Click link below: "National Review" to read the article.

The GOP Outlook Is Surprisingly Bright in the Land of Lincoln
Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Early word is turnout is low in Illinois.

While I have no real preferences in the primaries - the choices for Illinois Republicans ought to be made by Illinois Republicans — I think the GOP is probably likely to be in good shape in both statewide races.

In the Senate, it's good that a well-funded candidate, lawyer Patrick Hughes, put the question to voters of whether Rep. Mark Kirk is sufficiently conservative. Unless all of the polls are wrong - and that's a possibility - Kirk should win pretty comfortably tonight. While some conservatives may end up grumbling that they've ended up with a pro-choice candidate who had to renounce his vote on cap and trade, this is no Dede Scozzafava who was handed the nomination behind closed doors; if Kirk gets the nomination, he'll have won it the old-fashioned way, by getting Republicans to vote for him. (For those worried about crossover votes, the competitive primaries on the Democratic side make them less likely.)

In the governor's race... in some ways, this is classic, fun, wild politics, with no real sense of who the winner is going to be tonight,  . Yes, it's regrettable that Chicago television stations completely ignored Lech Walesa's visit and endorsement of Adam Andrzejewski for governor. But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that if you're a Polish-American in the Chicago area, you heard about it the moment Walesa entered the city limits. My readers have wildly different preferences; some love Andrzejewski, others dismiss him as "a child"; some prefer Dan Proft, others say they could live with Kirk Dillard. I wouldn't pretend to know each of these candidates inside and out, but none of them scream "general election poison", at least not so far. And particularly not in a year with the wind at the GOP's back (although we can count on President Obama to make an all-out effort in his home state).

On the other side, the incumbent Democrat governor, Pat Quinn, is either going to go down or win by the skin of his teeth. That is still a party haunted by the ghost of Rod Blagojevich, and the difficult question of how many state lawmakers and party leaders averted their eyes from his reckless behavior. Beyond that, Quinn and his top rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes, have spent much of the primary accusing each other of racial insensitivity.

A reader gives her take:

Just an anecdote for you:  I happily voted for Adam Andrzejewski and Mark Kirk in the GOP primaries this morning (voter #20 at around 6:15 am).  I live in the heart of DuPage County, one of the big western suburban counties outside Chicago which traditionally is considered to be a Republican stronghold (Peter Roskam is my US Rep, holding Henry Hyde's old seat). 
 
The rationale?  I actually first read up on Andrzejewski months ago after I heard a radio ad involving Bill Rancic (yeah, the guy from the first year's Apprentice) promoting his candidacy and after reading his webpage, etc. liked what he had to say.  I genuinely believe that until you have someone with no "combine" or "Chicago way" ties getting into power willing to basically cut the state employee payroll in at least half, and halve the salaries of those who are left on the state payroll, Illinois will continue to be a fiscal disaster.  Only someone from "outside" the existing establishment would have the ability to do that. 
 
Mark Kirk, well, he's the senate candidate who should be sufficiently palatable and non-scary to the North Shore liberals and still good enough for those of us who are tired of Democrats. 
 
FWIW, the national party seems to be a waste of space when it comes to getting honest Repubs back in office in Illinois to rebuild the party brand here.  Michael Steele came to speak at a GOP Lincoln celebration, and to the extent his remarks tried to "go local," they showed that he didn't have a clue about the problems the party faces here in Illinois.  Basically, there are just as many downstate R's as downtown D's that have their hands in the trough, and thus have a vested interest in keeping the state bureaucracy large and well-fed.