Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006

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Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006
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  Rod Blagojevich (2911120436) (cropped).jpg Judy Baar Topinka CoI official F4912D2E-1CC1-DE6E-2F48721070FAD266 180x180.jpg RichWhitney2 (cropped).jpg
Nominee Rod Blagojevich Judy Baar Topinka Rich Whitney
Party Democratic Republican Green
Running mate Pat Quinn Joe Birkett Julie Samuels
Popular vote1,736,7311,369,315361,336
Percentage49.8%39.3%10.4%
Illinois Governor Election Results by County, 2006.svg
County Results

Blagojevich:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%

Contents

Topinka:     30–40%     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70-80%
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 had fared poorly in elections since 2002 due to scandals involving prior Governor George Ryan, and the increasingly unpopular presidency of George W. Bush.

Governor of Illinois head of state and of government of the U.S. state of Illinois

The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state. The governor is responsible for enacting laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly. Illinois is one of 14 states that does not have a gubernatorial term-limit. The governor is commander-in-chief of the state's land, air and sea forces, when they are in state service.

Democratic Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.

Rod Blagojevich former Governor of Illinois

Rod Blagojevich is an American former politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 until his impeachment, conviction, and removal from office in 2009.

Exit polls showed Topinka won Whites (46%-41%-13%), while Blagojevich performed well among African Americans (80%-16%-2%) and Latinos (83%-12%-4%).

Democratic primary

Candidates

Edwin Eisendrath is former CEO of the Chicago Sun-Times and former alderman of the 43rd ward of Chicago.

Chicago City in Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450 (2017), it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland, and the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States. The metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, and the fourth largest in North America and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area.

Chicago City Council Legislative body for Chicago

The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms. The Chicago City Council is gaveled into session regularly, usually monthly, to consider ordinances, orders, and resolutions whose subject matter includes code changes, utilities, taxes, and many other issues. The presiding officer of the council is the Mayor of Chicago. The secretary is the City Clerk of Chicago. Both positions are city-wide elected offices. The Chicago City Council Chambers are located in Chicago City Hall, as are the downtown offices of the individual aldermen and staff.

Results

Democratic primary results [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Rod Blagojevich (inc.)669,00670.84
Democratic Edwin Eisendrath275,37529.16
Total votes944,397100.00

Republican primary

Candidates

Ronald Gidwitz American business executive

Ronald J. Gidwitz is the United States Ambassador to Belgium. He is an American business executive who was nominated for his current position by Donald Trump.

Andy Martin American politician

Anthony Robert Martin-Trigona, usually known as Andy Martin, is an American perennial candidate who has pursued numerous litigations.

Jim Oberweis American politician

James D. Oberweis is an American businessman, investment manager and politician from the state of Illinois. The owner of Oberweis Dairy in North Aurora near Chicago, he is currently a member of the Illinois Senate, representing the 25th district since January 2013.

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.

Joseph E. Birkett is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court - Second District. He has been on the appellate court since being appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010. He subsequently won election to the appellate court at the general election in November 2012. His current term runs through December 2022. Prior to being elevated to the bench, Justice Birkett was the State's Attorney of DuPage County, an office he had held since 1996.

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, [3] 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 [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Judy Baar Topinka280,70138.15
Republican Jim Oberweis233,57631.74
Republican Bill Brady135,37018.40
Republican Ron Gidwitz 80,06810.88
Republican Andy Martin6,0950.83
Total votes735,810100.00

General election

Candidates

On ballot

Write-ins

Polling

Polling on 14 October 2006 2006IllinoisGubernatorialElectionPolling061014.gif
Polling on 14 October 2006
SourceDateBlagojevich (D)Topinka (R)Whitney (G)Remainder
Survey USA November 2, 200645%37%14%4%
Survey USA October 23, 200644%34%14%8%
Rasmussen October 19, 200644%36%9%11%
Zogby/WSJ October 16, 200647.1%33.2%11.3%8.4%
Glengariff Group October 15, 200639%30%9%22%
Tribune/WGN-TV October 11, 200643%29%9%19%
Survey USA September 20, 200645%39%7%9%
Rasmussen September 13, 200648%36%Omitted16%
Sun-Times/NBC5 September 12, 200656%26%3%15%
Tribune/WGN-TV September 11, 200645%33%6%16%
Zogby/WSJ September 11, 200646.5%33.6%Omitted19.9%
Research 2000 August 31, 200647%39%2%12%
Zogby/WSJ August 28, 200644.8%37.6%Omitted17.6%
Rasmussen August 10, 200645%37%Omitted18%
Survey USA July 25, 200645%34%Omitted21%
Zogby/WSJ July 24, 200644.4%36.4%Omitted19.2%
Rasmussen July 13, 200645%34%Omitted21%
Zogby/WSJ June 21, 200641.1%37.5%Omitted21.4%
Glengariff Group June 1–3, 200641%34%25%
Survey USA May 23, 200643%37%Omitted20%
Rasmussen April 24, 200638%44%Omitted18%
Rasmussen March 31, 200641%43%Omitted16%
Rasmussen February 25, 200642%36%Omitted22%
Rasmussen February 7, 200637%48%Omitted15%
Research 2000 January 22, 200645%37%18%

Results

Illinois gubernatorial election, 2006 [4]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Democratic Rod Blagojevich/Pat Quinn (Incumbent) 1,736,731 49.79% -2.40%
Republican Judy Baar Topinka/Joe Birkett 1,369,31539.26%-5.81%
Green Rich Whitney/Julie Samuels361,33610.36%
Write-insVarious candidates20,6070.59%
Plurality367,41610.53%+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 provided 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 were 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

Related Research Articles

Judy Baar Topinka American politician

Judy Baar Topinka was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois.

2006 United States gubernatorial elections

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Pat Quinn (politician) American politician: 41st Governor of Illinois

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Rich Whitney American lawyer

Rich Whitney is an American politician and civil rights attorney who was the Illinois Green Party's nominee for Governor of Illinois in the elections of 2006 and 2010. During the 2006 campaign Whitney received endorsements from several newspapers, including the Rockford Register Star, Southwest News-Herald, and State School News Service. In that year's election Whitney received 361,336 votes for 10.4% of the vote, a strong finish for a third party. In the 2010 election his share of the vote was 2.7%.

The 2006 Election for statewide offices in the State of Illinois were held on 7 November 2006. On that date, registered voters in the State of Illinois were eligible to elect officeholders in six statewide offices: the office of Governor of Illinois, Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Secretary of State, Illinois Treasurer and Illinois Comptroller.

The US state of Illinois is a Democratic stronghold and one of the "big three" Democratic states alongside California and New York. It is considered one of the most Democratic states in the nation and following the 2018 elections, all six statewide elected offices are held by a Democrat.

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2002 Illinois gubernatorial election

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Illinois is a Democratic stronghold in presidential elections and one of the three largest Democratic states in the nation alongside California and New York. It is one of the most Democratic states in the nation with all state executive offices and both state legislative branches held by Democrats. For most of its history, Illinois was widely considered to be a swing state, voting for the winner of all but two presidential elections in the 20th century. Political party strength in Illinois is highly dependent upon Cook County, and the state's reputation as a blue state rests upon the fact that the majority of its population and political power is concentrated in Chicago, Cook County, and the Chicago metropolitan area. Outside of Chicago, the suburban collar counties continue trending Democratic while downstate Illinois can be considered more conservative with some moderate regions.

2010 Illinois gubernatorial election

The 2010 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010. Incumbent Democratic Governor Pat Quinn sought and was elected to a full term in office. Quinn was elected as the Democratic nominee, the Illinois Green Party nominee was attorney and 2006 nominee Rich Whitney, the Republican nominee was State Senator Bill Brady, the Libertarian Party nominee was Lex Green, and Scott Lee Cohen ran as an independent. Governor Quinn won election to a full term in a very close race, beating Senator Brady by only about 32,000 votes, despite Brady winning in 98 of 102 Illinois counties.

2014 Illinois gubernatorial election

The 2014 Illinois gubernatorial election was held on November 4, 2014, to elect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, concurrently with the election to Illinois' Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Randall C. Stufflebeam was a write-in candidate in the 2006 Illinois gubernatorial election against Democratic incumbent Rod Blagojevich Republican Judy Baar Topinka, and Green Rich Whitney. His running mate was Randy White. He is also state chairman of Illinois' Constitution Party and is a former Marine. Stufflebeam received 19,020 votes (0.55%) in his write-in bid for the Governor's office.

2014 United States Senate election in Illinois

The 2014 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Illinois, concurrently with the election of the Governor of Illinois, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

2014 Illinois elections

A general election was held in the U.S. state of Illinois on November 4, 2014. All of Illinois' executive officers were up for election as well as a United States Senate seat, and all of Illinois' eighteen seats in the United States House of Representatives. Primary elections were held on March 18, 2014.

Leslie Geissler Munger is an American politician and business executive who was sworn in as Illinois Comptroller in 2015. She was appointed by incoming Governor Bruce Rauner to fill the vacancy caused by the death of re-elected Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.

References

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