16 Comments - NW burbs - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 3:30 pm: Rich, Is this the raw exit polling or the “adjusted” exit polling? CNN and other outlets “adjust” their exit polling to more accurately reflect the election results as those results are made known by election authorities. This action means no one ever really has any independent confirmation of an election’s results, just in case some election authority here or there is unscrupulous. - T.J. - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 4:23 pm: [i]Small Towns (3%) Blagojevich 75% Topinka 16% Whitney 9%[/i] [b]!?![/b] - T.J. - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 4:24 pm: Small Towns (3%) Blagojevich 75% Topinka 16% Whitney 9% !?! - Bill Baar - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 4:39 pm: The 47% who found corruption extremely important and voted for Blagojevich really need to create a blog of their own to explain… I really want to know. - cermak_rd - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 5:06 pm: Bill, That stat jumped out at me too. I would guess they somehow thought Judy was just as corrupt and didn’t even consider Whitney. I voted for Blago, but I didn’t do it for his ethics, which I’m hoping will improve. - NoGiftsPlease - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 6:46 pm: I’ll explain myself, I must be in the 75%. I was concerned about ethics and still voted for Blago..and I’ll tell you I was very torn. It came down to a choice between two parties that are equally corrupt because it is a combination of the governor and the people surrounding them. Judy was running with a person who strongly opposes abortion and was unable to admit error when faced with it as a state’s attorney. Judy’s idea to take the bait to convert medicaid to a block grant was bad, and she didn’t say too much about her ideas to help the people of the state. Rod presented some laudable ideas albeit developed for purely political reasons and with no way to pay for them and misrepresents the success of the programs (put together badly, run badly and unfunded, but at least moving the ball down the field 10 inches by having an idea). I think they call it being between the horns of the dilemma. I wish Steve Rauschenberger would have been one of my choices. - Lovie's Leather - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 10:19 pm: Nogifts, the problem was that Judy’s running mate was strongly opposed to abortion and you wanted to vote for Rauschy? That makes absolutely no sense to me, but then neither does being concerned about corruption and voting for a very corrupt governor…. - Six Degrees of Separation - Friday, Dec 1, 06 @ 11:00 pm: If corruption was “extremely important” to a voter, I can see why they voted for Blago. - ZC - Saturday, Dec 2, 06 @ 9:34 am: Remember voters were voting to send a national message as well as a local one. Some of that anti-corruption vote was directed at the Republicans in D.C., not Springfield. Also it’s a weird question (”How important is corruption to you?”) to try and get any sense of the _intensity_ with which people cared about corruption. How many people at the polls, given that question, are gonna say, “Umm … nah, I don’t care about corruption.” People would say it’s important just because they don’t want to look shallow. Doesn’t mean they actually care much about it, or it was on their minds when they voted. These surveys are all taken after someone leaves the ballot booth. What stands out to me are the disapprove of George Bush / disapprove of Iraq War figures. Can you say, national wave? I’m not sure Judy ever had a chance. - North of I-80 - Saturday, Dec 2, 06 @ 11:56 am: The poor, the least educated and the non-white vote was captured by the Governor… is there something to learn from this ? Other than the selection of Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad, minister of protocol for the Nation of Islam to the Illinois hate crimes panel, I had no clue that race, education or $$$ was a factor at all in this election. Any ideas? - Reddbyrd - Saturday, Dec 2, 06 @ 12:05 pm: Bill,6DS & others: Ethics was important to me too. The choice was simple ABB — anyone but BrickheadJoe. I am one of those simpletons that see wrongful prosecutions as the sleazieest type of corruption and we all know The Brick is the national poster child. A vote for Whitney ws a vote for the Brick — plus his concealed carry Human Rights platform plank was a little scary too. The lack of Republican ethics on this issue clearly trumped all of GRod crooked deals in a heart beat. - Bill Baar - Saturday, Dec 2, 06 @ 12:58 pm: A Rich Miller quote to that 47% who place corruption hight on the list and voted for the Gov. These three paras have entered my inventory of frequently used quotes now. The people who know Judy Baar Topinka know that almost all of the charges made by the Blagojevich campaign against her were baseless or just plain lies. I’ve known Topinka for 16 years, and I don’t believe she has a corrupt bone in her body. She’s too cheap to be corrupt. And I know for a fact that she does whatever she can for military veterans. But the voters could see and hear Topinka talking about her “love” for George Ryan or saying something off the wall about unnamed people who care about veterans — and, understandably, they didn’t like it. For way too long we’ve been an electorate that focuses on out-of-context quotes or laps up gotcha games that deliberately distort meaning just because we can see or hear the so-called evidence for ourselves. If voters don’t start seeing through this blatantly dishonest, cynical manipulation by the professional hucksters (both in politics and in the media), we’re heading for serious trouble. - Squideshi - Saturday, Dec 2, 06 @ 9:45 pm: The percentage vote for Whitney goes up with level of education, and the exact opposite is true for Blagojevich. 8% of Whitney’s vote came from Democrats but 7% came from Republicans. Also, the percentage vote for Blagojevich goes down the more imporant the voter considers corruption and ethics, while it rises for Whitney. Whitney’s strongest showing was in SMALL cities. - NoGiftsPlease - Sunday, Dec 3, 06 @ 8:35 pm: I think the point is, corruption is one issue among many. I don’t think most people vote on a single issue. Well, most thoughtful people don’t. - Roomie - Sunday, Dec 3, 06 @ 10:43 pm: Has anyone seen the final numbers? I saw Blago 50, JBT 39, and Whitney 10. - Angie - Monday, Dec 4, 06 @ 7:00 am: Re: “If voters don’t start seeing through this blatantly dishonest, cynical manipulation by the professional hucksters (both in politics and in the media), we’re heading for serious trouble.” Voters aren’t taught to think critically when they are still too young to be eligible to vote, especially in the lousy public schools. It is also time-consuming to keep track of all the issues, especially if mom is playing taxi-driver to three kids who are into sports and all sorts of stuff. Where do they find the time? Everyone I talk to who seems to have a clue has no kids! They have more time to read everything from The Great Books to think tank policy papers! People need to be raised and schooled with the belief that people lie and manipulate out of self-interest, that this includes politicians, and that they should make like little lawyers-in-training and become good little skeptics when they grow up. And THEN, perhaps we’ll at least have more people who doubt the baloney thrown at them. Don’t know where they’ll find more time, however, but the skepticism would be a nice start. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.