Quinn says running mate should consider withdrawingGov. Pat Quinn today said his new running mate, a Chicago pawnbroker with a 2005 domestic battery arrest, should consider withdrawing from the race because his background could hurt the Democratic ticket in the November general election.
Quinn stopped short of saying Scott Lee Cohen should abandon the nomination he won in Tuesday's primary. But he said Cohen "has an obligation to step aside" if his past becomes a problem.
"I always appeal to others in politics based on what's good for the people," Quinn said.
Quinn was faced with the new crisis even as his rival, Dan Hynes, announced he was conceding the Democratic primary nomination for governor.
Cohen, a pawnbroker who was the surprise winner in the little-publicized contest among half a dozen candidates, had previously disclosed his 2005 arrest. He described it Wednesday as an argument with his drunken girlfriend and said he didn’t lay a hand on her, though she called the police and had him taken into custody.
But the official police and court records show that the woman alleged Cohen put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against the wall.
In their October 14 arrest report detailing the complaint from the 24-year-old woman, Chicago police noted they observed “mild abrasions from knife wound†on her neck. They also noted “minor scars on her hand from her trying to defend herself against the arrestee swinging the knife at her.†The report notes the woman was seen by ambulance personnel but not taken to a hospital.
The case was dropped a month later when the woman did not show up for a court date.
Cohen won in large part because his self-financed campaign ran TV commercials late in the race showing him running job fairs to help the unemployed. He only garnered 212,900 votes but it helped him defeat opponents, including state Rep. Art Turner and state Sen. Terry Link.
A little more than a year after former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s removal, the state’s Democratic powerbrokers focused much of their time, energy and money on the top tier race of governor, leaving the less-known lieutenant governor’s race to go well under the radar.
The lack of a Democratic cohesive strategy leaves the party unclear of its options for the general election.
It also adds yet another punchline on Illinois politics, which has been the focus of national jokes and derision since Blagojevich’s high-profile arrest, impeachment and indictment.
In conceding the race this morning to Quinn, Hynes was asked how he’d feel if he had won and been paired with Cohen.
“The first I learned of any of this was when I read the paper this morning,†Hynes said. “But we’re going to let that sort itself out, and figure out, you know, with more information. I think that some decisions will be made. But I’m not in a position to make those decisions, given the fact that I just learned about it this morning.â€
