Rauner loses to an unnamed Democrat. Unfortunately, the Democrats have to name someone.

Bruce Rauner and Pat Quinn.

The latest Illinois poll on next year’s Illinois Governor’s race is good news and bad news for Governor Bruce Rauner.

On the one hand he is polling at 32 percent. That’s the bad news for the Governor.

The poll shows an unnamed Democratic candidate gets 47 percent. That’s more bad news.

The good news for Rauner?

The Democrats have to name somebody.

Recall that Bruce Rauner beat Pat Quinn last time by around 70,000 votes in an overwhelmingly blue state.

In spite of union support and plenty of campaign cash, Quinn was perceived as an anti-union, anti-pension, anti-working families governor even compared to Bruce Rauner. Many retired state employees and their families voted Democratic but left the governor’s line blank.

In the presidential primary last year, Bernie Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton by only 30,000 votes out of two million cast. Hillary went on to crush Trump in the general election.

Not only is Illinois a blue state, it is a progressive blue state.

The Democrats in Illinois should be able to take back the governor’s mansion.

Their only problem is that they can’t run an unnamed Democrat.

If they run a billionaire centrist in the Clinton/Quinn model who backs pension theft and targets the state public employee unions like Democrat Quinn did, their odds of winning decrease.

By a lot. And then we all lose with four more years of Bruce Rauner.

Download podcast. Hitting Left with the Klonsky Brothers. This week, an hour with CTU President Karen Lewis. New podcast on Friday afternoon. An hour with 10th Ward Alderwoman, Sue Sadlowski Garza.