Do you know the name Chad Grimm? What happens to him on election night could help decide the next governor of Illinois.
Grimm, 33, is the Libertarian candidate on the ballot next Tuesday. He currently lives in Peoria but has called Lake Zurich home as well. And Springfield is the place he would most like to live and put into place his ideas of limited government and maximum liberty.
Asked if he really believes he can win the race, Grimm replied, “I honestly do if the message gets out there.”
It is almost a virtual certainty that Grimm won’t win, but in the battle between Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner, where every vote is critical, Grimm may have a say in who gets elected.
If Grimm gets just 2 percent of the vote that amounts to around 75,000 votes. (In the 2010 general election there were 3,729,000 votes cast in the governor’s race).
In politics strange things happen. Especially in Illinois.
In 2010, Scott Lee Cohen ran as an independent for governor and got 135,000 votes in a race Quinn barely won.
Pat Quinn’s margin of victory over Bill Brady in 2010 was just 31,834 votes.
As for Grimm, he is a health club manager who says he wants to roll back the state income tax, does not support an increase in the minimum wage, and is the only candidate who calls himself pro-life, which could attract socially conservative republicans.
With little money, the Libertarian candidate has relied on Facebook and You tube and free media to get his message across as he battles against the odds, not to mention Quinn and Rauner.
What’s wrong with Pat Quinn, he is asked?
“The state of the state speaks for itself,” he said.
What’s wrong with Bruce Rauner?
“Question his motives,” he said, “And he’s too much like Pat Quinn. I don’t see a difference in Bruce Rauner and Pat Quinn.”
Grimm’s campaign has benefited from direct mail fliers sent by Liberty for Illinois, a union backed committee which has raised over $300,000 this fall. It is seen by some as a backdoor bid by Democrats to pull votes away from Rauner.
“I take it at face value,” he said in an interview last week discussing the political help. “I can’t question any time somebody wants to help out in any way, whether it be monetary or whether it be just voluntary. I can’t question everybody’s motivation for helping me out.”
