Lots of interest in lieutenant governor post
SPRINGFIELD - The lieutenant governor doesn't have much to do except wait for the governor to resign, get kicked out of office or, worst case, to die.
Still, a dozen candidates are in the running this election for the job. In the primary, the candidates run apart from governor candidates. The nominees then will be paired in their party and run as a ticket come November.
Six Democrats and six Republicans seek the post, which has sat vacant since Pat Quinn's sudden rise from the office to the governor's mansion in January 2009 when Rod Blagojevich was impeached and ousted following his arrest on federal corruption charges in late 2008.
The lieutenant governor, paid $135,669 a year, commands an office budget of roughly $2.5 million dollars with 29 staff members. While the only constitutional duty is to serve as a substitute governor, the office has been given the tasks of running the Illinois Main Street program, the River Coordinating Council and the Rural Bond Bank of Illinois.
The Democrats seeking the party nomination are:
• State Rep. Art Turner of Chicago.
• State Rep. Mike Boland of East Moline.
• State Sen. Terry Link of Waukegan.
• State Sen. Rickey Hendon of Chicago.
• Electrical worker Thomas Castillo of Elmhurst
• Chicago businessman Scott Lee Cohen.
The Republican candidates for lieutenant governor are:
• State Sen. Matt Murphy of Palatine.
• Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole.
• Former Madison County Republican Party Chairman Jason Plummer.
• Springfield attorney Don Tracy.
• Hamilton pastor Randy A. White Sr.
• Orland Park's Dennis Cook, president of the Consolidated District 230 School Board.