IL-GOV

Bill Brady Wins GOP Nomination For Illinois Governor, Over A Month After Super-Close Primary

Eric Kleefeld | March 5, 2010, 1:22PM

IL-Gov Republican candidates Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady

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.

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IL-SEN

Poll: Dems Lead In Illinois Senate And Gubernatorial Races

Eric Kleefeld | February 25, 2010, 4:21PM

Illinois Senate candidates Mark Kirk (R) and Alexi Giannoulias (D)

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%.

IL-GOV

IL-GOV Republican Primary Still Not Over, Dillard Not Conceding

Eric Kleefeld | February 5, 2010, 5:33PM

IL-Gov Republican candidates Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady

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."

IL-GOV

Hynes Concedes IL-GOV Dem Primary To Quinn

Eric Kleefeld | February 4, 2010, 11:44AM

IL Comptroller Dan Hynes (D) and IL Gov. Pat Quinn (D)

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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