Hynes Concedes IL-GOV Dem Primary To Quinn

IL Comptroller Dan Hynes (D) and IL Gov. Pat Quinn (D)
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Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, who was in a photo-finish Democratic gubernatorial primary against incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn, has now conceded the race to Quinn, officially clearing the way for Quinn to fight the general election against the Republican nominee — a matter that is itself yet to be determined since both parties’ primaries yielded close results.

The winner was not immediately clear on election night. Quinn declared victory with a lead of about 7,000 votes, though Hynes did not yet concede. The most up to date results have Quinn winning by 8,090 votes, out of a total of 912,662 votes.

At a Hynes press event (streamed on the ABC affiliate in Chicago), Hynes spokesman Matt McGrath announced that Hynes had called Quinn about a half an hour earlier. Hynes then took to the podium. “Well, the people have spoken, and the votes have been counted. And I’m here to report that we rose up, but fell just a little short,” said Hynes. “And if democracy means anything, it means that the campaign with the most votes wins. We did the right thing, we made sure all the votes were counted, and now we know for sure that it wasn’t us. And now let’s do the right thing again.”

Hynes praised Quinn for bringing decency to the state in the last year of turmoil — Quinn became governor after the impeachment of Gov. Rod Blagojevich — and promised to support him in the election.

Hynes said it had been the right decision to continue waiting to concede over the last day, as he said there had been about 50,000 votes still outstanding, and that it was now the right decision for him to concede defeat.

The national Democratic Party had already taken some clear actions to rally around Quinn yesterday. President Obama called Quinn yesterday to congratulate him. In addition, the Democratic Governors Association released a statement from its chairman, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, congratulating Quinn.

The Republican nomination is still up in the air, with state Sen. Bill Brady having a lead of only a few hundred votes over state Sen. Kirk Dillard, and each candidate only has about 20% of the vote in a six-way race. At a pre-scheduled unity event yesterday, the state GOP chairman Patrick Brady (no relation to Bill Brady) wasn’t making any effort to decide the race. “I thought I’d introduce only one governor nominee,” said Brady. “Congratulations to all the candidates — those who won, those who didn’t and those who don’t know yet.”

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