From Matt Custardo, his North Shore campaign field manager:
Historic: It was “the first time the president’s governor lost a re-election since 1892.”
Rauner “won by 5% in a state President Obama won by 25% — a 30 point swing.”
Quinn “outspent Rauner on advertising in the final 3 months of the campaign.”
A day and two days before the polls opened, “[Expert forecaster] Nate Silver predicted a Rauner loss. Public Policy Polling . . . said Rauner would lose by 2%,” toppling conventional wisdom that a Republican had to be ahead at that point.
Convincing: Rauner bested Bill Brady and Mark Kirk, winning “moderates outright (52-45%) . . . independents by more than two to one (64% to 29%) . . . a larger share of Democrats . . . class voters by a larger margin (55-44%) . . . ”
He bested Brady, winning “both Republicans (93%) and conservatives (81%) by larger margins.”
He “closed the gap with 18-29 year old voters to single digits.”
So much for (simply) buying the election, as Mark Brown and other commentators said beforehand.
Blithe Spirit 