So while the Illinois GOP always knew Sauerberg would fail, nobody expected him to fail quite so spectacularly.I did. Sauerberg's vote % probably matched or exceeded the % of people who even knew who he was. When a nobody runs a non-race against a popular incumbent in a bad year for his party, that's what you get. I didn't expect Berry to do as well as he did but I expected Durbin to exceed his %. He got fewer actual votes though I believe because so many fools vote President only.
Koppie should have ran for the GOP nomination.
Well I expected him to get crushed too (every poll showed he was losing by 20+ points), but if talked to virtually every Republican official and voter in the state, they'd all claim we needed to "get behind" Sauerberg because he was within striking distance and could somehow "beat Durbin". Why they assumed this, I don't know, but the numbers show Sauerberg got 1.4 million votes and Koppie (who's far more conservative and far more qualified for the office) got only 23,000. Clearly, most rank-and-file Republicans voted for the RINO instead of the candidate who shared their views because they thought their vote had a chance of unseating Durbin. Instead, all they did is send the GOP a message that it's okay to run more pathetic unqualified RINOs and the party base will rubber stamp them.
The irony here is that the party's 2002 nominee, state Rep. Jim Durkin, is about 5X more conservative than Sauerberg on the issues, but a bunch of conservative activists who whined and moaned about how much they hate Durkin (who's only "bad" position was being a bit weak on second amendment issues) now wanted us to "get behind" empty suit Sauerberg, who was little more than Durbin-lite on the issues. Hmmm.
Some conservatives are their own worse enemy.