CHICAGO– The day after he won the March Democratic primary, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he wanted another boost in the state’s minimum wage.

With just more than a week to go before the Nov. 7 election, he made that proposal again on Saturday – this time with the fanfare of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, lawmakers and city aldermen.

Blagojevich said legislation would be introduced during next month’s veto session to raise the minimum wage $1 to $7.50 an hour.

“We will stay there as long as it takes to get it done, if that means goin’ past the veto session, we’ll do that too,” said Blagojevich, who had the entire regular session to bring up the issue, but didn’t.

His Republican challenger, Judy Baar Topinka, has said increasing the state’s minimum wage will cost Illinois jobs, which she says it can’t afford.

Topinka spokesman John McGovern said she supports an increase in the federal minimum wage because it won’t unfairly disadvantage Illinois employers.

McGovern also questioned Blagojevich’s timing.

“Every decision Rob Blagojevich makes is driven by politics not policy,” he said.

The federal minimum wage has been $5.15 since 1997. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages above the federal level.

During his first year in office in 2003, Blagojevich signed the law that raised Illinois’ minimum wage from the federal level to its current rate of $6.50 an hour.

Daley predicted Democrats would regain control of the U.S House and get a national minimum wage increase passed.

“We’ll pass the minimum wage out of the House; it’s been stalled there for eight years,” he said.

The latest minimum wage increase proposal for Illinois includes a built-in annual cost of living increase.

Sergio Perez, a 19-year-old from Chicago, said a bump to $7.50 an hour would help him because with his minimum wage salary, he struggles to pay for school and the car he uses to get around.

Based on a 40-hour work week, minimum-wage workers in Illinois earn $13,520 before taxes. Under the proposal, this would rise to $15,600 a year.

Green Party candidate for governor, Carbondale attorney Rich Whitney, said he favors gradually boosting the minimum wage so it can reach the more than $9 an hour he says it would be if it had kept pace with inflation over the last nearly 40 years.

An extra $1 an hour would “really help out my life,” he said during a press conference at a West Side social services building.