Michele Saddler is a graduate of Princeton University and the Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management. For a decade, she ran the Illinois Metropolitan Investment Fund, a respected investment pool for municipal governments. She worked as a top aide for Gov. Pat Quinn when he was state treasurer. And for almost two years, she's successfully ushered Illinois' Department of Human Services through its most difficult budget crisis in history. Most public servants can only dream of a resume of this caliber.

Saddler also happens to be a biracial woman. And State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale), a chief ally of GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady, seems to think her gender and racial make-up is the only reason she was selected to serve as Gov. Quinn's new chief of staff. "While she, as an African-American, Asian woman, is a political choice, it remains to be seen if she can govern state government," he told NBC 5 yesterday. Watch it below, courtesy of the Quinn campaign:

It's moments like this when it becomes painfully clear why Illinois' Republican Party has had such difficulty attracting the support of people of color.