Reply #15: Ditka is a household name

[sandraj]

in and around Chicago and has some "local celebrity" power going for him. But I don't see him as a serious contender. Downstate, and up near the Wisconsin border, people are either St. Louis fans or Milwaukee fans. I'm not sure he'd get all that much support outside of the Chicago area.

Obama has a good support base in Chicago, including affluent suburbs where people typically are conservative and vote Republican. Many downstate democrats favored Dan Hynes over Obama back in March, but I doubt that would hurt his chances against Ditka.

For reference, here's a story about the March vote...

http://www.illinoistimes.com/gbase/Gyrosite/Content?oid=oid%3A3000

In an astonishing landslide victory, state Sen. Barack Obama, D-Chicago, garnered some 54 percent of the statewide vote to win the nomination. While Obama edged out party favorite Hynes by just 200 votes to win Sangamon County, his overwhelming support in Chicago made the downstate vote almost irrelevant.

"I was shocked that Obama won as handedly as he did," Timoney admitted the next morning. "Chicago and Cook County won it for him. It would have been impossible for anyone to overcome his numbers out of Chicago."