
The Illinois gubernatorial race has now come to an end, with Republican nominee state Sen. Bill Brady conceding the race to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.
The Chicago Tribune reports:
"I just a few minutes ago got off the phone with Gov. Quinn and congratulated him on his victory," said Brady at a packed news conference at a hotel in downstate Bloomington with dozens of well wishers in attendance. "We came to the conclusion that Gov. Quinn won this race."PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)
Brady called leading Illinois Republicans this morning to inform them of his decision to end the race as he trails Quinn by more than 19,000 votes.
The Associated Press has projected incumbent Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn as the winner in Illinois, a major upset result as he apparently defeats Republican state Sen. Bill Brady:
An AP analysis of uncounted votes from absentee and other ballots shows state Sen. Bill Brady won't be able to overcome the just more than 19,400-vote lead Quinn holds with 100 percent of precincts reporting Thursday.
Brady has not yet conceded the race, saying earlier that he wants all remaining votes, such as military absentee votes, to be counted.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The Illinois gubernatorial race isn't completely over -- but it appears to be getting there, with incumbent Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn expanding his narrow lead against Republican state Sen. Bill Brady.
The Chicago Tribune reports, Quinn led on election night by the tiny margin of 8,000 votes. The race then became a contest of sorts between the under-counted areas, which overall would favor Quinn, versus absentee ballots that might help Brady.
So far, Quinn's lead has grown to 20,000 votes.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Here's a quick update on the statewide races that may or may not be seeing recounts, election contests, graphology examinations, Brooks Brothers riots, etc.:
• In the Alaska Senate race, it's not a recount so much as a protracted and unusual vote count -- it could take weeks to sort through the 41% of ballots that were write-in votes, to determine how many them constitute valid, legal votes for incumbent GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowsi against Republican nominee Joe Miller.
• In the Connecticut gubernatorial race, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz (D) has declared that Democrat Dan Malloy will win the race, without a recount. Republican Tom Foley is not conceding, maintaining that his campaign's internal numbers have them on track for a 2,000-vote win.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Scott Lee Cohen, a Chicago pawnbroker who dropped out of Illinois' race for lieutenant governor earlier this year after past allegations of domestic violence came to light, is now running for governor. He filed petitions yesterday to run as an independent.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)It's been over a month since the Illinois primary, but it appears that the Republicans finally have a nominee for governor, to go up against Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn.
The state today certified state Sen. Bill Brady as the winner of the February 2 Republican primary, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Brady won with 155,527 votes, defeating state Sen. Kirk Dillard, who had 155,334 votes. Each candidate only had slightly over 20% of the vote each, in a primary in which six candidates had significant levels of support.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)The new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll of Illinois gives Democrats the initial lead in the race for President Obama's former Senate seat, though the undecided figure remains high.
The numbers: Democratic state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias 43%, Republican Congressman Mark Kirk 36%, with a ±4% margin of error. A month ago, before the party primaries, Giannoulias led Kirby by 38%-30% in the potential match-up.
Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who just barely survived his own primary, also leads both Republican candidates who are still in contention for the too-close-to-call GOP primary that was held three weeks ago. Quinn leads state Sen. Bill Brady by 47%-32%, and leads state Sen. Kirk Dillard by 46%-35%.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)The Republican nomination for governor of Illinois is still up in the air, with one of the GOP candidates announcing today that he isn't conceding the race.
"With over 750-thousand votes cast, this is a .0005 of a percent difference. So, in a race this close, it's important that every vote count," said state Sen. Kirk Dillard, who currently trails state Sen. Bill Brady by a very thin margin. Brady and Dillard each have 20% of the vote, in a field of seven candidates. Brady's current lead over over Dillard is just 420 votes.
Dillard said that there are almost 5,000 provisional ballots that haven't been counted, 1,000 uncounted absentee ballots, and up to 5,000 absentee ballots that could still be in the mail. "I wish we could resolve this today," Dillard said. "But the reality is that it takes time for election authorities to do their job and for these votes to be counted."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, who was in a photo-finish Democratic gubernatorial primary against incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn, has now conceded the race to Quinn, officially clearing the way for Quinn to fight the general election against the Republican nominee -- a matter that is itself yet to be determined since both parties' primaries yielded close results.
The winner was not immediately clear on election night. Quinn declared victory with a lead of about 7,000 votes, though Hynes did not yet concede. The most up to date results have Quinn winning by 8,090 votes, out of a total of 912,662 votes.
At a Hynes press event (streamed on the ABC affiliate in Chicago), Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath announced that Hynes had called Quinn about a half an hour earlier. Hynes then took to the podium. "Well, the people have spoken, and the votes have been counted. And I'm here to report that we rose up, but fell just a little short," said Hynes. "And if democracy means anything, it means that the campaign with the most votes wins. We did the right thing, we made sure all the votes were counted, and now we know for sure that it wasn't us. And now let's do the right thing again."
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