I have already cast an early vote for Bruce Rauner to become the next Governor of the State of Illinois.

I voted for Bruce Rauner because the State of Illinois is in trouble. The State of Illinois is in economic decline and in need of economic stimulus, which businessman Bruce Rauner can provide, and provide far more effectively than Pat Quinn has demonstrated.

Rauner’s agenda is economically oriented and he runs on the platform of economic development for all of Illinois.

It is time for the people of Illinois to take a look in the mirror and get a dose of reality. Pat Quinn has not served us well for six years. Four more years of Quinn is an unaffordable disaster, when our futures and the futures of our children and our communities are at stake.

For the African-American community, which has consistently produced loyal voters for Quinn, his record is shameful and disrespectful. After six years of Quinn, African-American unemployment is too high, there has been little-to-no economic development in Black communities, and in fact, many areas in our communities look like war zones. Crime is too high in those communities. Our Black business community is suffering, while the state’s budget has allocated just one percent of its contract to African-American firms under Quinn’s administration.

There is nothing to suggest this scenario will change with four more years of Pat Quinn. To vote for him again is to vote for that status quo, which seems the essence of futility.

Bruce Rauner is a successful businessman, passionate about entrepreneurship and education. His business skills will serve the Governor’s office well, as his priorities will be to overhaul the state’s antiquated and unproductive tax structure, recruit businesses to Illinois, and enhance state procurement and spending opportunities for minority businesses, all while he’s not taking a salary or pension from the state himself as governor. Rauner is a free agent who will not be swayed by lobbyists, career politicians or political bosses waiting for the next election.

Taking The Black Vote For Granted

America has a two-party system, but African Americans, for the most part, participate in one party, the Democratic Party. In my political estimation, Blacks need to reach out to the Republican Party and the Republicans need to engage the Black vote. In doing so, the Black vote becomes respected and vetted.

The Democratic Party takes the Black vote for granted – at all levels, from President of the United States, to Governor of Illinois, to Mayor of Chicago. The party does not vie for our vote, or negotiate our vote. The pundits, the experts, the Democratic Party leaders openly say that we have nowhere else to go, in part because the Republican Party doesn’t court our vote either.

So for Black voters, it is generally a case of choosing between Democratic ideals and Republican ideals, with Democratic ideology usually most associated with our best interest.

African Americans have been the margin of win for the Democratic Party for decades, most notably since the John F. Kennedy/Martin Luther King era, when Mayor Richard J. Daley delivered the Black votes on the South Side of Chicago for Kennedy that provided the victory margin in his 1960 election.

African Americans have delivered to and for the Democrats time and time again. But, as national columnist Raynard Jacksonsays, “The Democrats have their biennial epiphany about the Black vote because they need Blacks to save them at the ballot box. Democrats will ‘target’ Blacks for purposes of an election; but won’t do the same thing in the area of legislation and public policy.”

African Americans are the only ethnic group that vote a majority-voting block and give their vote away. Hispanics vote their agenda. Jews vote their agenda. Irish vote their agenda. Women vote their agenda. Blacks vote democratic and that’s all – party, not agenda. With this elephant-like voting behavior, Blacks become political pawns, and the Democratic Party treats us as such.

But what are the results and where are our rewards? Former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones famously said that the politician’s job is to bring home the bacon. Where is the Democrat’s bacon?

We have allowed politicians to have a casual relationship with our churches where we let them in to speak from our pulpits and yet they don’t return until the next election. We suffer from such behavior. The smile and wave has not served us well.

The Black vote was Pat Quinn’s margin of victory in his close election in 2010, when he narrowly beat Bill Brady with 46 percent of the vote. Yet, when Quinn had an opportunity to fill his executive post of Lieutenant Governor with an African American for this election, he took a pass. His opportunity was State Senator Art Turner or Chicago City Treasurer Stephanie Neely. Quinn passed on them both, which was a political insult. If ever a position was earned, this was it. But Quinn took a pass.

It is time for this insult to cease. It is time for Black people to stand up and vote for a person rather than a party. It is time for a real change.

Do we just keep on voting democratic or do we challenge that party by looking at what’s offered on the other side, and by other candidates? Why not?

Bruce Rauner is a fresh political face. He represents real change with real solutions for the State of Illinois. He will work hard with focus, diligence and proven business skills to develop the state, to uplift its status as one of the worse states in the nation economically.

Illinois has $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, among other financial deficits. We have seen the state lottery privatized by Pat Quinn and turned over to a firm that contributed to his 2010 election, a firm that Quinn was forced to fire recently because it did not reach the goals it contracted to meet.

Under Quinn, we have 200 state patrol cars sitting in a parking lot, not on the street, because of poor management. Under Quinn, we have seen waste, incompetence, fraud – a governor under investigation for fiscal malfeasance and one with no specific plan or direction for lifting Illinois out of the quagmire that we are in. We can do better than Pat Quinn.

I was introduced to Bruce Rauner and his wife, Diana, at a dinner hosted by Rev. and Mrs. James Meeks on a cold night last winter. Bruce discussed his desire to run for governor. Why would anybody in your position – a wealthy, successful businessman – want to get into politics, he was asked.

His answer was, “because I care.” He said he cared about the state of Illinois and its future. He told us about himself, his concerns, his plans. He listened as we discussed the dire straits of the African-American community.

Rev. Meeks discussed his concerns about public school funding, which was Meeks’ single most important agenda item when he served as a state senator for a decade.

I talked about Black businesses suffering and dying and changing. I talked about the single most important challenge for Black businesses being capital – lack of it and access to it – and what our urban business community needed to thrive and survive.

We don’t meet people like you interested in investing in our small companies; would you? I asked. He said yes. Teach me. Introduce me to your friends. Tell me what I should know. We kicked his tires again and again, and Bruce passed our tests with flying colors. He was honest about what he did and didn’t know.