A looong meeting between Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna and the five candidates for governor produced almost no results. Only Bill Brady and Judy Topinka agreed to abide by a good conduct code. And nobody was impressed that Topinka was beating them like a mule in the party’s poll.

A GOP poll shows Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka with a commanding lead over her four potential Republican rivals, but the findings failed to nudge any of them from the race Friday.

In a bid to cull the herd of Republican gubernatorial wannabes, senior GOP leaders met privately in Chicago with the candidates and presented results of a party-commissioned poll, which had Topinka leading dairy magnate James Oberweis by a 39- to 12-percent margin.

The statewide survey of 400 voters taken Tuesday and Wednesday also found Topinka to be the only Republican in the field ahead of Gov. Blagojevich in a face-to-face matchup, leading by a 39- to 35-percent margin.

Buoyed by those results, Topinka has narrowed her search for a running mate to Rep. Jim Watson (R-Jacksonville) and Doug Whitley, head of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and member of former Gov. Jim Edgar’s Cabinet.

After Topinka and Oberweis, other Republicans trailed far behind. The survey showed Sen. Steve Rauschenberger (R-Elgin) with 6 percent, businessman Ron Gidwitz with 3.5 percent and Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) with 3 percent.

I’ll open comments on this Monday.