Jim Ryan (R)
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline)-- Former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan leads the Republican pack seeking to become governor, a poll indicates.
In the Democratic race, Gov. Pat Quinn has a wide lead over state Comptroller Dan Hynes in the Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll.
Quinn became governor this year, after fellow Democrat Rod Blagojevich was ousted as the state's chief executive following his arrest and indictment on federal corruption charges.
In the Chicago Tribune poll, Quinn had 49 percent support, while Hynes had 23 percent.
The poll of 600 likely Democratic primary voters surveyed by telephone Dec. 2-8. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
On the Republican side, Ryan had the support of 26 percent of the poll's 600 GOP respondents, while 12 percent said they supported Andy McKenna, the former state Democratic Party chairman.
Indicating that the GOP race is still wide open, 31 percent of Republicans polled said they were undecided on who they supported.
Ryan, a two-term attorney general, lost the 2002 governor's race to Blagojevich.
In the GOP primary campaign, just how to solve the state's fiscal crisis has emerged as the No. 1 issue.
For his part, Ryan has said local governments should prepare for less revenue sharing from the state, while McKenna has proposed to roll back state spending to 2006 budget levels.
Ryan has said that in the midst of a recession he would not support any tax increases to help fill state coffers.
From Legal Newsline: Reach staff reporter Chris Rizo at chrisrizo@legalnewsline.com.