Political analyst Paul Green speaks to Illinois REALTORS® in East Peoria

Political analyst Paul Green’s assessment of today’s political climate: Illinois continues to be a fiscal mess, the redrawn legislative map isn’t  likely to bring much change to the state’s political landscape and voters can expect the Republican Party’s choice for presidential candidate to go down to the wire.

Green, director of the Institute for Politics and the Arthur Rubloff Professor or Policy Studies at Roosevelt University and a political analyst for WGN Radio, shared his political insights Wednesday at the Illinois Association of REALTORS® (IAR) Public Policy Meetings in East Peoria, Ill.

REALTORS® from throughout the state are meeting this week to help shape IAR’s political agenda and goals for 2012 and Green’s analysis offered a peek at some of the big issues in Illinois and nationally.

Illinois’ economic problems are enormous and it affects operations not just at the state level but also at the local levels, Green said. The only way out of the mess: cut expenses, increase revenue and do a better job of managing both – tough prospects politically.

Looking at this year’s presidential election, Green said to expect obscene amounts
of money to be spent and don’t bet on Obama’s Republican challenger to be chosen
by the Republican Convention.

Ultimately, the battleground states to watch in the November election are the same nine that helped Barack Obama win in 2008: Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, Green says.