Robert Cohen/Post-Dispatch

Pat Quinn walked into our offices 10 days ago with a stack of business cards reading “Pat Quinn, Lieutenant Governor, State of Illinois.” Before he handed each card over, he used a pen to scratch out “Lieutenant.”

He then launched into an extended soliloquy about having installed LED lightbulbs (“Much more efficient than compact fluorescents”) and rain barrels at the governor’s mansion in Springfield. And not just any rain barrels, but rain barrels manufactured at the state prison in Menard, thus making the Illinois Department of Corrections a leader in green jobs.

“Our goal is to become the rain barrel capital of the United States,” Mr. Quinn said proudly.

Back before he was elected lieutenant governor in 2002, Mr. Quinn used to drive a Chevette on his official rounds. As lieutenant governor, one of his signature moments was presiding over the Internet balloting that chose the official state reptile (Painted Turtle) and official state amphibian (Eastern Tiger Salamander). He also mused about shipping Illinois mud down the Mississippi to restore the Louisiana wetlands.

Not since “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” perhaps, has such a political naif and idealist inherited a major public office. That Pat Quinn — variously described as either an populist-idealist or a tree-hugging gadfly — is now the accidental governor of one of the most corrupt states in the union is a plot that even Hollywood would reject.

A guy who used to charge a maximum of $75 a plate for his fundraising dinners now sits in the chair most recently warmed by Rod Blagojevich, who — the government alleges — tried to sell a U.S. Senate seat and shook down a children’s hospital. Mr. Blagojevich left him a mess:

• A budget deficit in the range of $11 billion. Mr. Quinn proposes to close it by raising state income taxes in the teeth of the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.
• A need for major campaign financing and ethics overhaul and a legislature filled with people who benefit from the current system.
• A primary election just nine months away, creating a need for Mr. Quinn to raise millions in a system he despises to meet a Democratic primary challenge from Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is raising money by the buckets-full and whose father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, holds absolute control of the legislative agenda.

Mr. Quinn has only 27 days get it all done. The legislature adjourns at the end of May, leaving not much time to raise taxes, whack spending, pass a major capital spending bill and change the state’s entire political culture.

Is Mr. Quinn tough enough for the challenge?

“A lot of people underestimate me,” he told us. He then outlined a scenario in which the legislature quickly passes campaign finance limits, whereupon candidates who’ve already raised millions under the current no-limits system either return it to donors or donate it to charity.

Mr. Quinn might do something like that without a gun at his head. It’s doubtful that any other politician in Illinois would.

Mr. Quinn says that if the legislature doesn’t pass solid campaign finance and ethics reforms, he’ll take the issue directly to voters. If he can somehow get it on the primary ballot in February, he could tie his own low-budget campaign to the reform issue. That might give him a shot at printing new business cards.