Illinois Democrats relieved as Cohen bows out

Governor Pat Quinn has the rare opportunity to help choose his running mate, but he refused to say yesterday who was on his short list of potential partners.

The politicking has begun in earnest, though, among would-be contenders for the state’s No. 2 job. The spot opened up when Scott Lee Cohen said Sunday he would leave the ticket over fears that he could cost Democrats the governor’s race.

Nominees for governor and lieutenant governor are chosen separately in the primary but are linked together on the November ballot.

It became widely known after Cohne’s Feb. 2 primary victory that he had been accused of abusing his former wife and holding a knife to the throat of a former girlfriend, who had been charged with prostitution.