EXTRA: Treasurer-elect Mike Frerichs

It seems we finally have a new state treasurer. And no, we didn’t have to endure a lengthy legal fight along the lines of the Gore v. Bush battle of 2000.

It was Wednesday morning that Republican nominee Tom Cross decided to concede defeat to Democrat Mike Frerichs in the Nov. 4 elections. Even Illinois Republican Chairman Tim Schneider went along and issued a statement along those lines, although he seemed more interested in praising Cross than admitting GOP defeat.

THEN AGAIN, I don’t think Frerichs – a state senator from Champaign -- cares, so long as the record shows he got more votes than did Cross – a state representative from Oswego and former Illinois House Republican leader.

For the record, it seems that Frerichs got about 9,400 more votes than did Cross – taking barely over 48 percent of the vote to Cross’ just under 48 percent. The remainder of the ballots actually cast went to Libertarian nominee Matthew Skopek.

There are those who are ranting that Chicago and suburban Cook County “stole” the election – mostly from people who truly do not comprehend how small their rural counties are compared to the inner part of the Chicago metropolitan area.

Although for those who were going out of their way during the past two weeks to see daily updates about the vote (as assorted mail-in and provisional ballots continued to be counted) noticed that Frerichs crept into the lead earlier this week and managed to hold it BEFORE the final Chicago/suburb totals were in.

FOR THOSE WHO want to think Chicago rammed a Democrat through as state treasurer against their will, it would seem that what the Chicago-area vote did was bolstered the margin of victory.

Instead of winning by a few hundred votes, Frerichs becomes treasurer-elect by a figure just low-enough that it can’t be rounded off to 10,000.

Which is still a close result for a statewide election in which about 3 million people cast ballots. If anything, it may be some of those outer counties that kept Cross from the office that way too many political observers wanted to believe he was going to win.

Frerichs actually won Will County with 58.5 percent of the vote, and also took north suburban Lake County. And his suburban Cook percent was only 53.67 percent.

WHICH COULD WELL be why Cross chose not to get involved in any kind of demand for a recount – which is not something Illinois law allows for on an automatic basis.

He saves himself significant legal expenses, leaves open the option of a political future (by not being a sore loser), and only manages to offend the hard-core Republican partisans who can’t get over the fact that having a gubernatorial nominee who took 101 of 102 counties does NOT mean a political wipeout of the opposition.

As for those who are going to rant about “stolen” elections, I don’t think the rest of us should be too concerned. Those people were going to be offended no matter what happened – and they’ll probably revert back to ranting about Kennedy/Nixon of 1960 before long.

  -30-

It only takes one to win

I recall an Election Night back when I was at the old City News Bureau when one of my brand-new colleagues was confused about the vote-counting process – she didn’t get why there were still votes being counted on a Wednesday afternoon.

Me being the “old pro” (I think it was my second election cycle I covered), I knew about the assorted ballots that don’t actually get counted until days after Election Day.

ALTHOUGH THE VOTES that do get counted usually offer up a clear-enough picture of “Who won?!?” that nobody really cares about the exact total.

It takes an election cycle like the one currently taking place for Illinois treasurer to remind us that there’s a reason it matters that the official vote certification doesn’t take place until December (as in the 8^th, when the Illinois State Board of Elections will give us the final totals that will be recorded for political geek posterity).

For it has been just over a week since Election Day, and we don’t know yet who our new state treasurer is (although Republican Tom Cross has said he thinks it will be him, while Democrat Michael Frerichs says he’s not giving up).

I have noticed the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield has put on its website a gadget that tries to give us the up-to-the-minute vote total. Although the fact that rural counties are doing nothing to update their total until the last possible minute means we really don’t know who won.

AS OF MID-DAY Tuesday, Cross allegedly had 1,671,018 votes to 1,670,526 votes for Frerichs. There also were 144,614 votes for Libertarian candidate Matthew Skopek.

When turned into the percentages that most people seem to prefer to think of, Cross has 47.93 percent of the vote to Frerichs’ 47.92 percent – with just over 4 percent for Skopek.

Considering that vote-by-mail ballots will stop being accepted on next week Tuesday, there are the prayers that an overwhelming Cook County vote (9,000 provisional ballots that have to be determined whether or not they are legitimate and count for anything) could somehow push Frerichs over the top.

Although there are others who think the fact that 101 rural counties went for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner means they could also provide just enough additional votes to withstand any gains made by Frerichs – who as a Champaign resident wasn’t exactly someone Chicago voters were going to take up the cause of as a political crusade.

IF CROSS, WHO supposedly was the favorite because of his name recognition – although I doubt most real people have any clue who the legislative leaders are, with the exception of Michael Madigan – winds up winning, it would be something of a gain for Republicans.

I have heard some political operatives go on and on about how this is now a Republican-leaning state government because four of the six state constitutional officers would be of the GOP persuasion (nobody voted for Lt. Gov.-elect Evelyn Sanguineti specifically, but she counts as an individual).

Which is probably the reason why Democratic political operatives would like to win the post. It would make this the election cycle in which the political parties traded posts, rather than lost anything.

Although I don’t know anyone who’d trade “governor” for “treasurer.”

I’M NOT ABOUT to predict how close this one will wind up – although I realize that it only takes a one-vote margin to win the post for the next four years.

Perhaps we’re on our way to an Illinois version of that 1948 election for the Senate from Texas – where Lyndon Johnson got his victory by 87 votes.

“Landslide Lyndon” has more of a ring to it than any kind of nickname that would get tagged to either Cross or Frerichs. Although I’m sure either one would eagerly take a lead – no matter how slim it appears to the public.

  -30-

When do endorsements matter?

It never fails to amaze me the degree to which political people think that official endorsements mean much of anything.

QUINN: He wants the state slating!

You’d think the fact that officials see how low they turn up in political polls ranking their approval, and they’d realize that we’d think just as little of the people offering up the endorsements as we do of the officials who supposedly are being supported.

IT IS WHY I’m going to find it amusing if the Democratic Party of Illinois sticks to its plans to meet Sunday in Springfield for a formal slating session.

Of course, the only statewide election of any significance on March 18 where there is a likelihood of a contested Democratic Party primary is the fight for governor.

That is what will be at stake – will the official mechanism of the Democratic Party at the statewide level make a formal statement that it prefers to have Pat Quinn seek another term as governor?

Or will there be enough dissent that the party won’t take a stance – which would leave the state committee chairmen (two from each congressional district; one male and one female) to say whatever it is they really feel next year when the gubernatorial campaigning reaches its peak.

IF THERE IS an official candidate slated for office, it means the party officials have to publicly back that choice. They may secretly want the other candidate, and may do things in private to undermine the slated candidate. But publicly, they will not oppose the preferred candidate.

The Chicago Tribune reported last week that the reason the party is bothering is because Quinn, himself, asked for a slating session. In theory, it means that he’s confident enough that HE will be the official pick.

DALEY: Does he win by losing slating?

In reality, it will be embarrassing for his campaign if the party can’t get a sizable majority of support for Quinn. They don’t have to back the Bill Daley opposition campaign for Quinn to come out a loser.

Will there be enough Democratic Party love for Quinn (or distaste for Daley) that the party officials (particularly those from the rural areas who think the incumbent governor is too Chicago-oriented) put aside the fact that many of them think of the Mighty Quinn as the political equivalent of a cocktail weenie?

AND IF, BY chance, the Democratic Party of Illinois (whose chairman, by the way, is none other than Michael J. Madigan himself) takes a solid stance, will anybody take that endorsement seriously?

FRERICHS: He wants backers

Will anybody in today’s day and age care about what the party officials think?

Heck, I don’t think it means much that the Cook County Democratic Party decided already to officially slate Quinn for governor come 2014!

In fact, to the Chicago city voters who will be the basis of whatever support Quinn does get in next year’s primary will probably think it more important that the Cook County party organization took a stance than that the Illinois party people did.

THIS COMING WEEKEND, if it actually takes place, could wind up being a complete act of futility. Except for the fact that political people seem to want to believe that political organizations can still deliver significant numbers of voters to their campaigns WITHOUT having to go out and deal with those voters on a one-on-one basis. It just sounds so nice to say that an impressive-sounding (to some) organization offering their support means anything.

FIELD: She played a 'first lady,' would she beat a pol?

Which is about the only reason I can think of that the campaign of Mike Frerichs for Illinois treasurer felt compelled to tell us this past weekend that the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association (the organization that makes the rural Dems feel like they have a say) endorsed his bid in the Democratic primary.

Considering that he’s the only candidate (as of now) in the running for the nomination, the state senator from Champaign who wants to be a statewide name just seemed a little too eager to brag that somebody likes him right now. As in really likes him.

Somehow, I’d vote for Sally Field over Frerichs for just about anything, if I had the opportunity.

  -30-