A full month after votes were cast in a primary, the race for governor was at last set here Friday. The campaign will pit a conservative downstate Republican lawmaker against the sitting Democratic governor, who must overcome a dire state budget gap as well as memories of the ousted Democratic governor, Rod R. Blagojevich. Bill Brady, a state senator, was formally declared the winner of the Republican nomination for governor on Friday, by only 193 votes. That slim margin -- in a universe of more than 767,000 votes cast in the Feb. 2 race -- had led some Republicans to fear that a costly, damaging recount battle might ensue. But after state elections officials announced their final count, Kirk Dillard, another state senator and Brady's nearest competitor, conceded defeat. Political experts here say Dillard, who comes from Chicago's suburbs, might have been seen as a more formidable opponent for Gov. Patrick J. Quinn, the Democratic former lieutenant governor who was elevated when Blagojevich was ousted and indicted on corruption charges last year, and who narrowly won the Democratic nomination in February. Brady, who comes from downstate Bloomington and whose name is less known in the Chicago area, is seen as carrying appeal for conservatives on matters like abortion and gay rights in a state that, in years past, has tended to elect moderate Republicans as governors. 'This may have been the more desirable outcome for Pat Quinn,' said Kent Redfield, a political scientist from the University of Illinois, Springfield. But Republican Party leaders say voters are far more focused on the dismal economy and the failings of the Democratic Party, which controls all offices elected statewide in Illinois and both chambers of the state Legislature, than on traditional social issues. 'The social issues of today are 'My neighbor lost her job,'' said Pat Brady, the state's Republican chairman, who is not related to the nominee. 'There are no family values if you don't have a job. As I travel the state, that's all anybody cares about. Pat Quinn is going to have a big hill to climb.' Quinn, who built his reputation in Illinois as a consumer advocate and something of an outsider in a world of political insiders, won the primary by fewer than 8,400 votes, narrowly beating the state comptroller in a race that turned notably harsh and personal. He faces new challenges in the general election: trying to push through a tax increase to solve the state's estimated $13 billion budget deficit in an election year while also holding on to his image as a reformer while Blagojevich's federal trial begins this summer. 