GOP in a numbers bind

Dear Frantic, first you must know that Swami has no real interest in who wins, beyond the preference it not be a real stupid person. That’s harder to achieve than it looks.

But, yes, there are some things to take away from Lake County’s vote.

First, if there were any missing evidence that Lake County is turning much more toward the Democratic Party, consider that Barack Obama got more Lake County votes in the primary (57,631) than ENTIRE Republican field. Sen. John McCain led the county for the GOP with 27,623.

Not only did Obama’s presence on the card trump all Rupublicans, but Hillary Clinton got more votes in finishing second than did the Republican winner. She got 7,000 more than McCain.

Illinois seemingly has gone whole-hog Democrat, and Lake County is follopwing the trend.

In the Senate race, the unchallenged Democrat incumbent Dick Durbin polled 79,807 and a group of nondescript Republicans barely produced half that many.

Though the congressional districts are divided across county lines, the Republican Party almost seemed to be a no show. Incumbent Mark Kirk got just less than 18,000 votes in the county while Dan Seals and Jay Footlik had 42,000-plus.

Overall, Seals for 73,000-plus in the district (with mild opposition) and Kirk lured 43,000 voters with no opposition.

Some of this disparity can be laid to the attractive of Obama and Clinton going head to head which brought out more Dems.. In some uncontested races, there was no reason for Republicans to come out and vote.

But still, the equations in the primary would have to change fundamentally for the GOP to prevail in the fall.

The Democrats still will be motivated to vote in November. But will the Republicans be more enthusiastic?