In Part 1, we discussed Bill Brady, Pat Brady, and the IL GOP.  In Part 2, we went a little deeper into what happened November 2nd.  In Part 3, we will be examining the Senate race and a few other problems.

Mark Kirk won the US Senate seat...barely.  He did not receive over 50% of the vote and he squeaked by Giannoulias.  He also won in a year that saw most of Illinois' counties going Republican.  However, Kirk will be a 1 term Senator if he decides he wants to play the "Mr. Independent" game in the Senate.  In 6 years, the GOP turnout might not be as high as it was this year, and the Democrats might not have a chronically flawed candidate like Giannoulias.  So can the IL GOP really call this a win?  Yes in the sense that Obama's old seat went Republican, but if they can't hold on to it while Kirk votes with the Democrats instead of being a wall against further Democrat damage, it ain't that big of a win.  Kirk is a seriously flawed politician and will be under the microscope of the Tea Parties for the next 6 years. 

Mark Kirk winning and Bill Brady losing only adds fuel to the long held belief that a social conservative cannot win statewide office.  Even the St. Louis Post-Dispatch got in on this myth this past Sunday.  Post-Dispatch journalist Kevin McDermott claims that Brady was too far right for Illinois Republicans.  In fact, McDermott quotes former Gov. Edgar aide Mike Lawrence about how far right Brady was versus the rest of Illinois Republicans:

"The trend in Illinois is a Republican trend," as in most of the country, noted former Edgar aide Mike Lawrence. But Republicanism in the Land of Lincoln, Lawrence noted, is still more moderate than much of the nation's GOP.

"A Republican candidate of a more moderate profile would have beaten (Quinn) easily," Lawrence said.

Interesting how the "more moderate profile" would have won, isn't it?  And we go full circle to Kirk Dillard not campaigning for Brady.  Guess we'll be hearing from Dillard in a 4 years again when it comes time to elect a Governor.  Almost seems like the "moderate profile" type GOP wanted Brady to lose, but that would be going down the road of conspiracy theories.  To quote the X-Files, "the truth is out there". 

Brady's loss and Kirk's win has set back social conservatives for a few elections though.  The moderates will point to Brady's loss as to why the Republicans in Illinois should not back a conservative.  Kirk's win only justifies their position, but his margin of victory dilutes this argument.  Greg Hinz via Chicago Business Online gets on the "moderate profile" bandwagon as he writes about the other primary candidates versus Brady:

As a result, they pulled off votes from another DuPager who should have won, former Jim Edgar chief of staff Kirk Dillard, a moderate who fit the profile of the kind of Republican who wins in Illinois.

Kirk Dillard again.  Interesting. 

Speaking of Kirks - Mark Kirk in particular - we can see how the IL GOP and their establishment friends foisted Mark Kirk on the Republican voters and the rest of Illinois voters at large.  I don't mean to bring up old business, but Republican voters did not get the same opportunity to vote a nominee that the Governor candidates received.  Sure, the voters chose Kirk, but the field was cleared for him long before the primary came around whereas the Governor's race was left wide open.  Maybe the IL GOP thought that upstart Adam Andzrejewski would pull enough votes away from Bill Brady so that Kirk Dillard would win.  Seeing how the spinsters are bashing Brady and alluding to how Dillard could have won - openly or tacitly - you almost wonder if there was a plan behind the scenes to set the ballot a certain way.  Enough with conspiracies, back to the issues.

There is a serious division within the IL GOP right now, highlighted by the success of the Tea Parties in a "blue state".  There is a vocal conservative group out there who finally got their guy on the ballot, but saw him lose.  The more moderates saw their guy go down in the primary for Governor, but win the US Senate seat.  Already the battle lines have been redrawn for 2014.  The kingmakers are still in place, and the people who vote are still upset with what they had to vote for.  Something has to give. 

Finally, there is the Illinois Victory campaign.  Sponsored via the RNC, this program was set up to identify voters in a GOTV (Get Out The Vote) effort.  Illinois Victory has been credited with identifying 2.5 million voters here in Illinois.  Considering the victories in Illinois were good, but not great, I would have to say Illinois Victory was a mixed bag.  It was great that voters were identified, but nothing beats pounding on doors in precincts.  Phone calls are too easy for people to not pick up or hang up.  Once again, I point to Judge Jarman.  Here is a guy that walked just about every precinct.  We handed out over 1000 pieces of literature at the Halloween parade.  We also made phone calls, but the real effort was done on the ground.  The money that was spent on Illinois Victory could have been spent in some races that were close or could have been close with some extra money. 

Once again, the IL GOP has failed to reach out to conservatives regarding the GOTV effort.  First, there is a blogger at Redstate who writes under the moniker of ColdWarrior and advocates the Precinct Committeeman Project.  He and his associates have developed a computer program that uses voter ID via Voter Vault or any other voter identification program, plots the addresses on a map, and can be updated as a person walks the precinct knocking on doors.  Why this hasn't been utilized by the IL GOP is beyond me, especially with the wide availability of Android/iPhone app phones.  Second, the Concord Project has been launched.  Loren Heal, a local and national blogger, has been involved in this project.  It aims to get conservative activists on the ground to GOTV.  Lastly, Adam Andzrejewski is launching his My Illinois project on January 1st.  Each day, the conservative networks grow.  If the IL GOP would be willing to accept conservatives into the fold, instead of treating us like red-headed step-children, then we could all achieve successes in the upcoming elections. 

We have highlighted many different problems or failures that occurred on November 2nd.  We were able to see victory after victory across the nation for the Republicans.  Here in Illinois, we cheered our Republican brethren in other states, but for the most part, we were left holding the bag in Illinois.  To recap the problems, Pat Brady failed to lead.  Bill Brady failed to campaign effectively.  Different parts of the IL GOP, especially the Chicago GOP, failed to do what was required to attain victory.  An entire political movement was largely ignored by the IL GOP.  Conservatives didn't fail as much as moderates failed to support conservatives by sitting on their moderate hands.  And finally, the GOTV effort by the Tea Parties and conservatives was outdone by the party led GOTV effort.  We highlighted other issues as well, but the overall impact of November 2nd was that we could have done more but didn't.  We had victories, but not enough.  And most important, we are left with the same people in power now that were in power November 2nd.  We failed November 2nd.  We can do better.  We need to do better.  Illinois depends on us to do better.  Let's get to work, 2012 is near, and 2014 will be another war for us to fight.