There are a few races around the country that are still in the undecided column. The Governor's race in Illinois is one that shouldn't be. The reason: despite trailing in the pre-election polls, incumbent Dem Pat Quinn is leading Republican challenger Bill Brady by 20,000 votes at last count. The remaining absentee ballots which have been returned, but not counted, are mostly from Cook County, where Quinn was mopping the floor with Brady by better than 2:1.
Why is it undecided?
Brady wants more information, not ready to concede to Quinn
Republican Bill Brady said today he is still gathering information and is not ready to throw in the towel in the governor's race despite Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's now-sizable lead, which has only grown since Tuesday's election.
Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, made his brief remarks as he returned to the Illinois Capitol for a legislative session day.
He said only "Yes" when asked if he thought he could still win, but did not elaborate on how he could make up a 20,000-vote margin
Now, I'm not exactly sure how much of a margin a candidate has to have for an election to be called, but it seems to me that 20,000 votes ought to be enough. Brady seems to be hoping that the absentee ballots will turn the tide for him, but the numbers just don't stack up. The most important number to them is, apparently, the $8 Million the RGA poured into this race.
So I asked Slim about Brady's chances, and he told me to go talk to None.
Evidently, they won't call the race until he concedes or the last ballot is counted. He appears to be insisting on the latter.
We have seen this before, especially in the sickeningly farcical battle over Senator Franken's victory. However, the margin in that race was considerably closer, and the stakes were very high: Franken was the 60th vote. I don't know whether Brady is just being a sore loser, or whether he's up to some kind of ballot-suppression chicanery. We've seen that before, too.
This is really getting on my nerves.