Adam Doster says high unemployment, a gaping state deficit, and a weak slate of Democratic candidates have given the GOP the advantage in Obama’s home state.
How did the electoral landscape in Obama’s home state shift so swiftly? The rickety economy has played the central role. “When the economy is bad,” Mooney says, “that trumps everything else.”
Since the housing market bottomed out, Illinois’ unemployment rate has consistently tracked higher than the national average. (In August, it sat at 10.1 percent.) A total of 131,132 Illinois properties received a foreclosure filing in 2009 alone, the nation’s fourth highest. Almost 1.7 million residents now live below the (ludicrously low) federal poverty line, a number that grew from 12.2 percent to 13.3 percent last year.