Getting ready for the playoffs, Jim Edgar’s “fact team” has started its season and named its “quarterback” and “starting line-up”.

Quarterback, Rep. Robert Churchill, R-Antioch, and line-up players Sen. Jack Schaffer, R-Cary, Rep. Kathleen Wojcik, R-Schaumburg, and Rep. Myron Olson, R-Dixon, traveled to DeKalb Wednesday for a press conference to convince voters “there is only one honest candidate for governor, and that is Jim Edgar,” said Rep. John Countryman, R-DeKalb.

The team represents Jim Edgar, the Republican candidate for governor who is competing against Democrat Neil Hartigan.

“Jim Edgar’s so-called fact teams should have taken a closer look at their own records before mounting their high horses,” said Gary LaPaille, State Democratic Party chairman, in response to the team.

“We know what Edgar is going to do because everything he has ever told us has been true,” Churchill said.

“We decided we were going to go across Illinois and try to talk about the facts as they are and about the reality of Edgar vs. the rhetoric of Hartigan.”

“I want the voters to know what Edgar has done for us and for the area I live in,” Wojcik said. Edgar has cracked down on drunk drivers and is committed to mandatory insurance and education and fighting adult illiteracy, she said.

Olson said some examples of Hartigan’s rhetoric are his promises to “end tax surcharge” but not to “rule out higher taxes” and “adding $173 million in potential new taxes on jobs and farms.”

Olson said, Hartigan claims he will “cut the state budget” but “refuses to defend the state against special interests.” Hartigan also said he would “downsize the government” but then “promises billions in new program spending,” he said.

“Two years ago these legislators rejected the temporary income tax surcharge,” LaPaille said. “Now, Edgar says its time to join the party’s theme of throwing more money at every problem in Illinois. So, they nodded their heads and jumped in their vans.”

“When these legislators are traveling the state, I hope they remember to tell the people the truth, that there is a plan to do better with their tax dollars, but they’ve rejected it, and signed onto the largest income tax increase in Illinois history,” LaPaille added.

“For us to give (the Democrats) absolute power over the state, not only for the next four years but, because of (redistricting), potentially for the next ten years, would be a mistake,” Schaffer said.