Paul Vallas cost Pat Quinn the election
Virtually all major Illinois Democrats won their elections yesterday -- except Governor Pat Quinn. Quinn, like Jessie White, Dick Durbin, and Michael Madigan -- all Democrats -- was running for re-election. They won; Quinn lost. So the Quinn loss was not part of that national "Red State Sweep" or some other silliness. When the final numbers come out, the "low voter turnout" in Chicago and the rest of Cook County can be factored in as one of the big reasons for the Quinn defeat.
Why those of us who voted for Pat Quinn ("Quinn-Simon") hopefully in 2010 didn't vote for "Quinn-Vallas" in 2014 is explained in one word: Paulvallas.
For most of the campaign, Pat Quinn's "team" tried to treat Quinn's running mate as the Voldemort of politics. Some of us got two hundred emails from the Quinn campaign -- and not one of them mentioned that Quinn had a running mate. But from the day he announced Vallas, in disrespect to all those who had elected him in 2010, Pat Quinn was never able to explain how he woke up one day and decided to save the career of Vallas, who had hit the rocks in Connecticut. Photo Progress Illinois.No matter how many urgings went up saying things like "CTU for Quinn..." (as if he didn't have a running mate), thousands of us knew -- and tried to warn -- that Quinn's secret selection of Vallas, at the urging of corporate America, proved to be Quinn's downfall. Illinois Democrats didn't get hit with any of the shrapnel from Quinn's opportunism, either. Secretary of State Jesse White won re-election with a huge majority. Despite attacks for his "insider" ness, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin also won by a landslide. The same was true across the state. The Republicans picked up only one state-wide office besides Rauner's -- Comptroller. But that wasn't the "Republican" victory that it seemed, since Jydy Barr Topinka got the support of most of the unions, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which made sure as late as election day that "union families" had a union palm card listing every candidate we were supposed to vote for.
Like thousands of others who have long voted "Democratic" (in the primaries), I didn't vote for Pat Quinn. I had spoken in September 2014 against the Quinn-Vallas endorsement as a delegate in the CTU House of Delegates, but the majority voted to go along with the leadership's recommendation to go with Quinn and join Quinn in pretending that Paul Vallas wasn't there. My family usually votes early, and we always want to show our children how important voting is. But since I was hobbled with a very serious back problem (seeing the doctor on November 5), I had missed the morning run to the polling place where we vote in Chicago's 45th Ward and finally decided not to go later, as my pain grew throughout Election Day.
As a result, I became part of thousands of voters who didn't vote on November 4, 2014 because (a) we knew that our candidates were going to win across the state, (b) the Vallas hypocrisy was odious, and (c) I was having trouble deciding whether to write in "Karl Marx" (in tribute to our family's German heritage) or "John Brown" (as just another footnote to our honoring the times when greater sacrifices were necessary for the sake of democracy and justice.
The "not with a bang but a whimper" part came when Quinn spent too many hours before conceding, making himself memorable one last time. Finally, aroundthre in the afternoon on November 5, the news reports began coming in that Quinn accepted defeat, so here are a couple of them:
CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS AND ASSOCIATED PRESS:
QUINN CONCEDES
(AP) — Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn has conceded to Republican businessman Bruce Rauner in the Illinois governor's race.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Rauner had a nearly 5 percentage point lead over Quinn. Rauner declared victory on election night, but Quinn said he'd wait for all votes to be counted. Quinn's campaigned noted outstanding ballots in Chicago and suburban Cook County.
On Wednesday, Quinn said it was clear his campaign didn't have the votes to overcome Rauner's lead.
He had sought a second full term. He was locked into one of the nation's most competitive and expensive governor's races with the Winnetka venture capitalist.
Quinn first became Illinois governor in 2009 in the wake of ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption scandal. He narrowly won in 2010 over Republican state Sen. Bill Brady.
The concession comes more than 16 hours after most news organizations called the tight race for Mr. Rauner, and the North Shore businessman himself claimed victory.
Rauner issued the following statement:
“I thank Governor Quinn for his many years of service to Illinois and appreciate his commitment to making this a smooth transition. I look forward to getting to work to make Illinois the most compassionate and competitive state in the nation.”
Comments:
By: George N. Schmidt
How to get back issues
Many readers have been trying to read our substancenews.net articles about the Quinn endorsement by the CTU and then about the controversies over the railroad that led to the LEAD dinner "endorsement" of Jesus Garcia for mayor. It's easy: All readers have to do is click on "Back Issues" in the menu bar and then selected the month and year they wants. We also have a SEARCH function within BACK ISSUES which gives readers the chance to collect the articles we have published on a particular subject. Since Substancenews.net came on
By: Rachel Fowler
voting early
I knew I was having surgery on Oct. 29 and would not be able to vote in person on Nov. 4 so I voted early. No problem at all. Did not vote for Quinn because of Paul Vallas as running mate. Wonder what dear Paul is going to do now since he isn't really qualified to be in education.
By: Bob Busch
Vallas
Do not count Vallas out.When he finally wakes up and realizes he is a Republican he will get elected.
By: Margaret Wilson
Governor Race
I couldn't vote for Quinn because of Vallis and at the same time I couldn't vote for Rahner after researching for myself the comments (threats) that he made towards one of his female employees. I also couldn't vote Libertarian so I was left with either writing in a candidate or not voting. I wrote in Minnie Mouse. That was a no win election.
By: jay Rehak
Holding your nose and voting
Paul Vallas made it hard for any teacher or supporter of public education to vote for Pat Quinn. I agree with Mr. Schmidt that the choice of Paul Vallas doomed the Quinn campaign. While many educators held their noses and voted for Quinn-Vallas, the enthusiasm for Governor Quinn was not there and he simply didn't have the boots on the ground he needed to get the job done.
My hope and prayer is the Democratic Party will re-embrace the working people of Illinois and stop pandering to those who have little to no regard for us.
By: Bernie Eshoo
Endorsement
A symbolic event that may have made "us”, "them"; if UPC had maneuvered this, we would have raised a justifiable uproar. I was disheartened that the majority of my HoD members did not take the opportunity to try and right the obvious wrong.
Somehow "my bad" just didn't cover the cover up.
By: Jon Lubar
Quinn's reason for choosing Vallas
Quinn knew that if he had anyone who wasn't pro corporate deform on the ticket, he would have been carpet bombed by deformer cash and propaganda and would have had no chance at re election. Selecting Vallas was a rear guard action that succeeded in abating that threat, but in the big picture Vallas was never the right choice. Vallas is a part of it, but not by any stretch of the imagination the sole or primary cause of Quinn's loss.
By: Jon Lubar
Quinn's reason for choosing Vallas
Quinn knew that if he had anyone who wasn't pro corporate deform on the ticket, he would have been carpet bombed by deformer cash and propaganda and would have had no chance at re election. Selecting Vallas was a rear guard action that succeeded in abating that threat, but in the big picture Vallas was never the right choice. Vallas is a part of it, but not by any stretch of the imagination the sole or primary cause of Quinn's loss.
By: bob busch
Paul
Now think of a Rauner Vallas ticket.The world has not heard the last of Paul.I know some of his family and they are good people.
But Paul will never get elected as a democrat
unless he becomes a RINO at least.Better for him would be to morph into a real republican.
By: Al Korach
election
George you got it right again. They tried to suggest that Vallas was the man that was never there. He was there and we all rememberd. The CTU made some bad choices as well as the DNC. Why the low turnout? Two bad candidates.