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Illinois
Governor
| ILLINOIS |
Nov. 2,
2010 Governor
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Plurality: 31,834 votes (0.85 percentage points) IL
State Board of Elections
Notes: Gov. Pat Quinn (D) assumed office on Jan. 29, 2009 after then Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) was impeached (>). After very close primaries in both major parties Quinn faced state Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) as well as Scott Lee Cohen (I), Rich Whitney (G) and Lex Green (L). Quinn was elected to a full term by a margin of less than 1-percent; the three minor candidates together tallied over 270,000 votes (7.27 percent of the total vote). February 2 Primaries Quinn faced a strong challenge from Comptroller Daniel W. Hynes. After a contentious campaign, he eked out a win by 462,049 votes (50.46%) to 453,677 (49.54%) of 915,726 total votes tallied. Seven candidates competed for the Republican nomination, five of whom finished in double digits. Brady won by 193 votes of 767,485 votes tallied. He garnered 155,527 votes (20.26%) followed by state Sen. Kirk Dillard 155,334 (20.24%), former Illinois Republican Party chairman Andy McKenna 148,054 (19.29%), former Attorney General and 2002 Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Ryan 130,785 (17.04%), publishing company owner Adam Andrzejewski 111,030 (14.47%), consultant Dan Proft 59,335 (7.73%) and Bob Schillerstrom at less than 1 percent. In the lieutenant governor races, on the Republican side, Jason Plummer, age 28, who works in the family lumber business in Edwardsville, topped the field of six candidates, defeating Matt Murphy by 238,169 votes (33.98%) to 233,572 (33.33%). In the Democratic primary, pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen spent around $2 million and tallied 213,475 votes (25.97%), finishing ahead state Rep. Arthur Turner and of four other candidates. However, on Feb. 7 Cohen withdrew under pressure amid revelations about his past behavior. On Mar. 27 the Illinois Democratic State Central Committee selected Sheila Simon, daughter of former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon, as the lieutenant governor nominee. The early primary left nine months for the general election campaign. General Election Quinn's political involvement dated back to the 1970s. After an unsuccessful run for State Treasurer in 1986, he was elected to the position in 1990 and served one term. He ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State in 1994, for U.S. Senate in 1996, and for lieutenant governor in 1998. He was elected lieutenant governor in 2002 and re-elected in 2006. Brady, who worked in real estate development, brought years of experience as a state legislator. He was first elected to the Illinois House in 1992, and was appointed to the Illinois Senate to fill a vacancy in 2002. He made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2000, and in 2006 he finished third in the Republican primary for governor with 18.4% of the vote. On May 3, about three months after he withdrew as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, Cohen announced he would run for governor as an independent. Whitney, a civil rights attorney from Carbondale and founder of the Illinois Green Party, also ran for governor in 2006, obtaining 361,336 votes (10.36%), a very strong showing for a third party candidate. Green, from Bloomington, was a first-time candidate who worked at the Mitsubishi Motors auto plant in Normal. The state's $13 billion budget shortfall and $75 billion in pension liabilities, problems which had been developing since the 1980s (>), were major issues in this race. Quinn called for "a 1 percent income tax surcharge to support education (>)," while Brady advocated "cutting spending by a dime on every dollar." Job creation was another major issue, and, given the Blagojevich experience, ethics came up frequently as well. Quinn and Brady debated multiple times: Sept. 29 - Union League Club of Chicago (>); Oct. 14 - at WSIU public broadcasting studios in Carbondale (Quinn, Brady and Whitney); Oct. 17 - Elmhurst College, broadcast by WBEZ; Oct. 20 - League of Women Voters and the Illinois Broadcasters Association with WLS-TV ABC7 in Chicago (>); Oct. 28 - City Club of Chicago on WTTW Chicago Public Television's "Chicago Tonight" (>). Campaign Managers: Pat Quinn: Ben Nuckels (May 2010 succeeded John Kamis) Chief of staff to Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton, Jan. 2007-May 2010. Campaign manager on Lawton for Lt. Governor, 2006. Midwest campaigns manager of the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, 2005-06. Originally from Carroll, Iowa. John Kamis (Oct. 2009-Mar. 2010) Assistant to the Mayor's Office of the City of Chicago, 2007-2009. Senior account executive at Resoluted Consulting LLC, 2007-08. Deputy finance director fo The Competence Group, 2000-01. Midwest field coordinator/Illinois deputy communications director for Gore 2000, 1999-2000. J.D. from University of Illinois College of Law, 2005; B.A. in political science/history from Bradley University, 2000. Bill Brady: Jerry Clarke (Mar. 1, 2010) Chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson from Jan. 2001. Deputy chief of staff to Illinois House Minority Leader Lee Daniels. Iraq War veteran. B.S. from University of Illinois at Urbanan-Champaign, 1988. ....and General Manager Dan Egler Owner of DLE Consulting Group from 2003. Communications director on Brady's 2005-06 campaign for governor. Executive at the Illinois Capital Development Board, 1997-2003. Deputy press secretary/chief speechwriter to the Illinois Governor, 1991-97. Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune, 1977-91. B.A. in journalism/political science from Indiana University Bloomington, 1969. See also: Mike Lawrence. "Commentary: Neither Brady nor Quinn has made his case." St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 24, 2010. Patrick Yeagle at The Illinois Times did an excellent series of candidate profiles: Lex Green (July 8), Rich Whitney (July 15), Scott Lee Cohen (July 29), Pat Quinn (Sept. 2), and Bill Brady (Oct. 21). Doug Finke. "Whitney challenges exclusion from gubernatorial forums." Observer-Dispatch, Oct. 13, 2010. Staff. "GOP candidate for lt. gov. keeping low profile." ABC 7, Aug. 13, 2010. Michael Powell. "Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, but Can't Stop Digging Hole." The New York Times, July 2, 2010. Bernard Schoenberg. "Simon wins Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor." The State Journal-Register, Mar. 27, 2010. David Bernstein. "Scott Lee Cohen: The Exit Interview." Chicago Magazine, Mar. 18, 2010. Michael Miner. "Whose Fault Is Scott Lee Cohen?" Chicago Reader, Feb. 11, 2010. Alex Isenstadt. "Illinois lt. gov. nominee withdraws." Politico, Feb. 7, 2010. --. "Illinois Hosts Nation's First 2010 Primary." The Associated Press, Feb. 2, 2010. Steve Bryant, BJ Lutz and Mary Ann Ahern. "Harold Washington Criticizes Quinn in New Hynes Ad." NBC 5, Jan. 21, 2010. |
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