Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (D-IL) addresses voters during a campaign stop at a downtown hotel on February 1, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois. Quinn, the former Illinois Lt. Governor, was appointed governor last year after Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL) was impeached and removed from office. Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP

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Sitting governor Pat Quinn secured the Democratic Party nomination after his narrow lead in Tuesday's primary swelled to 8,100 ballots, and his rival, state controller Dan Hynes, issued an emotional concession.

Hynes threw his support behind Quinn -- who became governor after the impeachment of his disgraced predecessor Rod Blagojevich -- in the name of party unity after a divisive challenge which had included allegations of race-baiting.

Democratic hopes of unification after the divisive primary were weakened, however, when the voters' surprise pick for the post of lieutenant governor refused to heed calls to stand down for the good of the party.

Chicago pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen spent more than two million dollars of his own money on a campaign that beat out five other Democratic candidates in the little-watched primary race.

His shock win made headlines Thursday because Cohen was arrested several years ago for allegedly holding a knife to his ex-girlfriend's throat.

The Chicago-Sun Times reported that Cohen's then-live-in girlfriend was convicted of prostitution a day before charges were dropped after she failed to show up for court in Cohen's domestic battery case.

Republicans who otherwise could have taken advantage of the disarray were Thursday still awaiting the results of provisional and absentee ballots to see who would top their party's ticket after a seven-way race left the top two candidates only 406 votes apart.

Further muddying the waters ahead of the November primary is the affair of disgraced former Democratic governor Blagojevich, ousted from office last year after his 2008 arrest on corruption charges.

Among the charges against him was allegedly trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Republicans are hopeful they can regain the office they dominated for 30 years before Blagojevich's 2002 election, which came on the heels of another corruption scandal that landed his Republican predecessor in prison.

Blagojevich was indicted on eight new corruption charges Thursday which include bribery, extortion and racketeering.

The ex-governor's trial is expected to begin this summer in a circus show that will provide Republicans with ample fodder for negative campaign ads just months before the key mid-term elections.

str-mso/jkb

© 1994-2009 Agence France-Presse

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