In the most-watched primary in LGBT Chicago, 14th Dist. State Rep. Kelly Cassidy has defeated challenger Paula Basta.
The two have been engaged in tight battle for the seat that Cassidy was appointed to last Spring, a race that offered an unprecedented choice between two longtime lesbian advocates and divided LGBT political activists.
Cassidy pulled in 62 percent of the vote Tuesday, with Basta trailing. With 100 percent of the votes in, Cassidy had 5,840 to Basta's 3,561 ( 62.16% to 37.84% ) . There is no candidate on the Republican side in the race.
On Tuesday night, Cassidy stood with her three sons at St. Andrew's Inn in Edgewater.
"I am so thankful for everyone here tonight," said Cassidy, who thanked a number of politicians and friends by name before sending her sons home to bed.
Basta held her campaign party at The Call bar in Andersonville and could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tensions between the two campaigns, which largely remained positive in public, have ripened in recent weeks. Basta's campaign had billed her as the "independent" candidate, and her supporters have suggested that Cassidy's support from Democratic insiders and appointment last year had locked her into machine politics. Cassidy has rejected that characterization.
Basta and Cassidy made the same campaign stop Tuesday at Nicholas Senn High School Tuesday evening. Just a handful of voters stopped in to vote after 5:00 p.m., a time when polls typically see an influx of voters getting off work. At Senn, campaign representatives largely outnumbered poll-goers. One campaign worker noted that in his 12 hours at Senn, he had seen less than 200 voters. Basta and Cassidy stood across the same sidewalk for several minutes, each competing for an occasional handshake.
Carol Ronen, 48th Ward Democratic committeewoman and former state Senator, addressed suggestions that Cassidy was an insider on Tuesday night, stating that regardless of her appointment last year by Ronen's party, voters had spoken in favor of Cassidy.
"Today makes clear…that Kelly is the elected state rep," Ronen said.
