RESULTS, ILLINOIS PRIMARY – AT 10:58 P.M. ET:  Mark Kirk has easily won the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.  At this hour it appears that he will face ethically challenged Alexi Giannoulias, an ally of President Obama and a man with a strange banking history in something called the Broadway Bank.  (Need we say more?  Would you put your money in a name like the Broadway Bank?) 

The Dems had a fine candidate in David Hoffman, former inspector general of Chicago, and winner of a number of newspaper endorsements.  But, you know, he just didn't have that shady past that makes a man a man in the Illinois Democratic Party. 

We look forward to a Republican pickup, if justice and sanity prevail.  Wait, it's Illinois.  Let's say we hope for a Republican pickup if the dearly departed can be kept away from the polls.

Gubernatorial results:  Too close to call in both parties.  The governorship of Illinois is important because it's often been a springboard for the next step up in Illinois – prison.  Free meals and housing, snappy striped uniform.  What else could a governor want?  We won't have these results for a time. 

February 2, 2010