"Governor Milquetoast" No More
By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 3, 2010 4:20PM
It was nearly 1 a.m when Pat Quinn addressed his supporters at the Hotel Allegro when he pulled out a campaign button he bought as a teenager to support the Presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy fifty years ago in Westmont. "Kennedy won Illinois that year by 8,000 votes," Quinn reminisced, drawing a parallel between Kennedy's margin of victory and his own current gossamer-thin lead over Bill Brady in the race for Governor.
A few months back Quinn was behind far enough in the polls that the thought of him claiming victory last night was a risible notion. But Quinn reminded voters and pundits in the weeks leading up to the election that his being where he's at is no mere fluke. Here at Chicagoist, we've nicknamed Quinn "Governor Milquetoast" for his sad sack demeanor, mopey countenance and tendency to ramble (and he almost went off the rails a couple of times last night). Underneath all that, however, is a scrapper.
In the weeks leading up to the election at campaign stops and in advertisements, Quinn reminded voters of the man who founded the Citizens Utility Board, of his past as a property tax attorney and an activist. Quinn did this even as Brady ramped up the rhetoric trying to tie him to the disgraced Rod Blagojevich, saying a vote for Quinn was a vote for "business as usual." Quinn, in his final ads and campaign stops, reminded voters that he was a fighter, that he was working to bring jobs to Illinois, that Brady was not the political outsider portrayed in his ads.
At the time this post is being filed, Brady has not conceded and is resting any chance he has in overtaking Quinn to the counting and security of absentee ballots. It's the only realistic avenue he has left open to the Statehouse. Fox News Chicago's Larry Yellen pointed to two factors that benefited Quinn last night - a strong showing in the suburbs and the independent candidacy of Scott Lee Cohen. Cohen was expected to play a spoiler role last night, but was expected he would siphon more votes from Quinn than Brady. The opposite occurred. Quinn also performed well in both the suburbs and Chicago; he had 6,000 more votes in the city than Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias and 27,000 more in the suburbs.
Both Quinn and Brady stressed last night that every voted needed to be counted before moving forward. But the possibility that Brady can make up the difference among all the absentee ballots is a Herculean endeavor. As for the late reporting precincts, many of them are in the suburban townships in which Quinn performed strongly last night. It's why Quinn joked during his speech last night of a "landslide victory" and how "democracy isn't a spectator sport."