Independent weighs in about impact on race
Updated: November 9, 2012
CHAMPAIGN -- Two days after the election, the battle between David Gill and Rodney Davis is still going strong. The Gill camp is adding up results from each county in the 13th Congressional District while Davis plans to fly to Washington.
Gill is determined to make sure there are no irregularities in Tuesday's election. He lost by a 1,000 votes, votes which may have gone to independent John Hartman.
In the bitter battle to be Congressman for the 13th District, Independant John Hartman seemed to get overshadowed. However, he says negative ads by David Gill and Rodney Davis actually made him stand out.
"I think the way David and Rodney went about this campaign, they both would tell you they wished it would have been better or more civil. There wouldn't have been such a rejection from voters," says Hartman.
Hartman got more than 17,000 votes, that's around 7%. A big chunk for someone who had one commercial and says he only took money from small donors from within the district.
"The big outside money game spoils equality in democracy," says Hartman.
However, some Gill supporters blame Hartman for spoiling the win for their man.
"I got an email from a guy. He says, 'you really screwed it up because you took so many votes away from David Gill. We have a person that won't do anything about climate change,'" says Hartman.
Hartman's looked at the numbers and doesn't think his voters would have changed the outcome.
"If you look at all of the other counties, it's clear I took many more votes from Rodney than I did from David. If I weren't in this, Davis would have won by a much larger margin," says Hartman.
Hartman says he would have to think about whether to run again, and that right now he's going back to work.
Gill is determined to make sure there are no irregularities in Tuesday's election. He lost by a 1,000 votes, votes which may have gone to independent John Hartman.
In the bitter battle to be Congressman for the 13th District, Independant John Hartman seemed to get overshadowed. However, he says negative ads by David Gill and Rodney Davis actually made him stand out.
"I think the way David and Rodney went about this campaign, they both would tell you they wished it would have been better or more civil. There wouldn't have been such a rejection from voters," says Hartman.
Hartman got more than 17,000 votes, that's around 7%. A big chunk for someone who had one commercial and says he only took money from small donors from within the district.
"The big outside money game spoils equality in democracy," says Hartman.
However, some Gill supporters blame Hartman for spoiling the win for their man.
"I got an email from a guy. He says, 'you really screwed it up because you took so many votes away from David Gill. We have a person that won't do anything about climate change,'" says Hartman.
Hartman's looked at the numbers and doesn't think his voters would have changed the outcome.
"If you look at all of the other counties, it's clear I took many more votes from Rodney than I did from David. If I weren't in this, Davis would have won by a much larger margin," says Hartman.
Hartman says he would have to think about whether to run again, and that right now he's going back to work.
