Parallel worlds: GOP gubernatorial primary and Dem Cook presidential primary

Welcome to wide-open primary-land.

In an odd mirror image, candidates are starting to pop now (which is early) in both the Democratic and Republican primaries -- but it is the statewide race on the GOP side and the Cook County Board presidential race on the Democratic side.

In Republican-land, Mr. Gidwitz is about to start running television advertisements and Senator Bill Brady of Bloomington is going to announce his campaign in the next few weeks (thanks to Rich Miller's blog for this scoop). Meanwhile, everyone waits to see if old veteran Jim Edgar will run for governor again.

In Democratic-land, Mike Quigley has already announced and Forrest Claypool is likely to announce before Labor Day (give or take a couple of weeks). Meanwhile, everyone waits to see if old veteran John Stroger will run for the presidency again.

(Now that's the first time Jim Edgar and John Stroger were ever put in the same sentence, much less paired up in a political analogy.)

These primaries are wide-open and it is extremely unlikely that the winner of either race will earn a majority of the vote. Already people are muttering how unfortunate it is that *this* guy is running, since all that will do is make it less likely that *that* guy will win the race, and sadly allow that other guy to win it.

That's why we should hold a runoff election. Or hold an instant runoff election, like the Irish do. So we can have lots of candidates running but still have the candidate with the broadest support earn a majority of the vote and the seat.