...yesterday. Mark Kirk, the establishment candidate for the Republican nomination for the U. S. Senate, won handily over his opponent Patrick Hughes by a 56 to 19% margin. Kirk, a five-term Congressman from the North Shore, is the consummate Washington insider, having worked as chief of staff to the previous representative, John Porter. Kirk, a mainline Protestant and Kenilworth native, is pro-choice and voted for cap-and-trade legislation that passed the House in 2009 (horrors!). Some might even call Kirk a (gasp!) RINO (Republican-in-Name-Only), like that other recent winner, Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Brown is also pro-choice, considers gay marriage to be a "settled" issue in the Bay State, and voted for Republican Governor Mitt Romney's health care reform bill, which is almost identical (without the cost controls) to the U. S. Senate bill which he opposes (huh?).
Kirk's opponent, Patrick Hughes, was a pretty weak-tea version of the Tea Party crazies and generated very little buzz (or votes).
The race for the Republican nomination for governor of Illinois essentially ended up in a three-way tie, between State Sens. Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard and former state party chairman Andy McKenna, all insiders and all establishment candidates.
So where were all the Tea Partiers? Where was all the anger and fear? (The turnout yesterday was extremely low. The people working at my polling place were positively thrilled to see me!) Illinois is hurting just as much as any other state. Is this whole Tea Party phenomenon vastly overrated? Is it mostly a creation of Fox News and Dick Armey?
Maybe the average voter is a lot more sensible than we thought.
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