Fascinating: Long-shot challengers turn Democratic and Republican primaries upside down.

By Natasha Korecki & Daniel Strauss @ Politico.com, Feb. 21

The Illinois governor’s race was supposed to be a clash of two fabulously rich politicians, an election so expensive that it might end up costing more than a quarter-billion dollars.

But with just four weeks to go until the March 20 primary, it’s not even certain that Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner and billionaire Democrat J.B. Pritzker will be their parties’ nominees in the general election.

Both are fighting off long-shot rivals who have, against all odds, put a scare into their cash-flush campaigns — and reminded them of the roiling grass-roots anger in both political parties.

“I think the people of Illinois are being confronted with the choice between a middle-class progressive and another out-of-touch billionaire and it’s not a hard call for people,” said Democratic state Sen. Daniel Biss, who has seen a steady rise in both polling and campaign funding in his bid against Pritzker. “There's all kinds of energy out there. This is what we all thought was going to happen. Donald Trump is the president, Bruce Rauner is governor. Inexperienced billionaires are not what people are going for.”  [....]

But I would add this contrarian point to what Biss says. While I don't doubt that anti-Trump feeling might be driving anti-billionaire feeling, Trump was also an insurgent in the GOP, he dissed the establishment. I think it may be broader than that, thatTrump has been a catalyst that is making people look at the parties as needing a cleaning.