A new poll released by the Chicago Tribune shows state Sen. Kirk Dillard gained tremendous ground in the GOP governor’s primary race, doubling the percentage of probable voters backing him since last month.
Bruce Rauner holds the lead at 36 percent, but dropped four points from last month. Dillard was at 23, Brady at 18 and Rutherford was at 9 percent.
The data makes sense given what we’ve been hearing over the last week. Sources say that two polls — one conducted by the Democratic Governors Association, the other by a coalition of public sector unions, showed Rauner’s lead was slipping, Dillard’s popularity was on the rise and the percentage of undecided voters had jumped up.
If that weren’t true, says one source, then we wouldn’t see AFSCME’s endorsement of Dillard this week and these late mega donations that have been flowing to Dillard in recent days from teachers’ unions.
On top of that, a committee formed to oppose Rauner’s candidacy told the Sun-Times on Thursday it was adding a component to its strategy — and that’s backing Dillard’s candidacy with a $700,000 TV ad buy.
What should we expect next? Dillard’s pro-Obama ad from 2008 will start hitting the airwaves in no time.
