Unable to rally behind a single nominee for governor, Republicans planned to let both front-runners Kirk Dillard (pictured at right) and Bill Brady address a unity breakfast this morning in Chicago even as the race could hinge on the final few precincts lingering uncounted from Tuesday’s primaries.
Dillard, a Hinsdale state senator, told reporters on his way in that he believed he would ultimately secure the nomination.
Brady, a Bloomington state senator, and Dillard are separated by only a few hundred votes in unofficial tallies. “I believe we will be victorious,” Brady said.
Chicago businessman Andy McKenna was a close third but the Illinois Republican Party did not plan to allow him to address the assembled Republicans.
GOP Chairman Pat Brady, no relation to the candidate, said the party is not taking sides and would leave any decision on seeking recounts up to the campaigns.
Meanwhile, Gov. Pat Quinn said he’s the clear winner from Tuesday’s Democratic primary election, but he stopped short of saying whether Comptroller Dan Hynes should concede the race.
“I’m not going to tell anybody what to do,” Quinn told reporters Wednesday morning after greeting commuters at a train station in downtown Chicago.
“I just think that the results are in, the primary is over, the people heard both candidates and got a chance to vote.”
While their contest was a statistical tie, Quinn was a few thousand votes ahead of Hynes in unofficial counts.
The governor said he’s now looking toward the general evection although it’s still unclear which Republican candidate he’ll face in November.
However, Quinn doesn’t think the heated Democratic primary will haunt the Democrats this fall despite Republican leaders’ statements they’ve been taking notes about how to wage a campaign against the incumbent governor.
“If they underestimate me, they will lose and they should lose,” Quinn said. “They are not people who are putting together an agenda that’s good for the people of Illinois.”
Quinn said he hasn’t spoken to his likely running mate, Chicago businessman Scott Lee Cohen, and that he doesn’t know much about him other than the fact that he held job fairs for out-of-work Illinoisans.
Cohen is a political unknown who financed much of his campaign with his own money.
“I don’t like to have any opinions on things where I don’t know the facts,” Quinn said.
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