Pro-Gay Illinois Governor Defeats Anti-Gay Candidate
After a close race, it's official: Democrat Pat Quinn will remain in office as governor of Illinois. Quinn's GOP opponent, Senator Bill Brady, conceded defeat yesterday afternoon. The governor, who took office in the beginning of 2009 after the removal of Rod Blagojevich from office, won an endorsement from the LGBT organization Equality Illinois. He has also been very pro-gay and has vocally supported bringing marriage equality to that state. Brady, on the other hand, has strong anti-gay views and has sponsored many bills that would ban both civil unions and same-sex marriage.
Chicago Pride reports on the election results:
Suburban Cook County and Chicago, which includes a majority of Illinois' LGBT voters, provided Quinn with more than half of his votes. Brady's conservative record in opposing gay rights, abortion rights and threatening cuts in state school spending didn't resonate well with city voters.
Gay rights advocates, who hammered Brady for his anti-gay stance, credit the strong showing for Quinn in Chicago with effective get-out-the-vote campaigns.
"We pulled out all stops for Quinn," Equality Illinois public policy director Rick Garcia told ChicagoPride.com. "Our PAC gave money and we made thousands of call to get out the vote." Equality Illinois Political Action Committee endorsed Quinn.
Personally, I like to think that this clever Glee-inspired campaign ad led to Quinn's win.
The problem with Quinn is that he's too nice and doesn't get anything done. He talks the talk but there is no action.
Posted by: Dave from Chicago | Nov 6, 2010 2:10:21 PM
pat quinn is NOT pro gay. He does not believe gay people have the right to marry. There needs to be a word for people who are not anti-gay but also not pro-gay.
Similar to being anti abortion but pro choice. There are a lot of false equivalencies.
Brady, however, is definitely Anti-gay.
Posted by: steve talbert | Nov 6, 2010 2:16:52 PM
quinn has said that he thinks that we can get civil unions in illinois before the end of the year. is it marriage? no but it's a start. so we should now hold him to this. and we should really remind him that it was the gays who were perhaps the most vocal anti-bill brady folks.
Posted by: james | Nov 6, 2010 2:36:51 PM
Quinn is not likeli to go to jail either.
86% of Illinois voters thought that corruption was an important factor in who they selected for governor.
Of that 86%, Quinn won those voters 48-44 over Brady.
Quinn only got 9,000 more votes than sexy Alexi.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | Nov 6, 2010 3:46:20 PM
Was Corruption Important to Your Governor Vote?
Those who said that corruption was extremely important were 53% of the electorate and Brady won those voters 49-41.
Those who said that corruption was VERY important were 30% of the electorate AND QUINN won those voters 60-36.
Gay issues were a minor factor in this race, yes, but Quinn was able to shake off the Blago taint and sexy Alexi was not.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2010/results/polls/#val=ILG00p3
Posted by: Chitown Kev | Nov 6, 2010 4:02:03 PM
Quinn supports civil unions over marriage because that is what he thinks can pass in the legislature now. I beleive he would sign a marriage bill if it was able to pass.
We also should be able to get marriage equality in Rhode Island and civil unions in Hawaii thanks to the new Governors in those states. So a few positive results out of this election.
Posted by: Ken | Nov 6, 2010 4:59:17 PM
@Ken
Thank you for pointing that out.
Too many people seem to equate the interests of the President and the do-nothing federal Democrats in the Congress with their own. In the midst of all the doom and gloom, it is important to remember that gay rights wasn't a casualty of this election. With the exception of the fiasco in Iowa, LGBT people actually came out of this election fairly well positioned to make gains in several states.
Marriage equality supportive gubernatorial tickets won in California, Oregon, Rhode Island, New York, and Maryland.
Civil unions are coming to Hawaii and Illinois.
And most of the state legislatures in the blue states that are already supportive of gay rights will remain so.
The Republicans don't have the 2/3rd majority needed to pass the anti-gay marriage amendment in the U.S. Senate and probably never will. One party having 67 senators is pretty much a pipe dream. Thus, their victory at the federal level is pretty much inconsequential. They know this too. They just vamp up the hateful rhetoric because it plays well with their redneck Tea Party base.
Posted by: John | Nov 6, 2010 5:24:40 PM
@Ken. I agree with you completely.
And I predict we'll have marriage equality here in Illinois in 2 years.
Posted by: Terry | Nov 6, 2010 6:10:38 PM
This is not Illinois related but does anyone know if the New Hampshire legislature is going to try to strip away marriage equality now that it is overwhelmingly Republican? It may have enough Republicans to override Governor Lynch's (Dem) veto?
Posted by: James | Nov 6, 2010 7:22:29 PM
@James, I read that they plan to try to repeal marriage in New Hampshire and the Republicans have a veto proof majority now. We just have to hope there are enough moderate Republicans in that group who won't go for it.
Posted by: Ken | Nov 6, 2010 9:16:26 PM
Gov. Quinn does not support marriage equality. He supports civil unions (though Ken could be right about him signing an equality bill if one were to pass since Dem Govs Baldacci and Lynch in Maine and New Hampshire did just that after having previously expressed support for only civil unions). By the narrowest of margins, Quinn beat an actual marriage equality supporter in the primary; that candidate, untainted by Blago, also would have had a much easier time in the general election contest. This and other sites dropped the ball in drawing no attention to that very important primary when it took place.
While I agree with Ken and John that there were some silver linings on Tuesday nights in states where we have the prospect of advancing our rights, the Minnesota legislature results were a huge disappointment.
Posted by: Patric | Nov 6, 2010 9:45:58 PM
Well, at least we have a closeted senator now!
Posted by: Marsha Qirq | Nov 6, 2010 9:45:59 PM
Glad to see he held onto the seat. I think a lot of these "republican gays" will start to realize that they voted in the most anti-gay congress in years when the GOP/TeaBags block, and possibly try to repeal, civil/gay rights legislation. How pathetic!
Posted by: VAVA | Nov 7, 2010 9:27:53 AM