Another group of conservatives felt like they had been left out of the process. They grumbled and objected and dampened the momentum considerably from the very beginning. A gadfly candidate sabotaged a huge fund-raising potential for Hughes by accusing him of being racist. That was how the Hughes campaign began.
In spring and summer the Tea Party movement began to form and grow. Initially Tea Partiers were enthused about Pat Hughes. Many endorsed him but about ten days before the race others began to push for a downstate judge named Don Lowry. They were sure they could pull it off for the judge in spite of the timing. With nine days to go before the race, Phyllis Schlafly and I—with other leaders of the pro-family movement—sent a letter imploring the other four candidates to drop out of the race and throw their support to Patrick Hughes. Rasmussen was reporting that Hughes was the only one with any chance of winning, and it would still be an uphill battle. All four refused.
So on Election Day, the extremely liberal Mark Kirk won 57 percent of the vote to Patrick Hughes’ 19 percent and 24 percent split between the other candidates.
Illinois is big and divided. Massachusetts was small and united. Scott Brown ran as a conservative in a liberal state…. Mark Kirk did the same. One was willing to defend his positions, the other never had to. Only time will tell how either of them represent the Republican Party in the future, but one thing is for sure. With the allegedly mob-connected Alexi Giannoulias as Democratic nominee for Senate in Illinois, conservatives here are going to be faced with a Sophie’s Choice.