Ill. governor primaries remain tight; candidates chosen in fight for Obama’s old Senate seat

more images

more images

Tight races in Ill. gov. primary; Senate race set

CHICAGO — Illinois voters in the nation’s first primary picked candidates Tuesday for an election in which Democrats will try to defend the governor’s office and a U.S. Senate seat from a Republican Party eager to exploit political disarray in President Barack Obama’s home state.

Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias won the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat Obama once held. He will face Republican Mark Kirk, a moderate five-term congressman. Kirk is likely to question the 33-year-old Giannoulias’ experience and judgment.

The governor’s race on both the Democratic and Republican sides remained practically tied Tuesday, with less than two percentage points separating any of the leading candidates.

Losing the Senate seat in the increasingly Democratic-leaning state would be a bigger personal embarrassment for Obama than Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory last month in Massachusetts, which took away the late Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat.

“We know that one political party cannot hold all the answers and that one political party should never hold all the power,” Kirk said in a statement.

Giannoulias signaled he will go on the offensive against Kirk.

“As we saw in Massachusetts, voters are angry,” Giannoulias said. “For the past decade, Congressman Kirk has been a huge part of the problem.”

The GOP also hopes to win the governor’s mansion after years of turmoil under Democrats. First Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested and kicked out of office on federal corruption charges, including allegations he tried to sell an appointment to Obama’s seat. His successor, Quinn, then got into a vicious primary battle.

Earlier in the day, Quinn sounded prepared for victory or defeat.

“There’s an old saying, ‘One day a peacock, the next day a feather duster,’” he said after walking to vote near his home. “I have to be ready for anything.”

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Gov. Pat Quinn had 50.3 percent, while Comptroller Dan Hynes had 49.7 percent. Among Republicans, state Sen. Bill Brady had 21 percent, Sen. Kirk Dillard had 20 percent and businessman Andy McKenna had 19 percent.

Quinn sought a full term after being thrust into office a year ago when Blagojevich was expelled. The nominees who emerge from the bruising midterm primary will fight for the chance to run a state so deep in debt it can’t pay bills on time and must consider painful service cuts, higher taxes or both.

It initially appeared Quinn would easily win the Democratic nomination. But that was before The Associated Press disclosed his administration was quietly granting early release to some prison inmates, including violent offenders. It also was before Hynes ran an ad featuring footage of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington — a revered figure to many black voters — harshly criticizing Quinn.

Quinn responded by linking Hynes, whose office regulates cemetery finances, to the scandal at a historic black cemetery outside Chicago where bodies were double-stacked in graves or dumped in weeds. He alleged Hynes ignored the atrocities at Burr Oak Cemetery, the resting place of civil rights-era lynching victim Emmett Till and other prominent African-Americans, because he lacks “human decency.”

Republicans believe they have a strong shot at the governor’s mansion because both Democratic candidates proposed income tax increases and because Democrats have been so tainted by Blagojevich.

The Republican primary sometimes got testy, but most of the exchanges focused on who was most adamantly opposed to raising taxes. The only personal attacks were aimed at McKenna, who as state Republican chairman used party funds to conduct a poll on his political chances.

The Blagojevich scandal could play a role in the Senate race as well. The incumbent, Roland Burris, chose not to run because the former governor had appointed him to the seat — sullying his reputation so badly he could find little political support.

Obama, who cast an absentee ballot, tried to recruit some big-name Democrats, including popular Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, but came up empty.

The Democrats who did get in the race had their own troubles. Giannoulias, a basketball buddy of the president, is carrying the baggage of his family bank and questions about a treasurer’s office savings program that lost millions of dollars.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Giannoulias had 39 percent. Former prosecutor David Hoffman had 34 percent and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson had 19 percent.

Republican leaders rallied around Kirk as their choice for the party nomination, despite complaints from some GOP activists that Kirk’s support of gun control and abortion rights makes him too liberal.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Kirk had 56 percent. His nearest competitor, Patrick Hughes, had 19 percent.

Also Tuesday, South Florida Democrats picked a state lawmaker to battle for the seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler while the GOP special primary election appeared headed for a re-count. The winner will serve the last nine months of Wexler’s term, then run for a full term in November. Wexler resigned in January to lead a Middle East think tank.

Associated Press Writers Carla K. Johnson and Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Jim Suhr in Troy, and AP Photographer M. Spencer Green in Chicago contributed to this report.