With a primary election coming up on Feb. 2, there are seven Republicans, two Democrats and one Green Party candidate running for the office.

Among the Democrats are incumbent Pat Quinn and challenger Dan Hynes, the comptroller.

The Green Party candidate is Rich Whitney, a lawyer from Carbondale.

The Republicans in the race are Adam Andrzejewski of Hinsdale, Bill Brady, a state Senator from Bloomington, Kirk Dillard, a state Senator from Hinsdale, Andy McKenna, the former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, Dan Proft, a Chicago businessman, Jim Ryan, a former DuPage County state's attorney from Elmhurst, and Bob Schillerstrom of Naperville, the DuPage County Board chairman.

There's no specific question on this thread, but feel free to discuss the gubernatorial campaign here.

Edit: Bob Schillerstrom dropped out of the race on Friday, saying he would support Jim Ryan.

With current Chairman Bob Schillerstrom running for governor, DuPage County will have a new County Board chairman for the first time since 1999. Four candidates are running in the Republican primary, with Aurora Democrat Carole Cheney running unopposed.

For the Republicans, the candidates are state Sen. Dan Cronin of Elmhurst, Gary Grasso, mayor of Burr Ridge, County Board member Debra Olson of Wheaton and state Sen. Carole Pankau of Itasca.

There's no particular question with this post, but feel free to discuss whatever you feel is relevant in this election.

Here is a link to the story the Sun did on the candidates:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1999933,6_1_NA20_COUNTYCHAIR_S1-100120.article

Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and North Central College celebrated it as the 50th anniversary of King's visit to the college in 1960.

We all know that in King's day, racism was out in the open and official policy in many places, and that King fought for a world in which all people would be considered equal.

The fact that a black president now occupies the White House is a clear demonstration of how much things have changed in the 50 years since that visit, but as many attendees of Benedictine University's MLK Day Breakfast pointed out, there is still a way to go to achieve true equality for everyone.

What do you think of the state of race relations in the Naperville area and in the nation? How much have things changed, and do they continue to change? Can you foresee a time when race truly doesn't matter?

On Tuesday, the DuPage County Board declined to grant a conditional use permit to allow a Muslim worship facility and school to operate on 75th Street east of Naper Boulevard, between Naperville and Lisle.

Opponents have raised objections ranging from worries about the amount of parking and noise to concerns about the group's links to terrorism.

While the board voted 10-7 against it, all three of the board members representing Naperville supported it, and board member James Healy said he believed the board was legally required to approve it.

The group behind the measure will likely appeal.

What do you think? Is this a case of racism or anti-Muslim feeling, or were the objections legitimate and enough to deny the plans? Do you think this reflects poorly on Naperville and DuPage County?

Read the full story here:
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/1986971,Muslim-center-voted-down_NA011210.article

On Thursday the city of Naperville began to inform city workers of layoffs. The exact number and the positions was unclear Thursday but was expected to amount to several dozen jobs eliminated, between open positions and job cuts. Ten of the cuts will be at the police department, where eight open positions were eliminated and two recently hired officers were let go.

The cuts were projected to save the city about $3.5 million in an effort to close an $11 million budget deficit for 2011.

Councilman Bob Fieseler told the Sun that while the cuts were necessary, this time residents would notice the difference and would be disappointed as their services were affected.

What do you think of these cuts by the city?

Edit: The city announced Friday that a total of 49 positions were cut, consisting of 22 filled postions and 27 vacant positions. The city estimates this will save $3.6 million. Combined with last year's reductions, the city has now cut 10 percent of its labor force.

Under a controversial state program aimed at saving money, the state released more than 1,700 prisoners recently who had only completed small portions of their sentences.

While the program was supposed to only apply to nonviolent offenders convicted of minor crimes, an Aurora street gang member convicted of murder conspiracy and 20 other criminals from throughout Illinois with murder or attempted murder in their backgrounds were released. Six were convicted of murder, five of second-degree murder, one of manslaughter, one of murder conspiracy and seven of attempted murder.

Under the rules of the program, previous offenses could not be considered, only the offense the person was currently serving time for, accounting for the releases.

Quinn has said the program was a "mistake." What do you think?

The Illinois Senate has passed a bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Illinois, and now it is up to the House to consider it.

Local politicians are split on it, weighing its supposed benefits - helping patients who have certain illnesses to deal with their symptoms and the side effects of their medicine - against the drawbacks, which include making drug laws more difficult to enforce.

Thirteen states already have legalized medical marijuana. Do you think Illinois should join them?