* ICYMI: Political operative charged with sending sexually explicit images to 2nd legislator. WGN…

- Timothy Pawula was charged in May with sending obscene and harassing messages to a rival of his boss, then State Rep. Tim Ozinga.
-State Rep. Bob Rita (D-Blue Island) tells WGN Investigates he received fabricated graphic images that were made to appear as though he was in a sexually explicit situation with an elected official in Tinley Park.
- Rita said he believes he was targeted by Pawula because of his opposition to a proposed race track and casino in Tinley Park.
- Pawula is due in court on the new charges on Thursday.

Governor Pritzker will hold a press availability at 10:00 am. Click here to watch.

*** Isabel’s Top Picks ***

* Daily Egyptian | Late results show tie for States Attorney race: Jackson County election results released early Wednesday morning show state’s attorney candidates Joseph Cervantez and Marsha Cascio-Hale tied with exactly 10,805 votes each. […] Cascio-Hale said she was proud of her campaign’s accomplishments, watching Cervantez’s lead shrink but not willing to draw any conclusions at her results watch party.

* Shaw Local | More than 1,600 mail-in ballots uncounted in counties that take in Briel-Bishop state rep. race: The race for state Rep. Lance Yednock’s seat is not over. Democrat Amy “Murri” Briel holds a lead over challenger Liz Bishop with as many as 1,700 mail-in ballots yet to be counted. Briel held a 505-vote lead after all precincts were counted in La Salle, Bureau and DeKalb counties in the race to fill Yednock’s seat in the Illinois House. Briel has 23,459 votes, and Republican challenger Bishop has 22,954 votes in unofficial results.

*** Statehouse News ***

* Sun-Times | Trump’s win doesn’t help Illinois Republicans’ numbers in Springfield — but GOP touts ‘massive strides’: The national red wave that sent former President Donald Trump back to the White House didn’t help Illinois Republicans gain significant ground — if any — in Democratic-controlled Springfield on election night. But a day after the polls closed, state GOP leaders on Wednesday celebrated “major strides” illustrated by Trump’s stronger showing in Illinois, which they say portends a turn of fortune for a party still relegated to superminority status in the General Assembly.

* Sun-Times | Immigrant advocates and Illinois legislators process Trump’s election – plan for resistance: State Sen. Celina Villanueva woke up Wednesday with the same painful feeling she had eight years ago when Donald J. Trump was first elected — a deep worry for the immigrant communities feeling stressed that Trump has been reelected to a second term. She has a message of hope and resistance for the people feeling vulnerable at the prospect of a new Trump administration that has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. “In 2016, we thought that we were all going to be gone — and we’re still here,” Villanueva said.

*** Statewide ***

* WAND | Election 2024: Illinois could see voter turnout reach 68%, miss 2020 record of 73%: The Illinois State Board of Elections expects to see a final voter turnout of 68% for the 2024 presidential election. A significant amount of Illinoisans chose to vote early rather than wait in line on Election Day. Illinois broke a record in 2020 with 73% of registered voters casting ballots. While state leaders say it’s unlikely we’ll see that number this year, there is a lot of optimism from early voting.

*** Chicago ***

* Tribune | Aldermen rip Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 property tax hike proposal as budget hearings kick off: Desperate to avoid hitting Chicago home and business owners with a $300 million property tax increase, aldermen pelted the mayor’s finance team Wednesday with questions about alternatives to plug the 2025 budget hole. Their pitches on the opening day of budget hearings ran the gamut from furlough days for city workers to cutting middle managers or halting programs funded with federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

* Crain’s | City Council fights Johnson on property tax hike as budget negotiations begin: The administration also decided to play prevent-defense on an option floated by a few Johnson allies to reduce the property tax by canceling, or chipping away at, a proposed $272 million advance pension payment. The amount is above the $2.9 billion required by state statute to gradually climb the ramp to adequately funding the city’s four beleaguered pension funds. The total increase to the city’s property tax levy will be $345 million, Budget Director Annette Guzman told the committee. Every year the city receives an increase to the levy through new properties coming online, accounting for the extra $45 million above the $300 million increase to the base levy.

In Chicago, Trump jumped to 22.01% of the city vote in 2024, up from 12.41% of the city vote in 2016, according to unofficial returns.

Read more: https://t.co/H5Va9qYF83 pic.twitter.com/MBuZzKGaHV

— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) November 7, 2024

* Block Club | Here’s How Your Neighborhood Voted In The 2024 Presidential Election (MAP): Chicago, long a stronghold for Democrats and the host site of the Democratic National Convention, remained largely blue in the election, with Harris claiming about 77 percent of the vote, according to early results. Joe Biden won 82 percent in 2020 when he was elected president. There were pockets of the city that leaned Republican in 2024 and, overall, Trump got about 22 percent of Chicago’s vote, according to early results.

* Sun-Times | Prohibition finally ends in small pocket of Lincoln Square as voters overturn 117-year-old alcohol ban: Nearly 85% of the votes cast (285 of 336) on the referendum in the 9th precinct of the 47th ward voted “No” on the question of whether to keep the prohibition of liquor sales in Tuesday’s general election. The ban, which had been in place since 1907, impacted a small patch of the North Side neighborhood. It was bounded by Lincoln Avenue to the west, Sunnyside Avenue to the north, Damen Avenue to the east and Montrose Avenue to the south.

*** Cook County and Suburbs ***

* Injustice Watch | Powerful Cook County judge referred to judicial misconduct board over residency conflicts: Embattled Cook County Judge E. Kenneth Wright was referred to a state disciplinary board on Wednesday by the chief judge after an Injustice Watch investigation found he took inappropriate homestead and senior tax exemptions on a house he owned in Will County. Wright, 83, will retain his powerful position as presiding judge of Cook County’s first municipal district while the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board investigates. Meanwhile, Wright faces another challenge from voters in Tuesday’s judicial retention vote. As of Wednesday his vote total only narrowly exceeds the threshold of 60%, with thousands of votes left to count.

* WGN | ‘Just like Trump’: Henyard predicts landslide mayoral victory as trustees reject police chief pick during village board meeting: Trustees also said the village is so low on funds that some departments can’t even afford office supplies, like printer paper. Trustees agreed to return three luxury SUVs leased for Henyard’s use, which WGN Investigates revealed cost residents more than $374,000, but Henyard vowed to veto the decision.

* Daily Herald | How to spend $304.5 million?: Lake County forest preserves, Mundelein High School preparing for big to-do lists: Forest preserves use is 30% higher than before the pandemic and residents have come to enjoy the benefits of natural areas and were inclined to invest in nature, supporters said. “People have deepened their connection,” said Rebekah Snyder, director of community engagement and partnerships. The bang for the buck also was palatable, with the owner of a home valued at $300,000 paying an extra $33 per year at most.

* Naperville Sun | Referendum results show trust in Indian Prairie School District 204, superintendent says: Unofficial results from DuPage and Will counties show voters in Tuesday’s general election were widely in favor of Indian Prairie School District 204’s proposal to sell $420 million in bonds to improve its facilities, and district Superintendent Adrian Talley said these results show voters’ trust and belief in the school system. “It reflects that they believe in us and what we are doing, and believe that we are good stewards of the funding that they give us,” he told The Beacon-News on Wednesday.

*** Downstate ***

* WAND | Illinois State Board of Elections provides insight on issues with Champaign County election: The board said an outage reported by Platinum Technology, a voter registration system vendor, kept officials from distributing ballots in Champaign County. Platinum Technology is used in 27 other counties in the state. However, the polling set-up in Champaign County was unique, said Matt Dietrich with the Illinois State Board of Elections. “Rather than having pre-printed ballots that are handed out, Champaign county was relying on a system where every voter comes and checks in, the ballot is printed specifically for them, for their precinct, and then they voted. What happened was, the voter registration data that they needed to generate those ballots, was locked up because of problems with their vendor.”

* WCIA | ‘I’ll give it a B’: Champaign Co. Clerk reflects, apologizes and plans for next Election Day: Another headache was the network outage with their third-party “Platinum” service in the morning. “I apologize, because although I don’t have any control over the server and that situation, it is my decision to go with a particular vendor,” Ammons said. “As we move forward, we will re-evaluate some of those things, so I take responsibility for that.”

* WAND | Piatt county votes in favor of mental health referendum: The Executive Director of the Piatt County Mental Health Center, Tony Kirkman, told WAND News in October, this will help address the treatment shortage in Piatt County, “In Piatt County, we have roughly 16,000 individuals and we only have about 8 or 9 licensed professionals in the county. So, for many, many years, there was a treatment shortage and we’re now trying to protect what we already have here in place.”

* WCIA | Resigned Shelby County Board members win election for old seats: According to unofficial results posted on the Shelby County Clerk’s website, former Shelby County Board Chair Robert Orman and Vice Chair Mark Bennett won their races for their seats. They beat Guy Michael Anderson and James Caputo respectively. Orman and Bennett resigned in October. In their resignations, they criticized the board for not following the rules and policies.

*** National ***

…and then there's the swing map

Literally not one state swung left. The smallest swing was in Oklahoma which swung 1.2 points right from 2020. https://t.co/5MvuhB1kZg pic.twitter.com/Y5esYpQoYF

— James🗳 (@_fat_ugly_rat_) November 6, 2024

* AP | USDA bans school lunch fees for low-income families: School districts currently work with processing companies to offer cashless payment systems for families. But the companies can charge “processing fees” for each transaction. By law, students who are eligible for reduced price meals cannot be charged more than 30 cents for breakfast and 40 cents for lunch. With processing fees, however, families can end up paying 10 times that amount. Processing companies charge as much as $3.25 or 4% to 5% per transaction, according to a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.