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2 More Candidates Have Joined The Race For Illinois Governor

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 7, 2017 5:30PM

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Tio Hardiman and Scott Drury

In what’s already become a field of clown-car sized proportions, two more candidates have announced their candidacy for Democratic nominee in the race for Illinois Governor.

Both State Representative Scott Drury and anti-violence organization co-founder Tio Hardiman will join J.B. Pritzker, Chris Kennedy, Daniel Biss, Ameya Pawar, Alex Paterakis, and Bob Daiber to compete for the opportunity to unseat incumbent Bruce Rauner.

Hardiman, who directed CeaseFire Illinois from 2009 to 2013, unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Pat Quinn in the 2014 Democratic primary, but still managed to win a tidy 28 percent of the vote.

“The 2018 Democratic primary is wide open for a regular candidate like Tio Hardiman,” he said in a statement given to the Peoria Journal Star. “We must say no to billionaires like Chris Kennedy, J.B. Pritzker and Bruce Rauner.”

Drury, a former federal prosecutor turned legislator, touted his alleged “independence” from Rauner archnemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan, highlighting his decision to vote “present” instead of in favor of Madigan’s post as Speaker in a statement published by Capitol Fax:

“While many people have declared their intention to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, Drury sees it as essentially a two-way race: those with demonstrated loyalties to the Madigan Machine versus him - the only candidate with a proven record of standing up to Illinois’ most powerful politicians and giving a voice to the people.”

Drury has bucked the Democratic party numerous times, including a veto override on legislation that would’ve empowered an arbiter to handle disputes between public sector unions and the governor, as well as being one of only two democrats to cast a “no” vote on a bill that would’ve taxed millionaire’s.

“For so long this state has been defined by corruption and a lack of honesty,” the Representative from Highwood says to a small group of people in his first campaign video. “You have a billionaire Republican governor controlling all the votes on the right and you have a very powerful Speaker of the House controlling all the votes on the left. That’s not a democracy anymore.”