* We’re going to link to the Tribune’s results tonight, but you can click here for the NY Times site, which is putting all results on one page. The Sun-Times results page doesn’t seem to be pay-walled, so click here for that. I may add or change this post. Let’s start with federal races…
There is a time for generational progress, CBC allies say, pointing to recent Black primary victors like Summer Lee in Pennsylvania and Jasmine Crockett, both of whom vyed for open seats. That progress, they maintain, should not come at the expense of Black incumbents. Party leaders have signaled they agree: Both Jeffries and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stumped for Davis, and President Joe Biden offered a rare primary endorsement of him over the weekend. Opportunities for All, a new super PAC, has dumped more than $440,000 into the race’s final days to boost Davis. (Justice Democrats have spent $422,000 on Collins’ behalf.)
“Democratic leadership and Democrats in general should be very careful of being dismissive of young, working class Black women like myself,” Collins says in response to the blitz. “The message that’s being sent to my campaign and the people who are helping me in this campaign says I am not welcome in the party.”
* $$$…
#ILPol: Today is Primary day in Illinois! In 2018, the #ILGov race was the third most expensive race across the country at $126M spent in its primary and general elections. In 2022, the gubernatorial race has already seen $136M.
One of the largest changes in political advertising spending within the last four years has been the explosion of CTV/streaming spending.
This gubernatorial election has demonstrated the rapidly increasing influence of CTV advertising. So far, $29M dollars have been spent on CTV marketing for this race, which is the second most CTV spending AdImpact has ever tracked. It is second only to the Internet Regulation Issue—which has seen $33M dollars. […]
Advertisers on both sides of the aisle have quickly learned how to adapt CTV spending into their marketing strategies. Billionaire incumbent J.B Pritzker has spent $5.9M on CTV, while the DGA has spent $5.2M. For the Republicans, mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin, has spent $12.5M on CTV, a staggering total
Voting was extended an extra hour for six suburban Cook County precincts in response to broader challenges in today’s primary election, with late-arriving poll workers and no-shows causing delayed starts for an election that is expected to draw fewer voters overall.
According to the Cook County clerk’s office, the office sought a court order this afternoon to keep certain precincts open at Kennedy School in Chicago Heights, Golf Middle School in Morton Grove, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Melrose Park, Roosevelt School in Broadview and Douglas MacArthur School in Hoffman Estates.
Six precincts that opened late this morning will remain open until 8 p.m., which will delay the clerk’s reporting of results, the clerk’s office said. The remaining 1,424 precincts in suburban Cook County are set to close at 7 p.m.
* Chicago elections board…
The voter turnout for Chicago as of 5:00pm is:
- 251,783 ballots counted
- 16.8% citywide turnout
As an update, there were 56 delayed openings at precinct polling locations today – but so far election investigators have not found enough needed evidence for a court order to hold any open later than 7:00pm in Chicago.
Speaking on WGLT’s Sound Ideas, [Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington] was asked what he thinks about Bailey’s campaign for governor.
“He has been very vocal about his opposition to the governor’s unilateral approach to handling COVID and the state’s response to it. That has been divisive, and it is divisive. I was of the belief that the governor was flying solo without any input from anyone. And while my tone may be different than some of my other Republicans, we desire the same thing – which is a governor who collaborates with the legislature,” Barickman said. “I think the governor was wrong there. So I’m not one who’s going to throw fire at Darren for his response, because I think … if we want a collaborative environment, if we want to bring people together, rather than criticizing a potential opponent of the governor, I think we need to look at the governor. He’s the governor. Why didn’t he bring people together?”
* Press release…
Former candidate for Cook County Sheriff Carmen Navarro Gercone appeared on voters’ ballots today with no notification being provided to the voters that their vote for her would not count.
“This is widespread. We received hundreds of calls from locations not posting a notification nor handing out a notice that their vote would not count. For this I am requesting to know how many people casted their vote for me” says Navarro.
People need to understand that their vote is their voice. My campaign messages resonated with thousands of voters who asked for change, but the system once again mislead them. Elected officials need to listen to the citizens request and demands.
On June 8, 2022, the Chicago Board of Elections spokesperson said, “Due to the ruling, notices were to be placed at early voting sites and future polling sites informing voters that Navarro Gercone had been removed as a candidate, and that votes for her will not be counted” and this did not happen.
Some of the locations reporting not notifications posted nor give included: South Shore
Several locations on the Northwest side of Chicago
Mount Greenwood
Niles
Just to name a few.
Carmen Navarro Gercone is available for an interview anytime this evening to discuss this concern.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Chicago fired off hundreds of letters Monday to Fortune 500 CEOs in states facing abortion bans, pitching the city as a more welcoming location for their businesses.
The letter, which was signed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other civic leaders, was mailed to about 300 CEOs in 25 states that are enacting trigger bans, restricting access and criminalizing abortion. It warns that employees in those states “may suffer” and see their lives upended as a result of the decision to end the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right.
“As you weigh the repercussions facing your employees, customers and vendors, we welcome the opportunity to highlight the ways in which Chicago remains a welcoming city for all,” the letter states.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to make the state “the abortion mecca of the nation,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey told Newsmax on Tuesday — Illinois’ primary election day.
“I’m just appalled, listening to the conversation about the abortion issues,” Bailey, a state senator, told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “We’ve got a fight on our hands here.”
Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, who is pro-choice on abortion, noted that a majority of Illinois voters are too. He fears Bailey won’t be able to win over many of those voters in the general election.
“People can complain maybe they don’t like what some of us did back in the eighties and nineties. But we won, and we governed,” Edgar said “If the party continues its move to the right, we will be a permanent minority party in Illinois.”
Women seeking abortions who live in state where the procedure is now banned may get help from an Illinois charity.
The Springfield-based group called Elevated Access is organizing free flights. The group recruits volunteer pilots to fly patients to medical procedures, including abortions. The charity flew its first abortion patient earlier this month from Oklahoma to Kansas.
It had been barely 80 minutes since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday when physician Nisha Verma’s phone pinged with an urgent group message from another obstetrician-gynecologist that made her catch her breath.
There was a woman in Wisconsin carrying a fetus with anencephaly, a fatal birth defect in which parts of the brain and skull are missing. With abortion likely illegal in the state, the clinic had canceled her appointment for a termination later that day. But forcing her to continue the pregnancy was cruel and risked complications. What should I do? the doctor wrote.
As colleagues in other parts of the Midwest responded with leads for out-of-state clinics, Verma mentally added the case to her growing list of gray-area situations where the new abortion bans fail to capture the complexity of modern medicine and leave doctors in the lurch.
“There are so many unanswered questions,” said Verma, an OB/GYN in Atlanta, where a six-week abortion ban law that is on hold could be activated soon. “The decision is creating confusion and fear because we know what to do medically but we don’t know what we can do based on the law.”
The parking lot of Dayton Women’s Med Center in Kettering was busier than usual Monday as patients inside tried to understand their options now that abortions are banned in Ohio after the detection of a fetal heartbeat — about six weeks into pregnancy.
“Patients are very upset, crying and desperate,” said a representative from Women’s Med, one of the few remaining abortion providers in Ohio. “There is a lot of confusion.”
“Today we saw a patient in Dayton who has cancer. Her doctors told her she would have to terminate before she received chemotherapy treatment. She will have to travel to Indiana. A mom brought her daughter in and doesn’t own a car. She will have to rent one to get her daughter to her appointment in Indianapolis later this week.”
Just five weeks before the August primary vote when Schmitt will need to win over fervently anti-abortion Republican voters, the Missouri attorney general is now empowered to investigate potential violations of the ban.
“My Office has been fighting to uphold the sanctity of life since I became attorney general, culminating in today’s momentous court ruling and attorney general opinion,” Schmitt said in a statement on Friday. “I will continue the fight to protect all life, born and unborn.” Schmitt didn’t elaborate on what shape his continued fight would take.
Indiana’s attorney general is asking federal judges to lift orders blocking several state anti-abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to end constitutional protection for abortion.
An appeal of one of those blocked Indiana laws aimed at prohibiting abortions based on gender, race or disability was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. But that was before former President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett strengthened the court’s conservative majority.
Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office asked in court filings Monday that federal judges lift injunctions against that law, along with others banning a common second-trimester abortion procedure that the legislation calls a “dismemberment abortion” and requiring parents be notified if a court allows a girl younger than 18 to get abortion without parental consent.
Gov. Kim Reynolds is asking a court to reinstate Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” law — which bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — in her first action to limit abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure.
Reynolds, a Republican and staunch abortion opponent, signed the so-called heartbeat law in 2018, but it never took effect and was ruled unconstitutional in 2019. At the time, it would have been the most restrictive abortion law in the country.
Facebook and Instagram have begun promptly removing posts that offer abortion pills to women who may not be able to access them following a Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure. […]
The Facebook account was immediately put on a “warning” status for the post, which Facebook said violated its standards on “guns, animals and other regulated goods.”
Yet, when the AP reporter made the same exact post but swapped out the words “abortion pills” for “a gun,” the post remained untouched. A post with the same exact offer to mail “weed” was also left up and not considered a violation.
Majorities of Americans say they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, think it was politically motivated, are concerned the court will now reconsider rulings that protect other rights, and are more likely to vote for a candidate this fall who would restore the right to an abortion, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. […]
By a 56%-to-40% margin, respondents oppose the court’s decision, including 45% who strongly oppose it. […]
By a 57%-to-36% margin, respondents said the decision was mostly based on politics as opposed to the law. And by a 56%-to-41% margin are concerned that the overturning of Roe will be used by the Supreme Court to reconsider past rulings that protect contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. […]
A bare majority of 51% say they would definitely vote for a candidate who would support a federal law to restore the right to an abortion, while 36% would definitely vote against such a candidate.
Though it hasn’t received as much attention as the fiercely competitive race for governor, this election is the first in more than 20 years without Secretary of State Jesse White on the ballot.
Almost 24 years, and that’s just statewide. He was first elected to the House in 1974. I’m old enough to have covered a couple House vs. Senate softball games he played in. Man, was he good, particularly since he was in his mid-to-late 50s back then.
* Gov. JB Pritzker has contributed $2.4 million to other campaigns and committees this June. $1.5 million of that went to the Democratic Party of Illinois, likely for stuff like this…
In the 1st Congressional District — the crowded Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Bobby Rush — a surprise last minute surge of outside money — $823,122, according to Federal Election Commission reports — was spent to elect Karin Norington-Reaves, who is backed by Rush. Last week, I reported how crypto currency interests put in a combined $1,092,561 to bolster Jonathan Jackson.
Most of the independent expenditures for Norington-Reaves — some $758,000 of the total — comes from a shadowy political action committee called Forward Progress, whose donors and organizers are not known. The rest of the outside spend for Norington-Reaves, $65,122, came from the Collective Super Pac, whose goal is, according to its website, “to create an America where Black people are equally represented at every level of government.” […]
GOP mega donors from Illinois — Ken Griffin and Richard Uihlein — both players in the GOP governor primary — Griffin for Richard Irvin and Uihlein backing Darren Bailey — are also factors in the $12 million in outside expenditures spent in the Miller and Davis primary, where the independent expenditures are about evenly split.
Griffin is the sole donor to the Illinois Value PAC — and his $1. 5 million contribution was used mainly on ads to oppose Miller. Uihlein donated $3 million to the Club for Growth Action fund between April and May; the group spent $2.5 million to help elect Miller.
Lynn has the outside spending in other races, too, so click here.
Illinois statehouse Republicans that voted in 2019 to double the state’s gas tax and include annual increases tied to inflation face challengers in Tuesday’s GOP primary election.
The vote to double the gas tax in 2019 was bipartisan.
State Rep. Tim Butler, R-Springfield, supported the measure. Challenging Butler in the GOP primary is Kent Gray, who criticized Butler’s support for the doubling of the gas tax that also included a parking excise tax.
“Rep. Tim Butler, if you drive a car, he’s going to tax you as soon as it moves and he’s going to tax you as soon as you stop,” Gray said.
Butler defended his vote.
“I make no bones about the fact that infrastructure is one of the things in the state of Illinois that gives us a competitive advantage,” Butler said. “And what my opponent would like to do is strip that away, basically stop the hundreds of millions of dollars of projects that are being invested right here in this community.” […]
Don Debolt, who is challenging Springfield state Sen. Steve McClure in the GOP primary Tuesday. He said the incumbent is to blame for the state’s high gas tax.
“He voted to double the gas tax, but more importantly, they voted to put in automatic tax increases every year into the gas tax,” Debolt said.
McClure said Democrats already had the votes to double the gas tax in 2019 and if he didn’t support the measure, it would have been difficult to bring projects to his district. He said separate from the motor fuel tax is the sales tax on top of the price of fuel and that needs to be suspended without impacting infrastructure funding.
Both of those challengers are endorsed by Darren Bailey.
* Pic of Rep. Zalewski getting ready to face the last primary day…
* LBG mailer…
The governor has endorsed her opponent, Sen. Melinda Bush.
…Adding… More from Lake County…
…Adding… This endorsement arrived after 3 o’clock this afternoon…
“Organized labor is the backbone of the middle class, and families throughout Illinois’ need a representative of the court who is keeping their interests front and center. I know Judge Elizabeth Rochford will be a tireless advocate for workers because as an advocate for working people and families, she knows the value of unions in fighting for better wages, working conditions, and quality of life.”
-DeKalb County Building and Construction Trades Council President Lance McGill
“I think we can, we’re surging; there’s so many undecideds just now making up their mind,” Sullivan said in more conservative DuPage County. “We’ve also energized a whole group of people who have not voted in Republican primaries before, but they’re sick and fed up with how far left this governor has gone and want to fix the state.”
Sullivan was in Arlington Heights Tuesday morning, meeting with volunteers there.
“We’re ready to fight to save Illinois. We’re out to fight for law enforcement, fight for our kids, get this indoctrination out of our schools, fight for the unborn, fight for our faith and our freedom, ready to take our state back from these corrupt insiders who have ruined it,” he said.
Recent polls suggested there were still quite a number of undecided voters, but whether it’s enough for Irvin or Sullivan to catch Bailey is the question that will be answered Tuesday.
* From a reader comes this photo of Jesse Sullivan at the Arlington Heights Metra station today…
We had 120,000 people leave the state of Illinois last year. We just lost Caterpillar, an iconic company. We lost Boeing we are losing Citadel now. We need somebody who actually knows what they’re doing from a business standpoint. I went out to Stanford Business School after I got back from Afghanistan, and I learned how to create jobs. I’ve been running a business to do that around the world, but I’m going to create them right here at home and that requires a low-tax environment. I’m the only candidate in this race who vowed never to raise taxes on the people of Illinois because we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And it’s also you know, as a parent, one of the biggest differences is, I’ve said, I will ban this sexuality and racial indoctrination that’s starting to happen in our schools. And we need a strong leader who’s going to stand up against it. I have faith and family values rooted in my Christian faith, to say, I’m not going to sell out the people of Illinois. Not just the Democrats, it’s these insider Republicans that have the same pay to play mentality. I don’t owe anybody anything in this system, and I’m going to change it.
“I still stand by my statements that he is the strongest candidate to challenge J.B. Pritzker in November, but J.B. Pritzker has done a hell of a job interfering in the Republican primary, and it looks like he’s going to accomplish what he set out to get — the weakest of the bunch,” said House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, who serves as Irvin’s campaign co-chair. […]
But with victory possibly in his grasp, Bailey told his Facebook followers over the weekend that his candidacy will usher in a new era of conservatism that will transform Illinois and Chicago.
“Look back into Illinois and find out when the last time Illinois had a conservative, Republican governor who actually stood and did something. It’s been a long, long time,” he said. “And I can assure you that ever since those days, Illinois has plummeted. We’ve become a laughing stock. … Friends, those days are coming to an end.”
* Aside from the silly counties argument, the original version of this Washington Post story contained a couple of weird errors…
Nothing illustrated this change more than the 2020 general election when President Biden beat Trump by one percentage point by carrying just 14 of the state’s 102 counties. (By comparison, Barack Obama won 46 counties in 2008.) Likewise, Pritzker handily defeated Republican incumbent Gov. Bruce Rauner in 2018 by carrying just 16 counties. Pritzker’s strength came from the northeast pocket of the state — Cook County, which includes Chicago, and four of all five collar counties — and he barely campaigned elsewhere.
The corrected version (which is not labeled as such) changes Biden’s margin to the actual 17 points, but still incorrectly claims that the governor barely campaigned in the rest of the state. Not sure where that author was at the time. But, heck, I remember Pritzker catching flak from a Chicago reporter for holding a big pre-election event in the Metro East. Also, click here and check out that thread.
In one new twist, voters in DuPage County will be able to cast ballots in any of the county’s 263 polling places instead of going to the one closest to their house. The new option is intended to provide flexibility in casting a vote during a busy workday, but don’t be shocked if someone sees a nefarious plot to rig the vote.
That is a really good idea and I hope it eventually goes statewide.
* Contrary to this take, there are a ton of hot legislative contests…
STATEHOUSE RACES: They’re all up for grabs, but only a few are really hot. Top of the list for Democrats is state Rep. Mike Zalewski vs. challenger Abdelnasser Rashid in the 21st District. Zalewski is seen as one of the last vestiges of the Democratic machine and has the support of House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Gov. JB Pritzker. While Zalelwski is a progressive with an energetic ground game.
Also watch challenges to state Reps. Denyse Wang Stoneback in the 16th, Lindsey LaPointe in the 19th, and Kathleen Willis in the 77th. Among Republican races, we’re watching for the outcome of Brett Nicklaus’ challenge to Sen. Win Stoller in the 37th District state Senate seat.
* The Post-Dispatch ain’t happy at all with the choices in the CD15 GOP primary…
Republican Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville, supported by this newspaper in his 2020 reelection bid for Illinois’ 13th District, used to be someone unafraid to stand up to former President Donald Trump and defend old-style GOP beliefs without veering off the deep end. Sadly, space aliens kidnapped that man and replaced him with someone willing to compromise his principles at every turn just to stay in office. For inspiration on hypocrisy, he turns to his spiritual and political mentor, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.
Challenging Davis from the far right is Rep. Mary Miller of Oakland, who never seems to miss an opportunity to align herself with the likes of white supremacists.
Space aliens. Whew.
* Frank Avila formed this committee last month, but has never reported any contributions. Looks like a possible Chicago FOP front group…
* One side of a Lyons Township Democrats’ palm card…
Mike Holloway has had chickens at his Loami residence since shortly after he moved there in 1976.
At some point, Holloway doesn’t remember when, they were outlawed in the Sangamon County village about 15 miles southwest of Springfield, but Holloway was “grandfathered” in and allowed to keep his chickens.
Loami voters will consider an advisory referendum Tuesday about allowing chickens back in the village’s limits. The village of Clearlake and New Berlin also have referendums.
As of 8:30 a.m., State Rep. Delia Ramirez, a Democrat running in the 3rd Congressional District race, was one of two voters who had shown up at her polling place at Harriet Beecher Stowe School in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, which opened with two of four poll workers still yet to arrive.
Ramirez said while she was enroute to vote, she saw volunteers in front of the voting site at Yates Elementary School did not have voting booths open as of 6:45 a.m. Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Max Bever did not have information about Yates but confirmed three other polling locations had delayed starts.
“Unfortunately, Lillian and I talked to a number of voters who said ‘I’m sorry, I’ve been waiting, I have to get to work,” said Ramirez, who addressed reporters alongisde Lillian Jimenez, who is running to replace Ramirez’s seat in the Illinois House.
Aurora is mourning the passing of Suzanne Deuchler, a state representative from Aurora for 18 years in the 1980s and ‘90s who died last week at the age of 92. […]
Suzanne Deuchler served 18 years as a Republican state representative from Aurora in the General Assembly, after serving four years representing the West Side of Aurora on the Kane County Board. […]
She served on the Education, Appropriations, Banking, Transportation and Environment committees in the Illinois House. She was known for her support of women’s issues, including abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, and for supporting environmental issues. She was instrumental in establishing Nelson Lake Nature Preserve in Kane County.
She also was a supporter of education initiatives, and was one of the representatives instrumental in establishing the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora, as well as the Orchard Road interchange with Interstate 88.
She was a great lady and I always enjoyed our talks. My deepest sympathies to her family.
“This is the biggest debacle I’ve ever seen. It’s the biggest screw-up I’ve ever seen and the biggest waste of money I’ve ever seen,” said former Illinois Republican Party Chair Pat Brady, who is doing communications work for candidate Gary Rabine.
Dude is openly pushing an also-ran conspiracy-theorist for the top office in the state likely because his cousin didn’t get slated for secretary of state. He probably doesn’t have a whole lot of room to talk. Just sayin…
And across America, women are losing their right to make their own health care decisions.
But here in Illinois, JB Pritzker made sure we’re protected by signing a landmark abortion rights bill that made Illinois the only state in the Midwest to put those protections into law.
Because of JB, women will get the health care they need and the freedom to make their own decisions.
* How’s it looking out there? Tell us about turnout, weather, mood, or anything else you’ve seen. Also, try to tell us where you are to give us some context. Thanks.
…Adding… From the Chicago Elections Board…
The voter turnout for Chicago as of 9:00am is:
- 141,122 ballots cast
- 9.4% citywide turnout
TURNOUT BY AGE GROUP
- 18-24 year olds: 3,516
- 25-34 year olds: 16,367
- 35-44 year olds: 17,571
- 45-54 year olds: 17,349
- 55-64 year olds: 27,114
- 65-74 year olds: 33,777
- 75+ year olds: 25,410
…Adding… I asked if the totals above included early votes…
That’s correct, this is inclusive of previous Early Voting and Vote By Mail numbers.
