If Pat Quinn campaigned through the primary and general election with the urgency and tenacity he displayed in the gubernatorial campaign’s final weeks, he might have beaten Bill Brady by a wider margin than he did. The Senate campaign, meanwhile, was distilled to one issue: who did voters trust more? Did they trust the congressman who embellished his military record? Or the Golden Boy who oversaw a bank that failed and may have made loans to alleged mobsters? Ultimately, voters chose the former. more ›

With days to go before the general election, major television stations are pulling Bill Brady's campaign commercials because he hasn't paid for the airtime. And here we thought the ads last night seemed slightly less offensive because the politicians wised up on negative ads. more ›

The entire foundation of Brady's campaign is of a man who won't accept "business as usual" in Springfield, not to mention hanging the albatross of a 20-year state budget mess on the neck of a man who's only been governor 18 months and was largely marginalized as lieutenant governor by the Human Pompadour... But how does Brady reconcile his "agent of change" stance while accepting money from two men who were complicit in maintaining the status quo? more ›

GOP Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady and his running mate for Lieutenant Governor, Jason Plummer, sat down with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Tuesday on a far ranging interview that touched upon many subjects. Among them, Brady said that he would not stand in the way of public school districts amending curricula so that Creationism could be taught in schools. Brady explained his stance by straddling the issue like a lifelong politician. "My knowledge and my faith leads me to believe in both evolution and creationism,” he said. “I believe God created the earth, and it evolved." more ›

On tour in Illinois yesterday with New Jersey's Republican Governor, Chris Christie, GOP Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady got caught up in some difficult questions about how he'll handle the state's ballooning budget deficit. Brady called Christie "an inspiration" for cutting New Jersey's budget, but refused to discuss specifics of either the cuts he would propose or the borrowing he would consider, and cut short his news conference when the local media pressed him for details on how to handle the state's $13 billion budget hole. more ›

While recent polls and projections by a pretty reliable pundit - FiveThirtyEight - put GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady with a lead over Gov. Pat Quinn, a new Tribune poll shows the two may be closer to a dead heat heading into the final month of the campaign. The new Tribune/WGN poll, conducted last Friday through this Tuesday of 600 likely voters, puts Quinn in the lead 39 percent to Brady's 38 percent with Scott Lee Cohen registering four percent, Green Party candidate Rich Whitney pulling in three percent, and Libertarian candidate Lex Green with 2 percent; the poll has a margin of error of four percent. It's quite a swing from the pre-Labor Day poll the Trib conducted which put Brady in the lead by about five percent (37 to 32). Of the voters that were polled, 18 percent of those that considered themselves "Independent" were undecided, surely the key section of voters both Quinn and Brady will target in the upcoming month heading into November 2nd's general election. more ›

Governor Quinn will extend the Put Illinois to Work for up to two more months. The program, which has managed to put 26,000 people to work at more than 5,000 public and private sector employers, is set to expire September 30th. Governor Quinn plans to spend $75 million to keep the program running until Congress votes on an extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund. more ›

State Senator Bill Brady, the Republican nominee for governor of Illinois, visited Mayor Daley yesterday to talk about budget issues facing the city and state. But Daley made it clear that he's not endorsing Brady for governor. "It was a courtesy visit," mayoral press secretary Jacquelyn Heard told the Sun-Times. "Sen. Brady some time ago asked to see the mayor and [Tuesday] was the day," she said. "Mayor Daley is never so partisan that he's unwilling to listen." more ›

After all the drama of the Lieutenant Governor's race and the "will he or won't he" back-and-forth about Scott Lee Cohen's potential return to politics, we finally have an answer: he's in. Cohen announced his official run for governor as an independent at a press conference earlier this morning. Still, he's got a tall task ahead of him, needing to get 25,000 signatures on a petition by June 21 to secure his slot on the November ballot. According to the Tribune, "Cohen said he has no running mate yet and is asking people to come forward if they are interested in the job." So if you're for the task, go ahead; it can't get any crazier. more ›

After yesterday's Tribune/WGN poll that showed current Cook County Board President Todd Stroger a distant third in that race, a new poll shows the Governor's race is heating up with the two expected front-runners, well, where they were expected to be. According to the poll of 600 likely Democrat voters done last week, Gov. Quinn has a sizeable lead with 49 percent and opponent state comptroller Dan Hynes trailing at 23 percent. Third place was "Undecided" at 21 percent. Things were much closer on the Republican side where Jim Ryan leads with 26 percent and Andy McKenna behind at 12 percent of the 600 likely GOP voters polled. State Sen. Bill Bradley had 10 percent, State Sen. Kirk Dillard had nine percent. But greater than all of these candidates was "Undecided," which came in at 31 percent. So while it seems like we're heading for a Quinn-Ryan showdown next November, the Undecided element is still large enough to make a difference, especially on the GOP side. more ›

Dan Proft, conservative commentator and just one of a cast of thousands running for governor released an outtake from a recent taping of a campaign commercial. more ›

State Senator Matt Murphy, a Republican from Palatine, has officially entered what is going to be a wild 2010 governor's race. Talking to the Tribune, Murphy said, "I'm very serious. I look at it as I really feel that among those in this, I give it the best chance for us to win. It felt like everything kind of came together right in a strange sort of way. The feedback has been good enough. I'm ready to go forward. I'm in." Fellow GOP Sen. Bill Brady (Bloomington) has announced his intention to run already and Sen. Kirk Dillard (Hinsdale) is also considering a run. [Tribune] more ›

2010 may be a wild election year in Illinois. That is, if anyone can make up their minds about what they want to do. 7th District Congressman Danny Davis hopes Roland Burris will make up his mind already about running for re-election. Davis told Chicago Public Radio on Monday that Burris's decision will affect his decision about whether to run for Senate next year. "That would play seriously in the thinking of any African American who may be interested," he said. "I'm hoping that the senator will hurry up and publicly let people know whether he intends to run for election." Well, we already know how Burris is leaning. more ›

In today's "No Shit" story, Attorney General Lisa Madigan admitted that she is considering running for governor even as the next gubernatorial election is still two years away. She said she is "thinking about" making the run at the state's top office, where she'll likely face competition from, among others, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Comptroller Dan Hynes. more ›