Gambill Dropping Out Of Senate Race

Earlier this week, 46th Senate district Republican candidate Blair Gambill announced he was dropping out of the senate race because of family/medical reasons. Apparently, his father-in-law is battling liver cancer. In addition, his mother is reported to be ailing as well. I wish the best for the Gambills as I too know what it's like to have a family member stricken with cancer.

The GOP is looking to have Ernie Russell fill Gamill's shoes for the campaign. Russell has spent 33 years as a firefighter in the Peoria area and served a few of those years as the state fire Marshall. He was appointed by then Gov. George Ryan, who recently was found guilty on all counts for corruption and other accusations I won't mention. Russell was then dismissed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2003.

What I find most interesting is the difference of opinions between two local bloggers, the Peoria Pundit and Willy Nilly. Bill Dennis, aka the Peoria Pundit, claims that the Democratic challenger, Dave Koehler, will find it a tougher battle campaigning against Ernie Russell. Willy Nilly takes a different view and claims Koehler will find it much easier to claim victory. Of course we won't know until the campaign gets heated up later this year and voters decide on election day.

Willy states that Ernie Russell was one of Gov. Ryan's cronies and that he has not only skeletons in his closet, but an entire graveyard. I don't claim to know everything, but to my knowledge and from what I've seen in the news, I don't have any reason to believe Russell was in cahoots with the recently convicted former governor. Willy doesn't site any instances.

Meanwhile, Koehler's campaign is almost entirely funded by union money. This has me concerned. Who will Koehler answer to should he become elected; the people or the unions? I get the idea that Koehler does not have a strong backbone and would become a whipping boy of the unions. {Note: don't get me wrong, I'm not coming down on unions; that's just where Koehler's money has been coming from. It would be the same difference if most of the campaign money came from, for example, the gun lobby; he would just be someone else's whipping boy.} Candidates usually have to pay back those who pay for them to get into office.

At the moment, I would have to agree more with Bill than with Willy. Sorry Willy.

Common Sense of it All: Blair Gambill to me looked very slick and emitted an image of one I should not trust; kind of like a used car salesman. On the other hand, Ernie Russell, with his years of service on the fire department, evokes a vision of trust and honesty. People tend to vote on image and not on substance; sad but true. Not to mention, firefighters and the firefighter union are pretty tight and would probably support one of their own for office.