By Ashley Badgley

Illinois Statehouse News

ROCKFORD — Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday made his second tour of the state this week, this time as governor.

Monday’s flyaround focused on Quinn as the Democratic candidate for governor.

Quinn took the legislature’s two-week spring break as an opportunity to tout the state’s accomplishments, beginning the day in Chicago, before heading to Bloomington, then Moline and finally Rockford by day’s end.

Quinn started the day by hosting a breakfast in Chicago honoring Cesar Chavez, the Hispanic American civil rights leader. His next stop was Bloomington, where he signed an executive order maintaining the use of project labor agreements for the state’s public works projects.

In Moline, Quinn broke ground on the new Western Illinois University branch campus, which will expand the school’s current Quad Cities presence. The governor ended the day in Rockford, where he spoke at Ingersoll Machine Tools and announced the company will receive $5 million in federal stimulus funding to develop wind energy turbine components and create and retain more than 150 green jobs.

Despite the breakneck schedule, Quinn said he enjoyed getting out of the office.

“It’s important to be in the state capital,” Quinn said. “But getting out to everyday people and talking with folks as I did today about how important it is to have green-collared jobs that are going to be good jobs of today and tomorrow, that’s what governors have to do.”

He stressed the importance of green jobs while speaking at Ingersoll Machine Tools.

“The most important thing we can do to help people in Illinois is to help provide jobs,” Quinn said. “It’s the best social program ever devised, the best way to fight crime, the best way to keep families together. The best way to help the most people is a J-O-B.”

State Rep. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, spoke with Quinn during his visit to Rockford and said he’s glad jobs are going to be created in the area. Rockford currently leads the state in the unemployment rate at 19.7 percent for February 2010. For the same month, Illinois tallied an unemployment rate of 11.4 percent, while the nation totaled 9.7 percent.

“Anytime we’re dealing to do something to expand manufacturing is exciting,” Syverson said.

Quinn said he hopes Illinois can lead the way in terms of green jobs and said Illinois has the potential to lead the nation in wind energy jobs.

“No question that Illinois is open for business when it comes to wind power and we want all of our businesses, small and large, to participate in this movement,” Quinn said.