By Nancy Thorner -
State Senator Bill Brady won the 2010 gubernatorial election, former State Senator Roger Keats emphatically alleged last week during a Chicago book tour, and Pat Quinn is governor today only because election fraud in Chicago and Illinois is prevalent and widespread.
"Bill Brady won the election. Even the media realized what had happened, but said nothing," Keats said. "Brady knew it was hopeless to try to overturn the election, as those entities involved with deciding close elections were composed of majority Democratic members."
State Senator Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), who is expected to declare soon another try at the governor's seat in 2014, confirmed that Keats' allegations aren''t as far-fetched as they might sound.
"After a very close election in November 2010, there was a suspicion that voter fraud had taken place, but how would we prove the presence of fraud?" Brady said.
2010 GOP Candidate for Governor State Sen. Bill Brady with Lt.Gov candidate Jason Plummer
After winning the 2010 GOP primary by only 187 votes over second runner-up State Senator Kirk Dillard, Brady went on to lose to Democrat Pat Quinn by less than a percentage point.
Of nearly 8 million registered voters for the 2010 General Election, only 3.7 million voted in the governor's race, and 1,745,219 picked Quinn over the 1,713,385 that chose Brady in a six-way race.
"Only 30,000 votes separated me from Pat Quinn. Lawyers were consulted, they advised me that it would cost millions of dollars to prove that fraud had occurred to result in my defeat," he said.
But trying again in 2014 wouldn't be for vindication of an election that was allegedly stolen. The senator said he believes he best represents the Republican Party platform and its issues. Brady said he has also proven he can attract both Democrats and Independents, a feat necessary for a Republican candidate to win in a state where party affiliation is 40% Democrat and 30% Republican.
"I wouldn't be running if I didn't think I could win," Brady said. "Given the lack of progress to fix Illinois' problems in the Democratically-controlled House and Senate, voters are more likely this time around to vote for change in Illinois at the very top of the ticket."
But If suspected fraud was present in 2010, how would Brady do things differently to deal with it in 2014? The answer was pretty simple.
"We must win more votes," Brady said, along with lining up election judges at as many precincts as possible.
But cleaning up voter fraud may be the biggest obstacle for Brady if it is as rampant as Keats asserted last week while promoting his new fiction, Chicago Confidential.
Keats, who Democrats allege took part in the FBI's Operation Greylord investigation of corruption within the Cook County court system, says Chicago election fraud is deep and widespread. Voter lists themselves are padded to cover the fraud.
"The voter lists in Chicago are not purged on purpose," Keats said. "Individuals are retained on active active voter lists so that the percentage of people who do vote in any given election appears to be much lower than in reality, giving the impression that voter fraud could not have possibly taken place."
Keats said he led a coalition that helped to clean up the courts after the Greylord investigation.
"I had poll watchers in Latino precincts and the corruption was obvious. I called the State's Attorney and the media and they sent no one," Keats said.
"The funny thing is the vote fraud that saved Quinn was, I believe, really to protect Joe Berrios in his race against Forrest Claypoole [for Cook County assessor]. Quinn just benefitted from straight Democrat ballots," Keats wrote in follow-up correspondence.
Quinn is expected to run for re-election in 2014, and former Secretary of Commerce Bill Daley and Attorney General Lisa Madigan say they are "seriously considering" challenging Quinn in a Democratic primary. Three Republicans - State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, businessman Bruce Rauner and State Senator Kirk Dillard of Burr Ridge - have declared they are in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
Brady has yet to officially announce.
