Eisendrath makes stop in Quad Cities

The Dispatch/Argus' Kurt Allemeier has the story:

Polite applause filled the Moline Activity Center after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Edwin Eisendrath played a rockabilly ditty on the piano during a visit Wednesday.

Mr. Eisendrath, a former Chicago alderman and current college administrator, is taking on the big-money swagger of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He hopes voters are willing to listen to his tune of responsible government, fiscal responsibility and campaign finance reform.

He says he hoped when Mr. Blagojevich was elected he would go against the way then-Gov. George Ryan ran the state, but that hasn't been the case. He said Mr. Blagojevich raised campaign money while lowering expectations.

"Four years ago, I thought he was going to fight the pay-for-play politics, but he has already raised $20 million," Mr. Eisendrath said. "He is trading jobs and contracts for donations.

"He chose not to be a jobs governor, chose not to be an infrastructure governor. People want their government back."

Mr. Eisendrath told the audience that Illinois is 50th in funding public education, while Mr. Blagojevich has proved to be one of the top political fundraisers. "That is the price of pay-to-play politics."

The candidate joked about his background on the Chicago City Council, "Don't hold that against me."

Talking to reporters, he was more serious about his past as a Chicago alderman and how Mr. Blagojevich might use it during the campaign.

"I was an independent voice and for 10 years I've been a college administrator," Mr. Eisendrath said. "If that is how he portrays me, it's unfair. It's only a piece of who I am."

Mr. Eisendrath also served as a regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and as an administrator for Kendall College, a Chicago college that limits offerings to hotel management, culinary and educational programs.

During his appearance at the activity center, the lone question Mr. Eisendrath received was whether he would live in Springfield if elected. He responded with a resounding "Yes, absolutely."

Later, he said that refusing to live in the governor's mansion (Gov. Blagojevich is based in Chicago) is more than bad politics. "You don't thumb your nose at a big chunk of the state -- he got elected by downstate. And you should be where you can work with the legislature."

Mr. Eisendrath said Mr. Blagojevich's capital plan for schools, roads and mass transit will have difficulty passing because "no one trusts him."

The roads portion of the governor's plan calls for bond sales to pay for projects, but Mr. Eisendrath says that continuing to increase the state's debt is bad for businesses.

"Since he's been governor, the state's debt has more than doubled on all of us," he said. "Debt is OK if you have the reserves to pay back the debt.”