2006 Illinois gubernatorial election

The 2006 Illinois gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich won re-election to a second four-year term scheduled to have ended on January 10, 2011. However, Blagojevich did not complete his term, as he was impeached and removed from office in 2009. Many observers expected the race to be close, especially considering the polling,[1] which had shown Governor Blagojevich to have 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.

2006 Illinois gubernatorial election
November 7, 2006
Turnout47.29% 2.76 pp
 
Nominee Rod Blagojevich Judy Baar Topinka Rich Whitney
Party Democratic Republican Green
Running mate Pat Quinn Joe Birkett Julie Samuels
Popular vote 1,736,731 1,369,315 361,336
Percentage 49.8% 39.3% 10.4%
County results
Blagojevich:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%
Topinka:      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%
Governor before election

Rod Blagojevich
Democratic

 Elected Governor

Rod Blagojevich
Democratic

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

Election information

The primaries and general elections coincided with those for congress) and those for other state offices. The election was part of the 2006 Illinois elections.

Turnout
See also: 2006 Illinois elections § Turnout

For the primaries, turnout for the gubernatorial primaries was 23.13%, with 1,680,207 votes cast and turnout for the lieutenant gubernatorial primaries was 20.60% with 1,496,453 votes cast.[2][3] For the general election, turnout was 47.29%, with 3,487,989 votes cast.[2][3]

Democratic primaries

Candidates

Results
County results
Democratic gubernatorial primary results[4]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Rod Blagojevich (incumbent) 669,006 70.84
Democratic Edwin Eisendrath 275,375 29.16
Total votes 944,397 100.00

Candidates

Results
Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial primary results[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Pat Quinn (incumbent) 819,005 100.00
Democratic Pamela R. Schadow 17 0.00
Total votes 819,022 100.00

Republican primaries

Candidates

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.

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,[5] 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 gubernatorial primary results[4]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Judy Baar Topinka 280,701 38.15
Republican Jim Oberweis 233,576 31.74
Republican Bill Brady 135,370 18.40
Republican Ron Gidwitz 80,068 10.88
Republican Andy Martin 6,095 0.83
Total votes 735,810 100.00

Candidates

Results
Republican lieutenant gubernatorial primary results[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Joe Birkett 342,950 50.63
Republican Steve Rauschenberger 202,905 29.95
Republican Sandy Wegman 90,255 13.32
Republican Lawrence L. Bruckner 41,307 6.19
Republican Jeremy Bryan Cole 14 0.00
Total votes 677,431 100.00

General election

On ballot

Write-ins

Polling
Polling on 14 October 2006
Source Date Rod
Blagojevich (D)		 Judy Baar
Topinka (R)		 Rich
Whitney (G)		 Other
Survey USA November 2, 2006 45% 37% 14% 4%
Survey USA October 23, 2006 44% 34% 14% 8%
Rasmussen October 19, 2006 44% 36% 9% 11%
Zogby/WSJ October 16, 2006 47.1% 33.2% 11.3% 8.4%
Glengariff Group October 15, 2006 39% 30% 9% 22%
Tribune/WGN-TV October 11, 2006 43% 29% 9% 19%
Survey USA September 20, 2006 45% 39% 7% 9%
Rasmussen September 13, 2006 48% 36% – 16%
Sun-Times/NBC5 September 12, 2006 56% 26% 3% 15%
Tribune/WGN-TV September 11, 2006 45% 33% 6% 16%
Zogby/WSJ September 11, 2006 46.5% 33.6% – 19.9%
Research 2000 August 31, 2006 47% 39% 2% 12%
Zogby/WSJ August 28, 2006 44.8% 37.6% – 17.6%
Rasmussen August 10, 2006 45% 37% – 18%
Survey USA July 25, 2006 45% 34% – 21%
Zogby/WSJ July 24, 2006 44.4% 36.4% – 19.2%
Rasmussen July 13, 2006 45% 34% – 21%
Zogby/WSJ June 21, 2006 41.1% 37.5% – 21.4%
Glengariff Group June 1–3, 2006 41% 34% – 25%
Survey USA May 23, 2006 43% 37% – 20%
Rasmussen April 24, 2006 38% 44% – 18%
Rasmussen March 31, 2006 41% 43% – 16%
Rasmussen February 25, 2006 42% 36% – 22%
Rasmussen February 7, 2006 37% 48% – 15%
Research 2000 January 22, 2006 45% 37% – 18%

Results
2006 Illinois gubernatorial election[2][3][7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Rod Blagojevich (incumbent) 1,736,731 49.79% -2.40%
Republican Judy Baar Topinka 1,369,315 39.26% -5.81%
Green Rich Whitney 361,336 10.36% n/a
Write-in 20,607 0.59% n/a
Total votes 3,487,989 100.00% n/a
Democratic hold

Blagojevich was declared the winner by 10:00 p.m.

Establishment of Green Party

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. The new 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

References
  1. "SurveyUSA News Poll #8260". Surveyusa.com. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  2. "Voter Turnout". www.elections.il.gov. Illinois State Board of Elections. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  3. "Election Results". www.elections.il.gov. Illinois State Board of Elections. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  4. "Ballots Cast". Elections.illinois.gov. 2006-03-21. Archived from the original on 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
  5. Jim Oberweis#Gubernatorial campaign
  6. "Prosecutor removes office from case". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. 21 January 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  7. "Ballots Cast". Elections.illinois.gov. 2006-11-07. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2015-03-30.
Official campaign websites (Archived)
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