Cohen says he's dropping out of race
Chicago Tribune
SCHORSCH & PEARSON: The state central committee is not bound to select any of the candidates who lost to Cohen in last week’s primary. State Rep. Art Turner of Chicago, a member of Madigan’s House leadership team who was backed by the powerful Southwest Side lawmaker, finished second to Cohen. Even before Cohen stepped off the ticket, some Democratic leaders said privately that they would like to expand a search beyond the primary election contenders and look to fill the vacancy to provide some regional balance--namely a downstate resident. Currently, all of the nominees on the Democratic statewide ticket come from Chicago - a point Republicans have used in the past to contend that city-controlled politics dominates state policy. Republicans faced a similar problem on their statewide ticket in 2004, when the primary-elected nominee for U.S. Senate, businessman Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race amid damaging disclosures contained in his divorce file. The Illinois GOP held an open casting call for the post but ended up settling on controversial conservative Republican activist Alan Keyes from Maryland to run as the nominee. Keyes was swamped by then-state Sen. Barack Obama in the 2004 general election. Turner, said he would make a case to the state central committee that he was the most qualified of those who sought the lieutenant governor nomination - but that his second-place finish should not automatically give him the spot. “I don’t think it ought to be an automatic. The fact that you finished second, I would not want to set a precedent for that,” Turner said. “What I’m saying is that of the people interested in the job-- others could have expressed an interest but didn’t--I am the most qualified.” Ryan dropped from the ticket in late June and the GOP didn’t pick Keyes as a replacement until early August. Democrats, however, could actually benefit from the early February primary by quickly forging a new teammate for Quinn to try to put Cohen's nomination behind them before general election voters tune into the fall contests. Still, Republicans are expected to use the Cohen debacle, on top of the scandal that put Quinn in office - the ouster of disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich - to campaign against the Democrats’ one-party rule of state government. "It will be among the things we'll bring up," said Pat Brady, the state's Republican chairman. "We'll point out what the Democrats have done to get this state where it is. But it's more important to have our candidates talk about what we're going to do."
>> Read more at Illinois News Page
Low turnout affects races
Northwest Herald
EDITORIAL: The race for the Republican nomination for governor of Illinois is so close, we still don’t have a winner five days after the election. Just a few hundred votes separate front-runner Bill Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, and Kirk Dillard, a state senator from Hinsdale, in a race where more than 700,000 votes were cast. There’s about one-tenth of a percentage point difference between the two candidates. It could wind up in a costly, and time-consuming, recount, as Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn moves forward with his campaign. Dillard did much better in Chicago and the suburbs than Brady, who carried most downstate precincts. In McHenry County, Dillard captured 5,907 votes on Election Day to Brady’s 2,191. Of course, less than 18 percent of registered county voters cast a ballot this primary election season. Slightly more than 36,000 of the county’s 200,668 registered voters bothered to participate in the democracy. Statewide, turnout was about 25 percent, still remarkably low, but better than here. Had McHenry County’s numbers at least mirrored statewide turnout, an additional 14,000 or so local residents would have voted. And guess what? That could have turned the election for Dillard, who received about three votes in McHenry County for every one vote that Brady received. We’ve already criticized registered voters who didn’t show up at the polls on Tuesday to participate in the democracy. But this is such an important issue, and such an important election, we’re going to do it again. Your vote matters! It mattered for Dillard. In the Democratic race for governor, it mattered to Hynes, who lost to Quinn by just a few thousand votes. In local races, fewer than 200 votes separated Anna May Miller, who is in, from Yvonne Barnes, who is out, in District 1. About 200 votes separated Barbara Wheeler (in) from Karen Tynis (out) in District 3. To state it more bluntly: YOUR VOTE MATTERS! Sadly, turnout was what it was last Tuesday. There’s a new election Nov. 2 to prepare for. We’re confident, or at least hopeful, more voters will decide to participate.
>> Read more at Illinois News Page
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