Article: This program would free up substantial funding for classroom instruction without a tax increase.

In the GOP governor's race countdown, don't count out Joe Birkett, the DuPage County state's attorney. Running for attorney general in 2002 in the worst year for the party in two generations, outspent 4- 1 and running against the daughter of the most potent Democrat in the state, Lisa Madigan, Birkett outdebated her and got 47 percent of the vote, which stunned political analysts. He has the strongest natural base of any GOP candidate, winning more than 70 percent in each of his state's attorney races and outpolling even DuPage native Jim Ryan in the county that year. Now Birkett is facing at least two multimillionaires but is the only Republican candidate who ever won a contested statewide ...

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