Gov's job message quiet

[September 17, 2010]  SPRINGFIELD -- On the same day Illinois got some better job news, Gov. Pat Quinn got another chance to talk about the state's improving economy. But it remains to be seen if voters will ever hear the good news.

The Quinn campaign is quick to point to its economic selling points. Campaign officials say Illinois led the Midwest in new jobs in the first half of 2010. That one in every 10 new jobs in the U.S. was in Illinois in the first half of the year. Illinois is outpacing the growth of the nation (.07 to .05), and the state added 43,000 new jobs this year.

On Thursday, Quinn talked up a new television show being filmed in Chicago.

"We have lots and lots of working people in Illinois who are getting work and jobs from the production of this TV series. It's worth perhaps $25 million to our economy, creating maybe as many as 400 jobs just for those in the production of the TV series."

But many of Quinn's commercials and campaign ads have focused on the negatives about GOP challenger Bill Brady.

Chris Mooney, a University of Illinois at Springfield professor, said Quinn should be bragging about the improving economy and not taking shots at Brady over taxes and missed votes in Springfield.

"It's real low-level sort of shooting, and it's the kind of stuff you'd expect (Quinn) to say if he didn't have anything else to say, or if the negatives were so high on him."

Mooney said voters, especially this year, are going to cast a vote based on the economy, so Quinn should cash in on good news. But the professor adds that Pat Quinn can't change who Pat Quinn is.

"He's sort of a scatter-gun guy. If you ever listen to him speak, ... the guy is just firing off in 20 different directions at once. And he really is in contrast to his predecessor, Rod Blagojevich. ... That guy can stay on message like a Rottweiler."

The message from the Quinn campaign is not scatter-gun, but it is tough to track.

Numbers from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the state did add jobs and is outpacing most Midwestern states in job growth for 2010, but is not leading.

Between January and June, Illinois added just over 40,000 jobs. But Indiana added just over 45,000 and Ohio added over 46,000.

The Quinn campaign said that from January through June, 650,000 jobs were added nationally and 65,000 were in Illinois. But the campaign did not provide the source of the information.

[Illinois Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]