Governor sings a Dixie tune (IL Governor Ponders Joining Southern Governors' Association)

Peoria Journal Star ^ | March 28, 2005 | Kirsten Singleton

[RWR8189]

SPRINGFIELD - It is said that Cairo, Ill., is closer to Memphis than Chicago - literally, and perhaps figuratively, too. Now, Gov. Rod Blagojevich may be taking that sentiment to heart.

Blagojevich, who chairs the Midwestern Governors Association, said in February that he is considering also joining the Southern Governors' Association "because southern Illinois is in many ways a southern state."

More than a month later, however, the proposal is news to everyone Blagojevich would have to contact to join the club, including the SGA's executive director and chair.

Blagojevich already serves as chairman for the Midwestern Governors Association.

"And it would be nice to be able to have us involved with some of the southern states and get us some of the advantages of that," Blagojevich said during a Feb. 16 meeting with the editorial board of The State Journal-Register in Springfield.

Among the advantages: networking and having a role in formulating policy, said Deanna Cope, who serves as liaison to the SGA for Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

Kentucky and Missouri are part of both the Southern Governors' Association and Midwestern Governors Association.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is chair of the SGA.

His deputy press secretary, Shane Hix, said no one has approached Perdue about Illinois joining the association.

As a result, Perdue has given no thought as to whether Illinois would be a good addition, Hix said. "I don't believe it's even gotten to that point, at least from Governor Perdue's perspective."

In fact, Liz Purdy, the SGA's acting executive director, does not even know how Illinois could join.

Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were the last members to join - in 1968 and 1969, respectively.

The last state to join was Missouri, and that was in 1961.

Purdy said she could find no information on the process for inviting in a new member, but said the current membership definitely would have to take a vote.

It may not, however, get to that point.

Abby Ottenhoff, Blagojevich's spokeswoman, said the governor is considering the possibility of joining the SGA but is focused on the Midwestern association for now.

She said the proposal is not an attempt to gain favor with southern Illinois voters before the governor pursues re-election next year.

"We border Kentucky, and the southern part of the state has a lot in common with Kentucky and the south," she said.

[The Red Zone]

Away, away, away up North in Dixie!

[goldstategop]

ROFL! That would be news to Southerners in 1861. The Yankees want to be Southern, right? Well when they pass concealed carry legislation up in Illinois and speak with a Southern twang, then perhaps the geography won't matter...

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Holly_P]

I wish Blagojevich would go south - way south. The Gulf Of Mexico sounds about rught.

[dts32041]

Leave it to a a daley scion like BJ to say granite city is in the south and he doesn't have to worry about police malfeasance there.

[Holly_P]

It is said that Cairo, Ill., is closer to Memphis than Chicago

About 200 miles closer.

[goldstategop]

Boss J.D Hogg ran the wrong county. He should have been runnin' IL with no Duke boys to worry about.. ;-)

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[winner3000]

People who live in the South of Illinois can't stand their governor. The feeling is mutual. He wouldn't even stay in the governor's mansion because it is in Springfield (South of Illinois).

[Holly_P]

I'm in central Illinois and I know I don't care for him.

[Wallace T.]

There was considerable Southern sympathy in southern Illinois during the Civil War. In fact, there was a movement to have southern Illinois secede from the rest of the state and join the Confederacy. Furthermore, the speech of the southernmost counties is the upland Southern or South Midland dialect that extends from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to West Texas. It is particularly close to the Ozark speech of southern Missouri.

However, the same observations could be made about southern Indiana and southern Ohio. None of the three states are fundamentally Southern, but are Northern, with the northern area close to the Great Lakes being initially settled by New Englanders and New Yorkers and the pioneers in the middle portions originating in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.

If concealed carry laws and interstate reciprocity were the issues determining admission into a Southern states' association, Pennsylvania, a state with no pretension of being even slightly Southern, would qualify.

[ladyL]

I grew up in Chicago but spent many summers and week ends in Southern Illinois, 40 miles north of Cairo. I also lived in So. Ill for five years during college. We still maintain the family farm there and return for visits often.

What the Gov. is saying is right on target. As a Tennessean now I can say that Southern Illinois is far more "southern" than what I have experienced here in Tennessee. Culturally it is completely southern, twang and all. Sweet tea, pick up trucks with gun racks, and hunting season as important as all other holiday seasons.

Unfortunately, the area I am speaking of is almost totally dependent on "the State" for employment for most of it's citizens. You either worked at the STATE hospital, the STATE university, the STATE highway department or other outlets that fed off "the STATE." The welfare system is the best I have ever heard of. The "STATE" covers everybody for everything, housing, health, food, farmland payoffs etc. My cousin and his wife will be retiring from the "State" and he told me with health benefits and their two "State" pensions they should be getting about $100,000 a year. He is retired and he is 57 yrs. old.

After leaving Southern Illinois and then getting a new perspective, my husband and I often talk about if there were ever a Communist community, where the people were totally unaware of the "State's" control of their lives it would be Southern Illinois. The Governor better wake up and get some manufacturing in there if he really wants to make positive changes in Southern Illinois.