Rockford gets a bum rap.
Forbes Magazine famously once called it America’s third most miserable city.
The gritty music of its most famous sons, Cheap Trick, are a perfect soundtrack for its blue collar neighborhoods and manufacturing plants.
Imagine my surprise when a local political scientist described it as “Switzerland.”
Clearly, there are no mountains, alpine lakes, or Lederhosen, but in terms of Illinois politics, it makes perfect sense.
Chicago and its collar suburbs are the deepest of blue. Southern Illinois is bright scarlet and is in many ways more southern than Midwestern. The last Republican gubernatorial candidate even had a hint of a drawl.
We spent time in Rockford and Winnebago County recently because it is stuffed with swing voters.
While tiny towns in New Hampshire and Milwaukee suburbs get all the attention from the national press for their reputations of hosting swing voters, everyone forgets about Illinois, and that’s a shame.
Since 1980, Winnebago County has an amazing track record voting for the winning Presidential candidate in seven of the last elections.