Illinois Primary Day: Who Will Be Nominated to Replace Obama, Blagojevich?

CHICAGO -- It's Illinois primary day, the first in the nation for the 2010 election cycle. Voters are choosing nominees for President Obama's former Senate seat and the governorship once held by the impeached Rod Blagojevich. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama, both South Siders, have sent in their absentee ballots, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

The election will be the first time voters have a say in replacing Obama in the Senate and Blagojevich in the Governor's Mansion. After the latter was impeached last year, his lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, automatically replaced him. Blagojevich, before he was dumped on corruption charges, tapped former Illinois attorney general Roland Burris to fill Obama's term.

It's cloudy and lightly snowing here, and early morning television is full of ads -- negative and otherwise -- reflecting a concern by both parties that many voters are undecided, even at this late stage. Turnout is not expected to be high, with the possible exception of the African-American wards and townships in Cook County, where there is a bruising contest for county board president.

I caught up with Quinn on Monday night at one of his last campaign stops, the "Rock and Roll" McDonald's on Clark Street (one of the largest in the world, by the way, with giant two-story arches and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe furniture on the second floor). He was hunting for Chicago hands to shake after a fly-around that stopped in Rockford, Rock Island, Peoria, Decatur and Marion, at the tip of the state.

Quinn has been governor for a year and is in a fight to hang on, with Comptroller Dan Hynes fielding a strong challenge for the Democratic nomination. Hynes has been gaining on Quinn in recent days, sparked by a nasty battle over a scandal involving a cemetery where African-Americans were buried, along with debate about who the first African-American mayor of Chicago, the late Harold Washington, would have preferred in this race. Washington's choice would have been between someone who politically backed him but whom he fired from his City Hall job (Quinn) or whose father called him sleazy and ran against him for mayor (Hynes).

As for voter turnout, Quinn expects it "won't be as big as a presidential year," but hopes for good numbers "to show that democracy is working in our country and definitely in our state."

The Tuesday winners will have the national spotlight to themselves for a while. Texas follows with a March primary. The first big round of primaries doesn't come until May.

Here's an at-a-glance look at today's election:

Senate

Democrats:

For the Obama legacy seat, state treasurer Alexi Giannoulias has been the one to beat; attorney David Hoffman has been gaining, pounding Giannoulias over his connections to a troubled family-owned community bank that lent money to scoundrel Tony Rezko. A big African-American turnout could help former Chicago Urban League Chief Cheryle Jackson, the only African-American and female in the contest. This will be a test of Big Labor in Illinois, backing Giannoulias. Can they deliver?

Republicans:

Everyone will be surprised if Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) does not win the nomination.

Governor

Democrats:

Quinn vs. Hynes is too close to call.

Republicans:

State Sen. Kirk Dillard has been getting hit hard for a 2008 television ad he made for his old state senator buddy, Barack Obama. Frontrunners are Dillard, Andy McKenna, the former state GOP party chief, and Jim Ryan, the former Illinois attorney general who was defeated in an earlier run for governor by Blagojevich.