Illinois heads for the polls Tuesday to close one of the most unpredictable election seasons ever.
The only certainty is that neither of the top two offices — governor or U.S. Senate — will be won by anyone who has previously won either post. There is no elected incumbent on the ballot.
That unusual twist comes as the result of two national political stories in the last two years that had Illinois at their epicenters: the rise of Barack Obama, and the fall of Rod Blagojevich.
"It's a very unusual (governor's) race because you have two candidates who weren't supposed to be there," said Kent Redfield, political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Redfield's comments were featured in an October 31, 2010, article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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