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Kenny Johnson’s campaign for state rep in the 26th District sent out an e-mail Monday morning highlighting his lead in a recent poll. The poll, conducted more than a week ago, reportedly found Johnson favored by 20 percent of voters in the long lakefront district, followed by educator and activist Phillip Jackson with 16 percent and the three other candidates–incumbent Elga Jeffries, former legislative aide Will Burns, and attorney Paul Chadha–each with less than 10 percent. The e-mail quoted the respected Springfield publication Capitol Fax as writing that Johnson was running a “textbook” campaign.
The changes, according to Capitol Fax, are likely due to the timing of the candidates’ mailings and phone banking. Not surprisingly, this suggests that the best-funded, best-organized campaigns–which appear to be Johnson’s and Burns’s–are in the best position to win in a race where everyone is talking in various degrees about the same issues: education, jobs, transit, health care, and gun control.
Jackson promises that his unconventional approach will work out just fine. “Other people have auto-dialers, but we don’t have that. We have people calling up and engaging people. Every time I get on the phone, I pick up four or five votes. We’re beating them the old-fashioned way.”
