And Then There Were Two

I said a while ago that I was pretty well convinced that Edwin Eisendrath was going to, at a minimum, file to run in the Democratic primary for Governor. And nothing I have seen or heard since then has caused me to do anything but strengthen that opinion. If you are reluctant to heed my beliefs, read his own words from this story from the Southern Illinoisan. The story was done as a follow-up to Eisendrath's visit to SIU Carbondale to gather petitions and spread his message:

"(Hurricane Katrina) was a wake-up call for me that misery is right around the corner when you have bad government," he said. "I've always had a strong passion for the obligation of citizenship. ... Our governor is not living up to expectations."

Then there was this apparent precursor of things to come:

"Public trust matters a lot in politics - and you can't buy it back," he said, referring in part to Blagojevich's $20 million re-election fund.

And as far as having enough signatures to run:

Eisendrath said he currently had enough petitions to meet the 5,000 required to put his name on the Democratic primary ballot. However, he can submit up to 10,000 names - which he intends to do to ensure that he has enough to survive challenges to his petition.

Intelligent people can (and will) make arguments that this is good for the Governor, bad for the Governor, or who knows what else. But it will definitely make things much more interesting.

On a minorly related note, it's too bad that I'm probably one of the few people in Chicagoland that reads the Southern Illinoisan. They put together a good paper and regularly have some interesting stories that you won't find other places.