It’s Wednesday and a snow day for some of us (not me). I hope you enjoyed your commute this morning. It’s time to play in our open thread.
What’s happening tonight? I’m going to Kildare’s Pub in Newark for the 3rd Delaware Tweetup. It’s an opportunity to meet all those people you send your 140-character thoughts to in 3-D! I hope to see you there tonight.
Yesterday Illinois held its primary election.
It’s official: Alexi Giannoulias will face off against Mark Kirk this November to fill Barack Obama’s former senate seat. It only took four plus hours after the polls closed to call it, but Giannoulias held off a challenge from David Hoffman, 39% – 34%.
The Republican side was never in doubt, with Kirk crushing his teabagger opponent 57% – 19%.
I wonder what the Republican establishment will say about this one. Kirk is definitely the most competitive Republican candidate in Illinois but he earns the wrath of the Republican base. He’s considered a RINO and he was one of the 8 Republicans who voted for the cap & trade climate bill. For an extra bonus bit of schadenfreude, Dennis Hastert’s son lost in a primary to reclaim his father’s House seat from Democratic Rep. Bill Foster.
The governor’s primary race is still not called from either the Democratic or Republican side:
The races for governor went down to the wire Tuesday night with razor-thin margins separating Gov. Pat Quinn from Comptroller Dan Hynes on the Democratic side and state Sens. Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady among Republicans.
The closeness of the contests, accentuated by a low voter turnout, left trailing candidates pondering recounts.
With 99 percent of state precincts reporting, Quinn and Hynes each had 50 percent, separated by less than 5,500 votes in a bitter contest.
…
On the GOP side, Brady had 21 percent to 20 percent for Dillard, less than 1,500 votes apart. Ex-state Republican Chairman Andy McKenna had 19 percent, with 99 percent counted.