As expected, Democratic Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Republican Congressman Mark Kirk won their parties' nominations for US senator.

Unexpectedly the races for governor and lieutenant governor have had more than their share of drama. And they are not yet fully resolved.

Gov. Pat Quinn, who succeeded Rod Blagojevich when the latter was removed by the Illinois Senate, won a surprisingly close two-person race against Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes. The official results won't be known for days, but unofficial returns give Quinn about an 8,000 vote lead over Hynes. Hynes finally conceded this morning -- two days after the election.

The winner of the Republican primary is still not known. But whoever it is, the winner will have captured the nomination with only about 21% of the vote.
Currently 400 or so votes separate two state senators, Bill Brady of Bloomington and Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale. This may go to a recount.

Few people paid attention to the races for lieutenant governor -- until the day after the election.
On the Democratic side, an unknown political newcomer named Scott Lee Cohen won the nomination with 26% of the vote against five opponents of similar obscurity. Cohen ran a largely self-financed campaign, spamming Illinois mailboxes (including mine) with tons of junk mail.

Cohen is a pawnbroker and has a cleaning supply business. But what really got everybody's attention was that in 2005 he was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery. The charges were later dropped. But in Illinois in 2004 two candidates suffered because of similar allegations.
Gov. Quinn has called on Cohen to step down and the latter has refused to do so.
If nothing else happens as a result of this, there will be calls to amend the Illinois constitution to change the way the lieutenant governor is chosen.

The GOP nominee for lieutenant governor is Jason Plummer, a 27-year-old executive for a lumber company in Edwardsville. He beat out State Sen. Matt Murphy 34% to 33%. Almost nobody has heard of Plummer outside of Edwardsville.

The brightest Democratic star to emerge from the primary is Toni Preckwinkle. She won the nomination for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Cook County includes Chicago and many suburbs. Preckwinkle is a reform minded but pragmatic alderman who lives near the Obama family in Chicago. She got as many votes as all three of her opponents combined -- including the incumbent. When elected in November, she will be the second most powerful local official in the area after Mayor Daley.