Illinois Results

Tonight there was a bit of a disappointment for Andrzejewski who finished fifth in a field of seven.  It appears he ended up splitting votes with Dan Proft another candidate with tea party support. In a packed field there is always the danger good candidates will cancel each other out.  RS McCain reported Proft had approximately 45,000 votes and Andrzejewski was behind the leader approximately 40,000 votes.  As you can see the five top candidates finished quite close to one another:

The good news, however, is the current leader with a slim 2000 vote lead is reported to be a "good guy" according to Andrzejewski.  Blake Dvorak of Chicago Now seems to agree:

Brady's showing is also a win for conservatives tonight, although not the one perhaps they were looking for. While Andrzejewski and Proft fought over the activist vote, Brady captured the middle-America vote, which is not as ideological, but no less conservative.

While many conservatives were hoping that Hughes would pull out a win in the Senatorial primary, Rep Mark Kirk won decisively.  He will be going up against Alexi Giannoulias mentioned in yesterdays post, who is an Obama crony and Chicago pol from way back.  Fivethirtyeight notes Nate Silver thought Illinois "blue enough" for a Democrat win, despite Giannoulias being a less a less than terrific candidate.  They did say that in Massachusetts though didn't they?  Will the conservatives and tea party candidates rally to support Kirk on the chance they could pick up Senator Barack Obama's former seat?  Stay tuned.

Via Memeorandum