If the plight of the top-of-the-ticket Democrats in Barack Obama’s Illinois is not an indicator of a widespread dissatisfaction with the regime in Washington, I don’t what is. Just a day after Public Policy Polling showed largely unheralded Republican Mark Kirk with a lead in the Illinois Senate race, a new PPP release shows Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady with a ten-point, 43-33 lead over sitting Democratic governor Pat Quinn:
He’s getting 80% of the Republican vote while Quinn earns just 53% of the Democratic vote, and he also has a 39-31 lead with independents.
Part of Quinn’s problem within his own party is the same as that of Alexi Giannoulias- many Democrats who aren’t too high on him aren’t choosing a side for now. 28% of Democrats are undecided while only 13% of Republicans are. But Quinn is in a deeper hole than his party’s Senate nominee because 19% of Democrats have already decided to support Brady for Governor compared to only 10% going for Mark Kirk against Giannoulias.
But despite some real Democratic support, Brady faces the same long-term challenges that Kirk does — anemic favorability ratings from a voting republic who has no idea who he is:
Brady remains an unknown to most voters in the state. 55% have no opinion of him while 25% see him favorably and 20% negatively. Quinn’s best hope is to absolutely destroy Brady’s image with that majority of voters who are ambivalent toward him right now.
Still, PPP favors Brady to win. Full results here.