Local politicians say the close race between Ilinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Judy Baar Topinka will come to personal attacks involving former governor George Ryan.

Joe Wiegand, campaign manager for Jim Oberweis, said the Oberweis campaign used advertisement showing Topinka dancing with Ryan laying claim to, “Pay to Play Polka.”

Dave Loveday, Topinka’s press secretary, said the allegations made against Topinka in the advertisement are ridiculous.

“She ran by herself and won,” he said.

The jury will decide Ryan’s fate, but Topinka’s job as treasurer under Ryan’s administration does not automatically affiliate her with any of the personal corruption charges he faces, Loveday said. Topinka is taking the stance of fiscal responsibility and cleaning up the corruption in government.

Andrew Bogda, secretary of the College Republicans and freshman geography major, said the issue of corruption will be in Topinka’s favor.

People will see Topinka as the least dishonest, he said. She doesn’t have any prior charges against her unlike Blagojevich.

It might hurt her that she worked under Ryan’s authority, but both Democrats and Republicans are unsatisfied with Blagojevich and the current Illinois government, Bogda said.

Doug Scofield, Blagojevich’s campaign spokesman, said Topinka’s relationship with Ryan could be a potential problem.

He said Blagojevich entered office with the worst deficit in state history because of Ryan, and he doesn’t want to see that return.

“Voters will decide if they want things to go back the way they were,” Scofield said.

Topinka and Ryan share a lot of the same stances on issues, such as on assault weapons, higher education funding, access to health care and prescription drugs for elders, he said.

Scofield said it’s too early to tell if the Blagojevich campaign will use Topinka’s “affiliations” with Ryan against her, but it’s clear to see health care and education will suffer if she wins.

Paul Stoddard, faculty advisor for the College Democrats, said people make the accusations that Blagojevich and Illinois politics in general are too corrupt, however the same can go for any state.

Stoddard said he’s seen the same kind of finger pointing and political corruption from Texas to New York.

Matthew Streb, assistant political science professor at NIU, agrees.

When an election is as close as this, any politician will stray from the issues and start pointing fingers, even candidates of the same party, he said.

Wiegand said the Oberweis campaign will stick to their accusations against Topinka but will side with her over Blagojevich.

The people of Illinois cannot stand another four years of Blagojevich, he said.

“It would be ruinous to jobs,” Wiegand said.

However, Wiegand said finger-pointing tactics between Blagojevich and Topinka may backfire.

“It’s like the pot calling the kettle black,” he said.