Today is Election Day in Illinois’s second congressional district, in what is likely to be a minimal-turnout general election, selecting between Republican Paul McKinley and Democrat Robin Kelly.

Republicans would love to see their party make some noise in the districts where they’re not supposed to, like this one in inner-city Chicago and some of its southern suburbs. Having said that, there just doesn’t seem to be much of a pulse in this district. Yes, you’re never going to get high turnout in a special-election GOP primary in a district like this, and yes, the primary was held the day of a snowstorm, but . . . McKinley won the GOP nomination with 955 votes. There were 3,530 total votes in the GOP primary; Kelly won nearly 31,000 in the other side’s primary.

McKinley’s message has been against the Chicago machine; he offers a brief “Machine 101″ talk that refers to “Rahm ‘Caliglius’ Emanuel” (presumably comparing him to Caligula).