34 Comments - Grandson of Man - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:28 am: Great to see that turnout in Chicago and Cook County led the state. That kind of turnout puts a lot of votes on the board for Democrats. We don’t love Trump and Rauner around these parts, that’s for sure. - RNUG - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:33 am: GOP: Houston, we have a problem … - JakeCP - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:36 am: It is great to see voter turnout so high. It was especially pleasing to see many millennial voters come to the polls. I hope that this type of excitement will roll over to the upcoming Municipal Election. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:38 am: Rich- have you ever talked to Helland? It shouldn’t really be surprising if you have. - Rich Miller - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:41 am: ===have you ever talked to Helland?=== Nope. But he seems like such a pleasant fellow. /s - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:41 am: Trump will not help in 2020, it would be remiss to ignore that factor. Outside the national feeling, the state GOP is lacking vision, desire, and a true want to do the needed needlework to hem in conservatives and moderates, and growing a tent where the patchwork of people reflects society. Republicans are lost as we look inward for answers, all the while that inward contraction is what is causing our own demise. The grifters feeding themselves look at these numbers and are not angered, they too see opportunities. These opportunities are those of purity and divisiveness, with no worry to govern as they preach, to lead as they splinter. I do not envy those willing to take on this task. The willing, the heartfelt willing to move beyond the party’s problems, they’ll find out that winning isn’t the end gane, but controlling the small pieces of power is the daily struggle. These numbers are the broken ILGOP. Rebuilding means growing beyond comfort zones with the goal of the responsibility of leading the governing. Right now, the voters are content to leave the petty infighters on the sidelines. How this will begin, I’ll be watching like most, but watching to see if it will be an embrace to welcome, or a door shutting to the possible. - Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:42 am: Oh, you are not “belaboring” the point. That is Benigno sending a message to Helland, and the Grundy County GOP. Helland’s number is up in 2020, and I bet he get’s primaried. - Jibba - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:42 am: Jason complains again in 3, 2, 1… - Stones - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:45 am: Sounds like Jason Helland may wish to start polishing up the resume. - Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:46 am: * The Republicans have a very real problem in the collars and 2020 isn’t going to be any better for them Do you have a crystal ball? Two years is a long time and what do you want to bet Democrats over reach? - Been There - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:46 am: ===Check out those Chicago numbers…=== Those numbers are skewed!! The 47th ward turnout was so big that it pushed the whole city numbers north. /s Actually only slightly kidding and this is coming from someone who hails from another ward that usually turns out the best percentages. Rosenfeld obviously has done a great job as committeeman there. I think they ended up with over 75% turnout. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:47 am: –* The Republicans have a very real problem in the collars and 2020 isn’t going to be any better for them…– I doubt that matters to the Uihlein-funded purists. Their navel-gazing zealotry won’t allow them to build a governing coalition in this state anyway, so they’ll content themselves at mounting primary challenges to safe-seat incumbents. Winners get a paid gig with zero responsibilities, and the opportunity to serenade their true believers with as many meaningless tantrums as the they like. It will be interesting to see if Brady and Durkin can rebuild funding networks now that Rauner is gone. From Baise’s recent comments and actions, I’m guessing they might see Ricketts as a replacement to counter Uihlein. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:57 am: –Do you have a crystal ball?– You don’t need one, comrade. Just check past elections as to how Dem votes greatly increase compared to Republicans in presidential elections. - Cornfield Cowboy - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:59 am: In other words, DuPage and Cook at least for the Senate are now Democratically controlled with one exception - Curran. This will not change for at least six years, assuming there are competitive subrurban races in a post 2022 legislative map world. - Anonymous - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:59 am: Looks like Republicans need more candidates like the 2016 Comptroller nominee. Who was that again? - Chicago Cynic - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:08 pm: The GOP has another problem. They will be energized if Pritzker governs like an out of touch ideologue like Rauner. But he won’t. I fully expect him to work with the GOP to get things done which will make him harder to caricature and harder to act as a motivator for the GOP. I’m sure for most in the GOP today probably feels similar to how it felt for Democrats after the 1994 debacle. Our candidate for Governor was destroyed. Our party was depleted. We even lost the House. But things eventually change. They always do. - muon - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:18 pm: I enjoy and appreciate the work that IllinoisElectionData does to track all the races. However, I wish they would use the normal meaning of D+ and R+ as used for national congressional races. It’s not the margin by which one candidate beat another, but it is how much better were they in a county or district compared to their statewide margin. For example, though Pritzker won DuPage, it was by a smaller margin than his statewide margin. Using just the two major party totals (which is the usual method for PVI), DuPage was R+7.3. But since Pritzker got 58.5% of the statewide vote, it meant he carried DuPage as well. 58.5% - 7.3% = 51.2% which is the majority. - Dupage Bard - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:20 pm: Maybe if you don’t run around the State telling folks some one is too old for a job you would have done better. Anyone over the age of 40 remembers their first experience at the DMV and how it has improved significantly under Jesse. - Paddyrollingstone - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:31 pm: Chicago Cynic “I’m sure for most in the GOP today probably feels similar to how it felt for Democrats after the 1994 debacle. Our candidate for Governor was destroyed. Our party was depleted. We even lost the House. But things eventually change. They always do.” Agreed. One important difference. Michael Madigan. He was the one who kick started the Dems comeback by taking back the House in 1996. Say what you want about him, the man knows how politics works and he knows how to win. I don’t know if the GOP has anyone like that. - PublicServant - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 12:33 pm: I miss JBT. - Boone's is Back - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 1:41 pm: Is there a brown horseshoe award that Helland can get for that distinction? - @misterjayem - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 3:12 pm: “Anyone over the age of 40 remembers their first experience at the DMV and how it has improved significantly under Jesse.” This is an understatement. Before White, a trip to the SOS was always aggravating and often fruitless. – MrJM - Lucky Pierre - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 3:22 pm: Fascinating how the same people who said Peter Roskam was doomed for the tax bill all think there will be zero backlash once the progressive tax rates come out and a lot of people in the collars are surprised to be considered “wealthy” who should pay more like Bruce and JB - Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 3:35 pm: ===Peter Roskam was doomed for the tax bill=== Healthcare and being MIA for long periods of time also factored in. “Lucky Pierre” Trump will probably swamp a great deal in the Pritzker mideterm, oh… … voters will get to decide in 2020 (maybe) on that progressive income tax via vote. You keep forgetting that. Why? - JoanP - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 3:37 pm: @BeenThere - I just checked. The 47th Ward had just over 80% turnout (exclamation mark). Only the 44th was higher, at 81.69%. - tomkacich - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 3:42 pm: Turnout in Champaign County was 64.58 percent. - Cable Line Beer Gardener - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 4:16 pm: Lucky-the suburban electorate sent a huge message to the Republican party-perhaps it would be more prudent to find out why they did and what can be done to change it rather than sit back and wait for the backlash. - DarkHorse - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 4:33 pm: Can see the GOP hit a low point in 2020, with Trump heading the ticket. But if there’s a Dem President in 2021, and Pritzker suffers from tax hikes, all the problems of actually governing, GOP could rebound in 2022. - Mike - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 4:58 pm: Classic Rich deleting comments he doesn’t like. Worse than a king. YES I went there. - Pot calling kettle - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 6:24 pm: ===Classic Rich deleting comments he doesn’t like. Worse than a king. YES I went there.=== We’ve all had comments deleted. We respect Rich’s call because he takes care of the space. It’s called “moderating” and it is absent on much of the internet. - yinn - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 7:24 pm: ==We’ve all had comments deleted. We respect Rich’s call because he takes care of the space. It’s called “moderating” and it is absent on much of the internet.== I picked up Rich Miller’s rules for moderation probably close to a decade ago for my blogs, Facebook groups, etc. and pat myself on the back regularly for choosing such a great role model. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 10:48 pm: –Classic Rich deleting comments he doesn’t like. Worse than a king. YES I went there.– Oh, snap, you go boyfriend/girlfriend (however you choose to self-identify). You went there (many exclamation points). Now I have to wonder what navel-gazing, entitled grievance-peddling I’ve missed out on. So sad. - wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 5, 18 @ 11:05 pm: –I think you need to review how and why cannabis became illegal in the first place. It certainly wasn’t based on laboratory science.– See Harry Anslinger, Treasury Department, chief enforcer of Prohibition. After the repeal of the Volstead Act, he concocted Reefer Madness in an effort to maintain his bureaucratic domain. Huge rival of J. Edgar Hoover. Was his equal until WWII, when catching Nazi saboteurs took priority and Hoover consolidated his national police power. Given his Prohibition experience, Anslinger was on the Mafia and the national Commission when Hoover, very curiously, claimed it didn’t exist. Both of them very sinister dudes, in a democracy. - Jerry - Thursday, Dec 6, 18 @ 8:32 am: While these numbers might look good for IL turnout, we look like pikers compared to parts of WI. City of Madison had a 92% turnout. WI overall had a 69.6% turnout. Dane Co. was near 90%. We can start bragging about turnout when we reach those kind of numbers in IL. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.