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  WINDY CITY TIMES

Few surprises dot Illinois primary elections
News analysis by Andrew Davis and Matt Simonette
2014-03-19

This article shared 6350 times since Wed Mar 19, 2014
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Not too many surprises were expected during the Illinois primary elections March 18—and the results mostly went along those lines.

One unexpected result was in the Republican gubernatorial race, where millionaire business Bruce Rauner edged Kirk Dillard. Rauner was expected to win, but the final gap was probably narrower than he wanted, as he garnered 41 percent of the vote to Dillard's 37 percent. Bill Brady, who almost defeated Democratic incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn four years ago, mustered 15 percent of the vote, while Dan Rutherford—whose campaign went into free fall after a male employee accused him of sexual harassment—took 7 percent.

Quinn, who easily defeated challenger Tio Hardiman, already had an anti-Rauner ad ready to air on television March 19, WGN-TV reported.

In the race for state treasurer, Republican state Rep. Tom Cross ( who voted for the marriage-equality bill ) defeated DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan 57 percent to 43 percent. Cross will now go up against Democrat Mike Frerichs in November.

In the U.S. Senate race, the GOP primary also featured a surprisingly close race, as Jim Oberweis defeated Doug Truax 55 percent to 45 percent. Oberweis was criticized for recently taking a trip to Florida, which had some speculating that he was overconfident about how the race would end. Oberweis' win makes for an intriguing November general-election match-up with incumbent U.S. Dick Durbin.

Regarding the U.S. House, 4th District race, Democratic incumbent Luis Gutierrez easily won his contest, defeating Alexandra Eidenberg and openly gay opponent Jorge Zavala. The U.S. House, 9th District, appeared to have an intriguing twist as Susanne Atanus—a Republican who recently told Windy City Times that she blames gays and abortionists for the polar weather Chicagoans have endured—edged David Earl Williams III to set up a November showdown with Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Jan Schakowsky.

The Cook County commissioners' races ran pretty much according to form, as incumbents easily won most of their races. An exception was the 1st District race that featured five candidates. With 211 of 235 precincts reporting, Richard Boykin led with 30 percent of the vote. Also, incumbent Eddie Reyes lost the 8th District race to Luis Arroyo Jr. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart easily defeated three challengers, garnering 70 percent of the ballots cast.

November's general election promises to bring more intriguing contests than this month's primary election, including a race for state comptroller between Republican incumbent Judy Baar Topinka and current Democratic Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon—two individuals with LGBT backing.

Voter turnout was again notoriously low. For example, in Elk Grove Township, it was 3.75 percent; in Barrington Township, it was 1.48 percent, according to the Cook County clerk's website.

General Assembly races

Illinois marriage equality activists worked diligently through the winter to support legislators who in 2013 cast votes in favor of gay marriage. Eight legislators—seven in the House, one in the Senate—faced primary challenges, but not always for reasons that had to do with the marriage vote. As of press time, six of those legislators were certain to stay in office; one was defeated while one race had not yet been called.

—Christian Mitchell, 26th House District, Win: Mitchell narrowly won against community organizer Jhatayn "Jay" Travis. Mitchell, at 26, is currently the House's youngest member and was a co-sponsor of the marriage equality bill. He is a protege of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. He had a difficult election, however, when Travis lined up support from several unions, among them Chicago Teachers Union and AFSCME District 31.

—Thaddeus Jones, 29th House District, Win: Jones, of Calumet City, defeated Kenneth "Kenny" Williams of South Holland, formerly the president of the Thornton Township High School District 205 School Board. Jones was an early supporter of SB10 and reportedly outspent Williams significantly, but multiple sources said organizers were worried that many of the church communities in the district might have resented the marriage vote.

—Toni Berrios, 39th House District, Loss: One of the most tumultuous races in this primary saw the defeat of longtime incumbent Toni Berrios, who is daughter of Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and who has strong connections to the Chicago "machine." Berrios lost by about 475 votes to Will Guzzardi, a writer and activist who narrowly lost to Berrios in the last election. Guzzardi ( an LGBT ally who is a former Windy City Times 30 Under 30 honoree ) depicted himself as a more progressive and less-entrenched alternative to Berrios.

—Jaime Andrade, 40th House District, Win: Andrade, formerly an assistant to Ald. Dick Mell and sergeant at arms to the Chicago City Council, will retain the post that he took over when Mell's daughter Deb took over her father's job. Andrade, who captured 51 percent of the vote, faced a number of challengers: lawyer Aaron Goldstein, activist Wendy Jo Harmston, engineer Mark Pasieka and lawyer Nancy Schiavone. Melanie "Mel" Ferrand, who is lesbian, tried to run but was disqualified because of a filing error.

—Ed Sullivan Jr., 51st District, Win: Sullivan, a Republican, announced his support for SB10 last April, explaining that his mother-in-law was a lesbian and that he was prepared to defend his decision on SB10. He defeated Bob Bednar, treasurer of the Lake County Republican Party.

—Kathleen Willis, 77th District, Win: Incumbent Kathleen Willis defeated Antonio "Tony" Favela, a recent law school graduate. Willis, formerly a librarian admitted close ties with House Speaker Michael Madigan, but maintained that she exerted control over her own voting record. "I'm not going to deny that I have the support of the Illinois Democrats, but they don't control me," she told Daily Herald in February.

—Ron Sandack, 81st District, Win( ning ): Republican incumbent Ron Sandack's run against Downers Grove school teacher Keith Matune was extremely close as of publication time, with Sandack having captured 50.1 percent of the vote to Matune's 49.9 percent. Sandack voted "yes" to SB10 after voting against civil unions, but said he changed his mind since gay marriage "promotes conservative values." During the campaign, Matune's supporters released flyers decrying the vote that attempted to depict Sandack as a radical.

—Don Harmon, 39th state Senate District, Win: Harmon defeated attorney Bob Galhotra, who criticized Harmon's close ties to the Democratic Party, easily topping him 82 percent to 18 percent. Harmon co-sponsored SB10 in the state senate and is a top lieutenant to Senate President John Cullerton.

—In a GOP primary for state rep ( 48th District ), Peter Breen—a vice president and senior counsel of the Thomas More Society who spoke out against the marriage-equality bill—defeated Sandra Pihos, and now moves on to the General Assembly, barring a last-minute entry by someone from another party. Breen handled litigation when the Thomas More Society represented county clerks opposed to gay marriage in a lawsuit originally brought against Cook County Clerk David Orr, who refused to fight the suit.

Gay candidates

Only six candidates in the March 18 primaries were openly gay. Two of those candidates—state Reps. Kelly Cassidy and Sam Yingling—ran unopposed but will face Republican challengers in November. State Rep. Greg Harris was unopposed in the primaries and does not have a challenger in the general election.

Two openly gay candidates were running for judgeships. Judy Rice won, landing 53.61 percent of the vote for the 7th judicial subcircuit. James Crawley captured only 24.05 percent of the vote and lost to Andrea Michele Buford.

Meanwhile, Jorge Zavala Jr., a 26-year-old graduate student at DePaul University, captured only 583 votes in his attempt to win the seat of 4th District U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez. Zavala, with 8.43 percent of the vote, fell behind Gutierrez, with 72.96 percent, and another opponent, Alexandra Eidenberg, with 18.61 percent.


This article shared 6350 times since Wed Mar 19, 2014
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