* A good friend sent me an e-mail last night with the subject line: “A message to the national media”…
Go ahead and try to decipher those election non-results and fit them into your nice little MSM political puzzle.
Heh. Scott Brown redux it wasn’t, that’s for sure.
Let’s see, now…
The flawed incumbent governor won a hard-fought primary with gigantic piles of cash from SEIU (horrors) and old guard party leaders. A conservative gubernatorial candidate with no real ties to the “Tea Party” types is essentially tied with the candidate of the true GOP old guard. A moderate Republican tied his conservative tea party enemies in knots and easily won the US Senate primary, and his Democratic opponent defeated a noted “reformer” backed to the hilt by angry newspaper editorial boards - and his chief of staff won the treasurer’s primary with slating from party regulars. A ten-year state Rep. defeated an insurgent “new politician” in the Democratic comptroller’s race. A longtime office-holder won the Republican comptroller’s race. And a pawnbroker with a past won the Democratic lt. governor’s race…
Scott Lee Cohen, a pawn broker and cleaning supply distributor, appeared to be edging out state Rep. Art Turner for the Democratic nomination. Cohen had 26 percent of the vote to Turner’s 22 percent, with 97 percent counted.
Cohen, a little-known candidate who financed much of the campaign with his own fortune, will have to answer questions during the general election race as more is learned about him. He was charged with a 2005 misdemeanor domestic battery charge.
He was accused of beating a woman, but the case was dropped a month later when she refused to show up in court to pursue the charges.
Hmmm. How about Jason Plummer? He’s certainly a fresh face, but he got the lt. guv nomination after spending a ton of his family’s money on a mostly non-ideological campaign.
Ethan Hastert’s loss to Sen. Randy Hultgren? Maybe. But was it “insider vs. outsider” or just “the kid ain’t his old man”?
Bob Dold over Beth Coulson in the 10th CD Republican primary? Dold was a mainstream conservative who touted his endorsement by Sen. Dick Lugar. Dick Green was the candidate who really tried to reach out to the “tea party” types.
Adam Kinzinger in the 11th CD? Great, young politician. Will get a lot of help from DC. But his primary opposition wasn’t much to crow about, and he’s basically a hand-picked DC candidate, so I’m not sure you can say he’s a total outsider.
Toni Preckwinkle probably comes closest, but she’s a black, liberal, wonkish Democrat. That’s not exactly the meme being developed by the DC crowd these days.
The Tribune ecstatically congratulated voters for listening to its constant rants and ousting Todd Stroger (as if that was in any danger of not happening). It didn’t mention all those other big losses, though, except for a petulant broadside against Giannoulias which began with an out-of-context quote from the preznit.
Can you think of an appropriate meme for this primary election? Snark heavily encouraged.