Pat Quinn is a proud man. Even after the media declared Republican Bruce Rauner the new governor of Illinois, the incumbent Democrat refused to concede.
"I don't believe in throwing in the towel if that many votes are being counted," he remarked Tuesday night, vowing to hold off on preemptive towel-throwing until each vote was tallied.
Shortly after Quinn's non-concession speech around 11 p.m., a triumphant Rauner addressed supporters to celebrate a projected victory that had him leading Quinn by five percent points, 51-46 percent.
As the Sun-Times reminds, this isn't the first time Quinn has denied defeat. Back in 1998, when he ran for lieutenant governor, it took the Chicago native five whole weeks to accept the result that voters had chosen competitor Mary Lou Kearns in the Democratic primary that year.
"He finally did concede, and endorsed Kearns, who went on to lose the general election with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Glenn Poshard," writes Scott Fornek. "They were beaten by Republican George Ryan. But even when he conceded five weeks after the polls closed, Quinn warned voters not to write him off."
"I'm not signing my politicial epitaph here," he said at the time. "As long as Pat Quinn's around and the water flows and the grass grows, I'll be organizing for some kind of public interest cause."
Something says we haven't heard the last of Pat Quinn the Politician. In the meantime, this Last Crusade scene seems appropriate:
