Libertarian Chad Grimm could impact governor's race

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The third candidate in the race for Illinois governor could have a big impact on the outcome of the election Tuesday night.

Libertarian party candidate Chad Grimm, 33, is the other name on the ballot for Illinois governor.

"I think the citizens of Illinois are actually ready for a third party," Grimm says. "It's right now."

Grimm says the more voters see of Democrat Pat Quinn and Republican Bruce Rauner in television ads, the less they like either major party candidate.

"Everybody that I talk to is sick of it," he says. "They're sick of the negative ads, they're sick of the negativity."

Grimm is a Peoria resident who spent much of his childhood in north suburban Lake Zurich. As a Libertarian, his position against abortion is based on science as opposed to religion.

"Nobody has been able to show me scientifically that life does not begin at conception and you always have to err on the side of life," he says.

He also is a gun rights supporter and believes drug use should be de-criminalized.

"You don't take someone with a disease and put them in jail and make their life that much worse," he says.

The Illinois Observer's "We Ask America" automated poll last week showed Grimm trailing Quinn and Rauner with 5.6 percent of the vote. But challenger Rauner--campaigning in Chicago Thursday--said a vote for Grimm is actually a vote to keep Quinn in the governor's office.

"At the end of the day, a vote that Bruce Rauner can't earn is a vote he can't earn," Grimm says.

The Operating Engineers' Union that endorsed Governor Quinn has promised $200 thousand dollars in help for Chad Grimm. Most of that money will be spent downstate where the Libertarian could draw conservatives away from Rauner.