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| Would Bruce Rauner actually move into the Executive Mansion in Springfield? It's not like the Winnetka resident with a Chicago high-rise condo and seven other residences across the country needs another place to live. |
So
does the close campaign we appear to have got this election cycle mean that the
Cubs will not be quite so awful, and may actually finish a close second place?
CUBS
FANS MAY well be satisfied with that. But for those who detest the concept of
venture capitalist Bruce Rauner as governor, his apparent victory over all his
GOP challengers is still bound to sting.
With
about 10 percent of precincts still to be counted late Tuesday, it seems that
Rauner got 40.8 percent of the vote, compared to 37.2 percent for the state
senator from Hinsdale who in conceding defeat showed he could duplicate former
Gov. Jim Edgar’s deadly-dull monotone-style of speaking.
Other
candidates William Brady (14.8 percent) and Dan Rutherford (7.3 percent – and conceding
defeat even while some polls in Chicago were kept open late because of morning
delays in getting them open) also ran.
I
really suspect that Rauner, with his personal ties to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, will
be a turn-off in the rural parts of the state, where there are those who want a
governor who will put a leash on Chicago’s desires, and not cuddle up to the
current version of Hizzoner.
ALTHOUGH
IN CHICAGO, Rauner had a 52.43 percent majority among those city dwellers who
chose to cast a GOP ballot. And no, hearing Rauner’s lieutenant governor
running mate mix a little Spanish into her introduction Tuesday night isn’t
going to sway many people to change their vote.
What
about the incumbent?
Gov.
Pat Quinn seems to have a 71.9 percent share of the vote, compared to 28.1
percent for the soon-to-be forgotten Tio Hardiman.
In
Chicago, Quinn got 79.07 percent of the vote, and the Cook County suburbs gave
the guv a 79.62 percent share. In short, Quinn did better than that poll that
said Hardiman would get a miraculous 36 percent share of the vote.
WHAT
ELSE WAS notable about the results that are still straggling in from this
Election Day?
Will
Guzzardi seems to have succeeded in dumping state Rep. Toni Berrios, D-Chicago,
from her Northwest Side legislative district. Some see this as taking a political
post from a Latina and life-long Chicagoan, and find some offense in the fact
that it was taken by an alleged “hipster’ who has only lived in Chicago a few
years.
Personally,
I’m more inclined to think this was a vote against her father – Cook County
Assessor and county Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios and his policies of putting
assorted relatives on government payrolls.
Not
that those people have ever been capable of beating Joe at the polling place.
So they took it out on his daughter. Not exactly something to boast about!
I
HAVE MORE respect for the electoral victory Tuesday of Illinois Comptroller
Judy Baar Topinka, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary and is now
boasting of her “Soviet-style victory” that got her the 100 percent vote tally.
There’s
also the fact that the Republican Party already is blasting Gov. Pat Quinn for
the campaign ads he aired Tuesday night while votes were being counted that
remind us of Rauner’s weaselly ways when it comes to the minimum wage.
Personally,
I thought Quinn’s initial attack could have been harsher. It certainly wasn’t
as critical as the remarks that newly-nominated U.S. Senate candidate James
Oberweis made against incumbent Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Tuesday night.
Which
makes me wonder if this year’s gubernatorial campaign is going to be between a
wimp and a whiner?
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