Every night before an election day, I spend four or five hours on the phone with people I trust asking what they think will happen.

There are always a couple of races that will have them stumped, but I've never seen everybody perplexed about so many outcomes until the night before last week's election.

Take, for instance, the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

The Free & Equal Elections Foundation hosted an Illinois gubernatorial debate on Wednesday, January 27, at the University of Chicago. Seven candidates participated: Republicans Adam Andrzejewski and Dan Proft, Green Party candidate Richard Whitney, Libertarian Lex Green, Constitution Party nominee Randall Stufflebeam, independent Dock Walls, and independent Michael White.

Video from the debate is presented in two parts below.

The organization supports increasing ballot access and pledges to "challenge state ballot-access laws through legal challenges, lobbying of state legislators, petitioning, recall, initiative, and referendum efforts." It also says that "all ballot-qualified candidates should have the opportunity to participate in debates." Its Web site is FreeAndEqual.org.

Part 1

Part 2

"The Governor, at the beginning of each annual session of the General Assembly and at the close of his term of office, shall report to the General Assembly on the condition of the State and recommend such measures as he deems desirable." - Illinois Constitution

I don't know if Governor Pat Quinn glanced at the state Constitution before he jotted down his notes, but the rambled, jumbled, disjointed mess he delivered off the cuff last week was not a State of the State address.

According to two recent polls taken by Rasmussen Reports and one by the Chicago Tribune, Governor Pat Quinn has a detectable and significant problem with women voters, but a new development in the campaign might help the governor overcome this gender gap.

Rasmussen recently matched Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Jim Ryan against Democrats Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes. Ryan outpolled Quinn by seven points (46-39), but the former Republican attorney general trailed Hynes by two points (40-42).

What's going on? Well, the poll's internals show a stark difference among women voters. Ryan leads Quinn 45-36 among women, but Hynes reverses the result and leads Ryan 42-32 with women. That's a huge difference, but it seems to hold up when compared to other recent polling.