse because of the companies and industries that had left Illinois for either other states or overseas (mostly overseas). This change for the better is because of the governor and the people he chose to run this state. Having seen not-so-good governors for this state from both ruling parties in this century, I am happy that now we have a competent official to run Illinois. Let us see if the rest of the people of Illinois agree with me.