There is still no clear favorite for the Republican primary for Illinois governor in southern Illinois, according to a new poll.

The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute released a poll Monday showing a majority of likely Republican primary voters at 34.6 percent are undecided. Of the candidates, Chicago billionaire Bruce Rauner led the nominees with 32.5 percent.

2010 Republican candidate for governor Bill Brady led the rest of the nominees with more than 12 percent. State Senator Kirk Dillard finished with around 11 percent with State Treasurer Dan Rutherford just below 10 percent.

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Director of the Paul Simon Institute David Yepsen said while Rauner held a significant lead among the candidates with southern Illinois voters, the numbers may tell a different story.

“He’s got about 32.5 percent of the vote, about a third,” he said. “That means two-thirds of the likely voters are somewhere else, either for other candidates or undecided.”

Yepsen said Rauner’s lead was likely because of the significant amount of money he has spent on advertising. Rauner’s out-of-pocket total is $6 million, a record for an Illinois governor race.

However, Yepsen said the significant number of undecided voters — more than 34 percent —could swing the vote a number of ways by the March 18 primary.

“With two weeks left to go, there’s still a lot of softness in the Republican primary electorate,” he said. “It’s too early to say this race is over with that many undecideds.”

All candidates except Rutherford held slight leads over Gov. Pat Quinn, but all were within the margin of error of 5.7 percent. Yepsen said this is both good and bad news for the current governor.

“On the one hand, Pat Quinn is in trouble,” he said. “He’s got republicans very competitive with him. On the other hand, he’s hanging in there and he’s not blown out of the water against any of the four of them.”

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