Truax the man:

Today theChicago Tribune endorsedpolitical newcomer Doug Truax in the U.S. Senate Republican primary race, saying he was the best positioned to oust U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

It’s a major snub to ice cream mogul and state Sen. Jim Oberweis who was elected to his position in 2012 after making five failed runs for higher office.

“Conventional wisdom doesn’t dictate how dyspeptic voters will treat a profoundly partisan Democrat who helped lead passage of Obamacare — and who’s in his 32nd year in Congress,” the Tribune wrote.

“Oberweis has more name recognition and money than does Truax. If Republicans don’t look deeper, those variables could determine this race. But with one eye on the issues that confront voters and another on Illinois’ imperiled future, the Tribune today endorses Doug Truax.”

More more more here at the Sun-Times’ excellent new politics blog, Early and Often.

. . .  TO STOP RAUNER — AND PUNISH MADIGAN AND QUINN

Illinois Review has it:

Pro-union groups such as Republican Fund for Progress & Jobs, the Fund forProsperity & Jobs, the Illinois Freedom PAC and the Democrat Governors Association are raising money, running ads, and preparing to put boots on the ground – all to try and stop Bruce Rauner from winning the GOP gubernatorial nomination.

For teachers and public sector unions, stopping Rauner in the primary would prevent them having to spend possibly historic amounts of money on the November General Election.

Insiders tell Illinois Review it would also allow the unions to teach Gov. Quinn and House Speaker Madigan a lesson after they passed and signed a pension reform bill over the objections of the unions.

If state Sen. Kirk Dillard wins the GOP nomination, the teachers unions and AFSCME (which have endorsed Dillard) will, we are…