Brady concedes: “Gov. Quinn won this race”
By DAVE McKINNEY and ABDON M. PALLASCH Sun-Times Media November 5, 2010 10:26AM
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady.
Updated: November 5, 2010 4:28PM
BLOOMINGTON — A misty-eyed Bill Brady conceded defeat Friday to Gov. Quinn after the tighest race for governor in Illinois in three decades.
“I just a few minutes ago got off the phone with Gov. Quinn, and I congratulated him on his victory, as he deserved,” the Bloomington Republican told reporters, family members and supporters at a hotel in his hometown.
“After days of counting ballots and looking at potential outcomes, we came to the conclusion that Gov. Quinn won this race.
“He worked hard for it, and you can’t take away his effort in this endeavor. I also assured him that I looked forward to working with him to make Illinois be the best state it can be for the people of Illinois.”
Brady’s concession speech lasted about 10 minutes. He was surrounded on a stage by his wife Nancy, their daughter and two sons, his parents and his lieutenant governor running mate, Jason Plummer.
Brady remained composed, even as his wife struggled to hold back her tears, particularly as Brady thanked his family for their support in the campaign.
He said that, during his phone conversation with Quinn, the governor invited him to have lunch at Manny’s Deli in the South Loop — an invitation Brady said he’d accept, though no time had been set yet.
“Gov. Quinn invited me to Manny’s,” Brady said, adding, to laughs, “He didn’t say if he was going to buy or not.”
Asked for his analysis of how Quinn eked out an approximately 19,000-vote win, Brady said: “We laid out a strategy. We carried that strategy out. We’re proud of what we did. At the end of the day, we’ll leave it up to the pundits to decide.
Despite his conciliatory tone, Brady continued to stay true to his central campaign message against raising the state’s income tax, as Quinn has proposed to do to help close a budget deficit that could reach $15 billion.
“I’m committed and continue to believe that we can’t raise taxes on the backs of hard-working families, that we have to cut spending and live within our means, balance the budget, and I’m committed to working with Gov. Quinn’s administration to seeing that that is done,” Brady said.
Asked whether this would be the last time he’d run for governor, Brady and his wife responded at the same time, with differing answers, drawing laughs.
“Life’s too short to rule anything out,” Brady said.
At about the same time, his wife answered, “We’re not going to answer that question right now.”
