Hinsdale's Dillard launches bid for governor, adds to crowded GOP field

While formally announcing Wednesday his candidacy for governor, state Sen. Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale also:

• Suggested everyone else drop out of the crowded GOP field to avoid a potentially divisive primary next spring.

• Insulted fellow Republican and DuPage County statewide office-seeker Joe Birkett.

• Vowed to enact sweeping reforms as his first act if elected.

"I believe we can erase this most recent sad history with good leadership," Dillard told roughly 100 supporters standing in the rain outside Hinsdale's Memorial Building. "Reforms will be the first thing I demand and do."

Dillard welcomed the news that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was seeking re-election rather than going after the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. He said her absence from the race gives Republicans a better shot at taking back the governor's seat for the first time since George Ryan held it.

"With Lisa Madigan out of the race it clearly makes this an even, if not Republican-tilting, field," he said. "Personally, I'm glad she's not going to be my opponent in the general election."

But the 53-year-old longtime politician made his first campaign gaffe by apparently rooting for Madigan over DuPage State's Attorney Joe Birkett.

"I look forward to Lisa as the attorney general when I'm the governor," he said.

When asked if that meant he didn't think Birkett could beat the two-term attorney general, Dillard said, "It will be a heck of a rematch between Joe Birkett and Lisa Madigan."

Dillard has served in all three state legislative branches. He's a former Illinois Court of Claims judge, served as chief of staff to former Gov. Jim Edgar and has been in the state Senate since 1994. He is also the former chairman of the DuPage Republican Party. He said his campaign will reinvigorate the state GOP.

"I'm going to show that the Republican Party has not lost its relevancy in the state," he said. "We're going to show the Republican Party is not just the party of 'no,' we're going to have answers.

Dillard said he will provide strong leadership, pass a reform action plan proposed by the Illinois Reform Commission, put taxpayers' interests first, reform the state's educational system and work to bring more jobs to Illinois.

Supporters at the rally said they appreciate Dillard's history of bipartisanship.

"I didn't hear anything that I wasn't expecting," said Hinsdale resident Linda Twomey, "and I liked everything I heard."

Dillard caught flak from his own party during the Presidential race last year when he appeared in an advertisement sympathetic to Barack Obama's campaign.

"That ad was about ethics," Dillard said. "When a Democrat reaches across the aisle on a Republican principle - ethics - I will commend them."

He is also one of the few Republicans who helped pass a mass transit funding bill that increased sales tax in the collar counties by half a percent.

But Wednesday he denounced tax increases as the way to solve the state's financial problems.

Dillard also said he hoped to broker a deal among all the GOP gubernatorial candidates to avoid a February primary and keep him as the party's choice to run in November.

"I would hope that we could avoid a primary," he said. "I think the field will pare down and whittle itself away. I intend to take a leadership role in trying to formulate a statewide ticket, and we need to avoid a Republican primary if that's possible."

So far, DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom, Palatine state Sen. Matt Murphy, Bloomington state Sen. Bill Brady, conservative pundit Dan Proft and Hinsdale resident Adam Andrzejewski have all announced bids for the governor's office.