* No question, Mayor Daley did not have a great day yesterday, but a closer look reveals that most of the incumbent losses weren’t really his fault.

African-American incumbents Madeline Haithcock (2nd), Dorothy Tillman (3rd) and Shirley Coleman (16th) were just terrible aldermen who ignored their constituents and failed to change with the times. Daley supported all three, but they were mostly left to fend for themselves (with help from members of the old-time black Machine) while Hizzoner tried to save white incumbents Ted Matlak and Bernie Stone. Matlak lost a narrow race and Stone, who scored close to 50 percent in February, held on to win.

Stone was always in danger, but his relatively strong showing in the first round, despite running an awful campaign, solid support among Jewish voters and fresh talent brought in after February at the Daley Machine’s behest pretty much made him the frontrunner all along.

Matlak was another story. This one is a huge loss for Daley, despite the fact that Matlak is a clueless hack who didn’t fit his ward. It’s tough to beat anybody with a goof like Matlak, but Daley and the entire white political Machine dumped almost everything it had into this race. They should have pulled out a close win, but came up short. Good riddance.

There’s been a lot of complaining and moaning about union money, but, frankly, how else were these candidates going to raise money and put together an organization to topple those deeply entrenched, if flawed, incumbents? This is Chicago, after all. It’s not easy going up against an alderman - any alderman - without bigtime help. The unions made their point in a big way, and the rest of the go-along-get-along city council will now have to take notice.

Also, Lisa Madigan should’ve stayed out of that Matlak race. You can’t claim to be a reformer if you support somebody like him. And Barack Obama got his first taste of local defeat by backing Tillman. The Machine isn’t always right, Barack. Please learn a lesson here.

* I was having dinner last night with a Republican operative who almost fainted when I told him that Sheila Simon was getting stomped by Carbondale Mayor Brad Cole. Nobody ever thought he’d win, or at least not by that much. Kudos to Cole and the Republicans for putting together a solid general election run (Cole tried it mostly on his own in the primary and failed miserably). And shame on the local media for almost completely ignoring all the outside GOP help (money and staff) that Cole received during the general while making a big deal out of the bigtime Democrats who endorsed Simon.

* Aldertrack has several videos posted from election day. Go check them out.

* Here’s a roundup of coverage, compiled by my intern Paul…

* Beaver’s seeks to curb union’s political donations

* Taxpayers eager for open space, less so for schools

* Few equipment problems in elections

* Four aldermen lose in biggest incumbent ouster since 1991

* Chicago Public Radio: Rocky night for incumbents

* Union candidates surprise Daley-backed trio

* Unions score key victories in city council

* Mary Mitchell: Third ward race split black vote

* Tillman’s council run nearing end

* Stone: ‘I proved age is no barrier‘

* Mark Brown: Stone sees win in tale of the tapes

* Oak Brook President trails in 6-way race

* Incumbents carry the day in most suburban mayoral races

* Harvey Mayor Kellogg cruises to reelection

* McQueary: No stumble too great to trip Kellogg

* Anti-immigration slate leads in Carpentersvlle

* Mayor Davlin wins, hopes second term will be more harmonious

* Summary of Springfield aldermanic races

* Simon fails to oust Carbondale mayor

*** UPDATE *** Here are some links to local blog election roundups and analysis…

* IlliniPundit (Also check out “A Republican Renaissance in Champaign“)

* DJWinfo

* Proviso Probe

* OpenLine

* Peoria Pundits

* Respublica

Apologies to any I missed. If there are others, put them in the comments section. Thanks.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Turnout was down in almost every ward, up neglibly in two wards and up significantly in one ward. Higher turnout was supposed to hurt Bernie Stone in the 50th, but it obviously didn’t…

Ward… APRIL….. FEBRUARY… % CHANGE

2………. 9297……… 11,395…………. -18.4
3………. 8372……….. 8247………….. +1.5
15……… 4652……….. 6690…………. -30.5
16……… 5114……….. 6340………….. -19.3
18……… 8977………. 13,482………… -33.4
21……. 10,576……… 14,437………… -26.7
24……… 6010……….. 8734………… -31.2
32……… 8243……….. 8284…………. -0.5
35……… 6560……….. 6736…………. -2.6
43……… 8156……….. 9460………… -13.8
49……… 7595……….. 7591………….. +0.05
50……. 11,292…….. 10,603…………. +6.5

*** UPDATE 3 *** From a press release…

While the April 17 Consolidated Election is officially nonpartisan, there were six members of the Illinois Green Party on the ballot this Tuesday, three of which were elected:

ELECTED: ROBERT BRAAM was elected as Trustee of the Manhattan Public Library District, receiving 107 votes as a write-in.

ELECTED: KRIS CAMPBELL won reelection to the Poplar Grove Village Trustee. With 340 votes (20%), she was second in a six-way race for three seats.

ELECTED: CAROL LARSON earned 3,370 votes (53.74%) and was the top vote-getter for three seats on the Oak Lawn-Hometown School Board. Larson is an educator and is a pursing a Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
endorsement of the Pantagraph. […]

Larson and Braam join Campbell, Dale Bowen (Winnebago Public Library Trustee), Jim Long (Kirby Park School Board) and Jon Murray (Mt. Morris Village Trustee) on the list of Illinois Green Party elected officials.

*** UPDATE 4 *** From the Sun-Times…

One of the state’s most expensive school district board races, fueled by a proposed book ban in the district last May, ended Tuesday with apparent victory for three incumbents who opposed the ban.

The contest pitted the incumbents against three newcomers for three seats on the board of High School District 214, a high-achieving, six high school district based in Arlington Heights.

The incumbents raised a record-setting $67,000. A mere $500 per candidate is the norm in the district. Vonnegut, who died last week, wrote Slaughterhouse-Five, one of nine books a board member proposed dropping from classroom use last year.

Two of the challengers, Dennis Konczyk and Ken Frizane, joined forces and won big-name support from conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly and Jim Oberweis, a former Republican gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate.

But it wasn’t enough. Incumbents Bill Dussling, Alva Kreutzer and Robert Zimmanck were the top three vote-getters, with 97 percent of the precincts in.

*** UPDATE 5 *** The petty side of Mayor Daley…

Mayor Richard Daley today would not credit labor unions for the loss of some of his incumbent allies in aldermanic runoff elections, saying local issues were among a combination of factors that resulted in their defeats.

“I think the people spoke,” Daley said. “A lot of other issues come into play. If you think one person gets all the glory, you are greatly mistaken.”