Illinois 2010 Elections: Democrat Ed Scanlan Leads Illinois Governor Race for Web Site “Eye Balls”; Kirk Dillard Web Visitors Soar 500%, New Survey Says

(Chicago, IL) — November 5, 2009. Illinois 2010 Democratic governor candidate Ed Scanlan of Oak Park is currently leading all Illinois 2010 Republican and Democratic and Green governor candidates in the Web “eyeballs” race, according to a new survey of candidate Web sites.

Utilizing Alexa Internet’s Web traffic monitoring tool, THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER submitted the Web sites of all candidates who filed petitions to run in the Illinois 2010 primary for governor to a traffic estimate survey on November 4, 2009.

The traffic estimate revealed that Scanlan’s Web site traffic ranks highest of any candidate at 912,7720, with the number “1″ rank–currently occupied by Google–being the highest possible rank on the Web. Dan Proft (R-Chicago) ranked second, followed closely Adam Andrzejewski (R-Hinsdale) in third place. Jim Ryan (R-Elmhurst) ranked the lowest. Ryan, however, entered the race on Monday.

Kirk Dillard‘s Web site traffic grew the most of any candidate over the last 90 days–jumping 7,560,451 places in its global Internet rank and its site visitors zoomed up by 500%.

Governor Pat Quinn and Rich Whitney were the only candidates whose Web sites lost ground over the last 90 days, Quinn’s dropping an estimated 208,604 places in the global rankings. Quinn’s campaign recently announced that it had revamped the Governor’s site.

The Alexa survey data–which can fluctuate on a daily basis–identified the following metrics:

1. Current global Internet rank–with “1″ as the highest possible rank on the Web.
2. Change in global Internet rank–the number of “places” over the last 90 days.
3. Current U.S. rank.
4. % of global Internet visitors who visited the site change over the last 90 days.

(Note: Some data metrics were Not Available for each Web site)

1. Ed Scanlan (D-Oak Park): 1. 912,720–Global 2. N/A 3. 81,949–U.S Rank. 4. N/A
2. Dan Proft (R-Chicago): 1. 1,466,077–Global  2. Up 3,461,834–Places  3. 241,975–U.S. Rank  4.+430%–Visitors
3. Adam Andrzejewski (R-Hinsdale): 1. 1,687,930–Global  2. Up 796,432–Places  3. 299,253–U.S. Rank  4. +70%–Visitors
4. Dan Hynes (D-Chicago): 1. 2,231,962–Global  2. N/A  3. 313,621–U.S. Rank  4. N/A
5. Bill “Dock” Walls (D-Chicago): 1. 2,449,693–Global Rank  2. Up 206,137–Places  3. N/A   4. -2% Visitors
6. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale): 1. 3,787,514–Global Rank  2. Up 7,560,451–Places  3. N/A   4. +500%–Visitors
7. Bob Schillerstrom (R-Naperville): 1. 4,247,191–Global Rank  2. Up 3,271,300–Places  3. N/A  4. +130%–Visitors
8. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington): 1. 4,343,083–Global Rank.  2. Up 6,969,144–Places  3. N/A  4. +300%–Visitors
9. Pat Quinn (D-Chicago): 1. 4,758,017–Global Rank  2. Down 208,604–Places  3. 635,200–U.S. Rank  4. +20%–Visitors
10. Andy McKenna (R-Chicago): 1. 6,506,490–Global Rank 2. N/A  3. N/A  4. N/A
11. Rich Whitney (G-Carbondale):  1. 18,151,610–Global Rank  2. Down 8,936,308–Places.  3. N/A  4. -60%–Visitors
12. Jim Ryan (R-Elmhurst): 1. 18,833,816–Global Rank  2. N/A  3. N/A  4. N/A
13. Richard Mayers (G-Chicago): No Web Site Found

To put these candidate Web site rankings in context, consider the Alexa global and U.S. ranks of various news media and blog Web sites:

• The Huffington Post–254–Global; 49–U.S.
• Chicago Tribune–1,059–Global; 268–U.S.
• Chicago Sun-Times–2,194–Global; 575–U.S.
• Springfield State Journal-Register–48,924–Global; 9,947–U.S.
• WGN Radio–163,308–Global; 40,032–U.S.
• Capitol Fax Blog–247,452–Global; 59,024–U.S.
• Illinois Review–294,850–Global; 98,876–U.S.
• THE iLLINOIS OBSERVER–775,747–Global; 108,481–U.S.

*It is important to note that the Alexa data is only an estimate based on randam sampling of Internet user traffic. The Alexa Web site monitoring functions similar to a standard poll of a sampled of voters in which a margin of error exists in the estimates.