My state

Bruce Rauner has been Governor of Illinois since January 2015. We have had a budget stalemate between his as a Republican Governor and a Democratic dominated state legislature for a year. We hear there are meetings between the Governor and state legislative leaders with little to no progress.

Gov. Rauner wants consideration of his turnaround agenda who's time it is to come - especially of this idea of right to work which has passed in neighboring states. Unfortunately there is naturally resistance and it's often reported that the Governor refuses to budge on his agenda so therefore nothing will get done until it's considered and passed legislatively.

The way I see it the state already had issues paying it's bills. Under Rauner's predecessor Pat Quinn this was one of the main issues of this state that it seemed he never got a handle on. The state has difficulty at least paying these social service providers.

Now under Rauner the concern is over funding state universities. For example Chicago State University located on the south side is talking about cutting jobs and cutting spring break just to quickly end the semester as they're running out of money. As much as Illinoisians sought change in 2014 it seems things are still going downhill.

Another sign of the times is the recent primaries yesterday. One man whom Rauner supported - well actually you can say this support was more financial - is a state representative Ken Dunkin. Dunkin who is a Morehouse brother represents the south side of Chicago in Springfield. He had a primary opponent and was ultimately ousted yesterday.

It seemed judging from a recent video where he spoke to seniors he never had a lot of support anyway in his part of town (his district covers the Bronzeville neighborhood). Over the years on Capitol Fax it has been noted his political tactics which at times never got him far. In fact, Miller threatened to cut off Dunkin's subscription of his newsletter because it was published publicly. He engaged in dirty tactics attempting to run for 3rd ward Democratic committeeman.

Indeed we saw some dirty tactics in his re-election bid against his opponent and ultimate victor Juliana Stratton. As I continue to write this I'm still finding and looking for the foolishness out of this race via Capitol Fax. I also consider that to be fair during the course of this race it came out that that Dunkin had been charged with domestic abuse and failing to pay child support. I was looking for an attack on an ad truck driver which has an ad showing Rauner and Dunkin together posted by a local alderman who involved himself in that race. It was looking quite ugly on either side however Rauner for what it's worth has lost one supporter willing to thumb his nose at his own Democratic caucus.

So when November comes around how will the state of the state look? We shall see.