Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006

Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006
Illinois
November 7, 2006
 
Nominee Rod Blagojevich Judy Baar Topinka Rich Whitney
Party Democratic Republican Green
Running mate Pat Quinn Joe Birkett Julie Samuels
Popular vote 1,736,731 1,369,315 361,336
Percentage 49.79% 39.26% 10.36%

County Results
Governor before election

Rod Blagojevich
Democratic

 Elected Governor

Rod Blagojevich
Democratic

The Illinois gubernatorial election of 2006 occurred on November 7, 2006. The Governor of Illinois, Democrat Rod Blagojevich, won re-election for a four-year term scheduled to have ended on January 10, 2011. However, Blagojevich was impeached and convicted in 2009. Many observers expected the race to be close, especially considering the polling,[1] which has shown Governor Blagojevich had a high disapproval rating. However, the Republicans fared poorly in elections since 2002 due to scandals involving prior Governor George Ryan, as well as changing demographics in the state as a whole (see blue state).

Republican primary

Candidates

Campaign

On November 7, 2005, Topinka announced that she would not seek re-election as state treasurer — instead, she entered the gubernatorial primary, hoping to challenge Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Republican primary was deeply divisive; her tenure as Party Chairman destroyed her support from the conservative wing of her party, and it was feared that her pro-choice and positive gay rights positions would be detrimental to her standing with the same conservatives. In December she announced that she would join forces with DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois.

In February 2006, the candidates for the Republican nomination for Illinois Governor began running their first TV ads for the March statewide primary election. Rival candidate Ron Gidwitz's advertisements, attacking Topinka, were rebuked in the same week by the Illinois Republican Party: "In an unprecedented action, the Illinois Republican Party has officially rebuked the Gidwitz campaign for this ad because the Party found that the ad violates the Party's "Code of Conduct", which was enacted to police proper conduct among Republican candidates."

Later in February, candidate Jim Oberweis, another rival for the Republican Gubernatorial nomination, started a series of attack ads for television markets, against Topinka, that were even more widely criticized, mostly for using "fake" headlines on the images of actual Illinois newspapers. These ads, like Gidwitz's ads, also came under review by the Illinois Republican Party. Because of the controversy generated, several television stations withdrew Oberweis's ads. A number of media outlets reported that Oberweis received a significant absolute number of write-in votes in the November general election, and he spontaneously re-appeared in some polls in October 2006 at up to 2 per cent,[2] all apparently without endorsement or co-ordination by the candidate or his organisation . . . the official count was 20 607 votes or a little over 0.59 per cent (see below); where this fits in terms of standard deviation and other normal curve statistics has not been published.

Results

Republican primary results[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Judy Baar Topinka 280,701 38.15
Republican Jim Oberweis 233,576 31.74
Republican Bill Brady 135,370 18.40
Republican Ron Gidwitz 80,068 10.88
Republican Andy Martin 6,095 0.83
Total votes 735,810 100.00

Democratic primary

Candidates

Results

Democratic primary results[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Rod Blagojevich (inc.) 669,006 70.84
Democratic Edwin Eisendrath 275,375 29.16
Total votes 944,397 100.00

General election

Candidates

On ballot

Write-ins

Polling

Source Date Blagojevich (D) Topinka (R) Whitney (G) Remainder
Survey USA November 2, 2006 45% 37% 14% 4%
Survey USA October 23, 2006 44% 34% 14% 8%
Rasmussen October 19, 2006 44% 36% 9% 11%
Zogby/WSJ October 16, 2006 47.1% 33.2% 11.3% 8.4%
Glengariff Group October 15, 2006 39% 30% 9% 22%
Tribune/WGN-TV October 11, 2006 43% 29% 9% 19%
Survey USA September 20, 2006 45% 39% 7% 9%
Rasmussen September 13, 2006 48% 36% Omitted 16%
Sun-Times/NBC5 September 12, 2006 56% 26% 3% 15%
Tribune/WGN-TV September 11, 2006 45% 33% 6% 16%
Zogby/WSJ September 11, 2006 46.5% 33.6% Omitted 19.9%
Research 2000 August 31, 2006 47% 39% 2% 12%
Zogby/WSJ August 28, 2006 44.8% 37.6% Omitted 17.6%
Rasmussen August 10, 2006 45% 37% Omitted 18%
Survey USA July 25, 2006 45% 34% Omitted 21%
Zogby/WSJ July 24, 2006 44.4% 36.4% Omitted 19.2%
Rasmussen July 13, 2006 45% 34% Omitted 21%
Zogby/WSJ June 21, 2006 41.1% 37.5% Omitted 21.4%
Glengariff Group June 1–3, 2006 41% 34% 25%
Survey USA May 23, 2006 43% 37% Omitted 20%
Rasmussen April 24, 2006 38% 44% Omitted 18%
Rasmussen March 31, 2006 41% 43% Omitted 16%
Rasmussen February 25, 2006 42% 36% Omitted 22%
Rasmussen February 7, 2006 37% 48% Omitted 15%
Research 2000 January 22, 2006 45% 37% 18%

Results

Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Democratic Rod Blagojevich (inc.) 1,736,731 49.79% -2.40%
Republican Judy Baar Topinka 1,369,315 39.26% -5.81%
Green Rich Whitney 361,336 10.36%
Write-ins Various candidates 20,607 0.59%
Plurality 367,416 10.53% +3.41%
Turnout 3,487,989
Democratic hold Swing

Blagojevich was declared the winner by 10:00 p.m.

Green Party Establishment

The Green Party became an established political party statewide, according to Illinois state election law, when Rich Whitney received more than 5% of the total vote for Governor. This status provides the party with several new advantages, such as lower signature requirements for ballot access, primary elections, free access to additional voter data, the ability to elect precinct committeemen, run a partial slate of candidates at any jurisdictional level, and slate candidates without petitioning. The only other statewide established political parties are the Democratic and Republican parties. It is rare for a new political party to become established statewide in Illinois, the last to do so being the Solidarity Party in 1986 and the Progressive Party before that.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "SurveyUSA News Poll #8260". Surveyusa.com. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  2. ↑ Jim Oberweis#Gubernatorial campaign
  3. 1 2 "Ballots Cast". Elections.illinois.gov. 2006-03-21. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  4. ↑ "Ballots Cast". Elections.illinois.gov. 2006-11-07. Retrieved 2015-03-30.

External links

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