Pat Quinn has another choice for Lt. Governor

In the month since Scott Lee Cohen relinquished his nomination for Lt. Governor we see a bit of a scramble for his replacement. If someone was to say that Alexi Giannoulias (who is our state treasurer and is seeking to occupy President Obama's old US Senate) was to just leave because of his issues with regards to his family's bank this would be a disaster for the state Democratic party. As much as Jack Ryan's departure from the US Senate race (he ran against President Obama who was then a state senator) was for the Republican Party in 2004. In the case of state Democrats it could be double trouble!

This year we see people proposing to either eliminate the office. We also see people scramble to replace a very much wounded nominee elected by a sleepy electorate. We also see an important voting bloc, Blacks, attempt to support the runner-up for the Lt. Gov nomination in the February primary.

It looks like Pat Quinn has other ideas. He doesn't want to pick any of the runners-up in the recent primary. Instead he looks at Tammy Duckworth who withdrew from consideration or State Sen. Susan Garrett.

No matter who he would want as his running mate in November, the state party will have to make that decision. While it is supposed to be a transparent process, there just has to be some backroom negotiation going on.

BTW, since there have been rumbles that black politicos would be upset if the Democrats fail to choose state Rep. Art Turner (he just so happened to be the runner up in the February primary). It's safe to say that as the electorate was asleep in February, black politicos were as well. If they wanted one of their own in the state's #2 spot they sure could have campaigned for either one of the black candidates in the race whether Turner or state Sen. Rickey Hendon.