Rep. Slone finally gave up the ghost this week (via PeoriaPundit):

State Rep. Ricca Slone is giving up the fight for her 92nd District House seat after a two-day recount failed to turn up any major problems in the city or county election outfits, she said Thursday.

Slone, who lost her seat to Republican Aaron Schock by 235 votes, said “no, of course not” about whether she would ask a judge to order a full recount.

Schock will be sworn in Jan. 12; he said he’s looking forward to putting his legislative office together after the backlash of a contentious campaign that lasted more than a month after Election Day. […]

Mary Harkrader, the former Peoria County clerk who represented Slone, said the only things the group found during the county recount were a handful of ballots that had not been initialed and a few ballot applications that were unsigned by the voters. Those problems were few and sporadic, she said. […]

As for Slone, she is looking for employment and beginning to close down her Peoria office. Though she still is technically the area representative, she advised constituents with problems of any magnitude to call Schock’s office.

Schock doesn’t technically have a legislative office yet, and his soon-to-be hired assistant is sharing Rep. David Leitch’s office. The representative-elect said he would do what he can to help in the interim.

Schock is now in for the ride of his life. The House Democrats will go all out to beat him in two years, and that means running bills at him in the interim that will be tough for him to vote for or against.

For instance, a bill to give unemployment insurance to locked out workers would be greatly opposed by Peoria gargantuan Caterpillar, but 100 percent supported by the by Peoria’s unions, particularly the very strong United Auto Workers.