Illinois Republicans say they had a great year at the polls despite state Sen. Bill Brady’s loss to Governor Pat Quinn. But some in the GOP say the party would’ve done better if Brady was not the nominee.

State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan is a moderate Republican from Des Plaines. She praised Brady’s campaign, but said if state Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) had won the party’s primary for governor instead of Brady, Dillard “would’ve kicked [Pat Quinn’s] butt.” Mulligan says Dillard would’ve won more votes in the suburbs than Brady did.

Her comments didn’t sit well with Illinois Republican Party chair, Pat Brady.

“That’s wholly unfair to Bill Brady, who won the primary, ran a very hard-fought campaign, almost won in a…true-blue Democrat state where the president actually came in to campaign against him,” said Pat Brady, who is not related to Bill Brady.

For his part, Dillard said he thinks he would’ve beaten Quinn if he’d been the nominee. But he said he’ll “leave the Monday morning quarterbacking to someone else.” Dillard says Brady “ran a good, hard” campaign, and says the Brady family “put everything into the race that they could.”