#rsrh Illinois Dems assign Lt. Gov nomination to Sheila Simon.

You probably didn’t hear about this at the time…

Illinois Democratic leaders gave the nomination for lieutenant governor Saturday to Sheila Simon, daughter of an Illinois political icon, following the wishes of Gov. Pat Quinn despite warnings of a potential backlash from black voters.

[snip]

The Democratic State Central Committee was forced to pick a nominee because the winner of the February primary election, Scott Lee Cohen, dropped out over accusations of past steroid use, failure to pay child support and holding a knife to his girlfriend’s throat – accusations which he denied.

The committee passed over state Rep. Art Turner, a black legislator from Chicago who finished second in the primary. Some of his supporters had warned that rejecting Turner for someone who didn’t even run in the primary could sour black voters on Quinn.

Because, well, the Democratic party of Illinois decided to replace a knife-wielding, steroid-using, deadbeat dad with a white former city councilwoman with a famous name, and not the African-American state legislator who came in second in the first place.  That’s… all kind of awkward; which makes it a perfect fit for Illinois Democrats these days.  Embracing the Awkward is all the rage for those guys.

Moe Lane

PS: Just in passing: the Scott Lee Cohen situation is probably why Alexi Giannoulias has not yet been pressured to leave the race over the entire “20 million dollar loan to bookies and pimps” thing.  They’ve already had one yank-and-replace; having two would lead people to ask why Chicago Democrats even bother with primaries.

Well, more people.  And the choice of adjective modifying ‘Democrat’ there was deliberate.