I tend to disagree. The Republican wave was strong enough that it wasn't necessary to have an extreme conservative to get people to the polls.
And Brady lost because a small percentage of people (such as me) voted for Kirk but couldn't vote against Quinn. Quinn's percentage wasn't really any more or less than Giannoulias got.....Republican votes in the Chicago suburbs, though, went to third parties in the gubernatorial race. I think almost any "normal" Republican candidate could have kept that from happening.
We're not talking about more than 1-2% or so....but considering Quinn's actual margin of victory, I think Quinn would have lost to almost any other Republican.
