By Steve Rhodes
From Primary 2014 Notebook 2: Reporting Rauner:
“First-time candidate Bruce Rauner eked out a surprisingly narrow victory over state Sen. Kirk Dillard for the Republican governor nomination in Tuesday’s primary as Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn launched an early TV attack ad against his wealthy challenger,” the Tribune reports.
Surprising only to those who believed the polls. For example, the Beachwood Bookmaking Bureau never wavered from placing Dillard atop the leader board – though we certainly should have downgraded the sliding Bill Brady had we updated the board since its last, Feb. 28 posting.
In fact, one has to wonder how much the polls showing Rauner with a 20-point lead affected the race. Were potential Dillard voters discouraged? Were wavering voters persuaded to “go with the winner?” What about the impact of the cynical punditry that kept insisting the election was a lock? And what about the overall media performance that delivered Rauner gobs of attention – not all of it positive, to be sure – while the other campaigns were left begging?
As I’ve said before, Rauner’s money didn’t just buy saturating advertising, but saturating reporting. And yet, we’re left with a candidate who was allowed to dodge just about every issue and outright dodge reporters – even on Election Night.
When the pundits do their analyses of what happened and why, I’m sure they’ll leave themselves out of the equation. But we all know media coverage impacts campaigns. If it doesn’t, why bother?
Click through for the rest.
Note: Primary analysis will continue through the week.
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Here’s The Emotions!
Beautiful colors shining through.
Smoking Stinks
Also, bark if you like meat.
Cubs Still A Very Bad Bet
Don’t be fooled by inflated lines.
Louder Than A Bomb 2014
The city’s most eloquent voices.
Housewares Highlights
Gizmos and gadgets.
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BeachBook
* Pro-Vaxxers Troll Jenny McCarthy’s Twitter Feed For Five Days And Counting.
* Lorde Live-Tweeting A Bulls Game Is Pretty Weird.
* Undocumented Immigrant Who Hid In Chicago Church Re-Enters U.S.
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TweetWood
It was a busy night, so I won’t produce any highlights here – just check out the feed for yourself.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Run your mouth.
Posted on March 19, 2014