* Let’s do a quick roundup, starting with Bernie…
“We’ve tried to appeal to everyone, but what we’re going to try to focus on now, after the course of a long campaign where we were fighting for votes, is not we’ll be the treasurer for all 13 million people in the state of Illinois,” Frerichs said. “Partisanship falls aside.”
Frerichs, who plans to meet today with Gov.-elect Rauner, announced that his transition team would be headed by Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, and U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, a former deputy treasurer who lost the 2010 race for the post. […]
The Election Day narrative focused almost solely on Rauner topping Quinn, giving the GOP the governor’s seat for the first time in 12 years. But Frerichs’ triumph leaves Republicans with just one other statewide constitutional officer — re-elected Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. That puts a damper on the postelection GOP glow, particularly combined with trends that show Democrats maintaining a veto-proof majority in the House, an advantage they hold in the Senate.
* Natasha…
Frerichs’ spokesman, Dave Clarkin, said Wednesday that while the total was close, the provisional ballots counted in recent days had been trending in their favor. He pointed to “Rauner-Frerichs” voters, describing them as independents in the collar counties and downstate.
“This race was neck-and-neck in polling leading up to Election Day, but we have believed all along that if the trend continued of Mike Frerichs performing strong in downstate Illinois and the suburbs, we would win by an insurmountable margin,” Clarkin said. “What we saw emerge [Tuesday] in the suburbs exceeded our expectations. This race is being decided by tens of thousands of Rauner-Frerichs voters: independents in suburbs from Winnetka to Orland Park, from Waukegan to Joliet in the collar counties, and from Rock Island to deep Southern Illinois.”
* Rick and Ray…
Frerichs, a former Champaign County auditor who has served in the General Assembly since 2007, said congratulations were pouring in, including 142 text messages that he couldn’t immediately respond to during his drive to Springfield for the start of the fall session.
With a win of “less than one vote per precinct, there are any number of people who can claim credit for that victory,” Frerichs said. And he quickly joked that “lots of people have called to claim credit” ever since the numbers started breaking his way. […]
The results of the treasurer’s race, along with locally contested state legislative races, indicate Rauner supplied little coattails in his victory over Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn. Instead, the results show the governor’s race was decided more out of a desire for change among voters unhappy with Quinn’s job performance rather than any Republican or Rauner-inspired wave.
* John…
In Chicago, some invalid absentee ballots were improperly mixed with valid ones, but the city’s Board of Election Commissioners rebutted most of the charges even as Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk sought intervention by the U.S. attorney in Chicago. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney would not comment Wednesday.
In suburban Cook County, the Cross campaign alleged it had examined 8,000 cases people requesting mail-in ballots and found 235 where voters appeared to have cast ballots twice.
But Cook County Clerk David Orr told the AP on Tuesday that his office didn’t find any inappropriately tallied ballots. In 86 cases, mail-in ballots were unsigned, invalidating them, so election officials contacted each voter and they appeared on Election Day.
Orr said he appreciates activists’ involvement in the process, but was irked that the Cross campaign publicized the concern in a news release before alerting authorities. That “hurts democracy,” Orr said.
“I certainly know the old rumors associated with Cook County,” Orr said. “But as we move into the future, we want to be careful about unsubstantiated allegations.”
* Tom K…
As for his successor in the state Senate, a position that will be filled by the Democratic Party chairmen in Champaign and Vermilion counties in the next 30 days, Frerichs said, “It’s not mine to fill.”
Frerichs’ term runs through 2016.
“If people want to hear from me, then we’ll see who comes forward and offers to serve. I think I’m uniquely qualified to tell them what to expect in the office and the race,” he said. “There are a lot of smart, good people in the 52nd District and we’ll look forward to hearing from them soon.”
Frerichs is the first state treasurer from East Central Illinois since Democrat William Ryan of Vermilion County was elected in 1913. And he’s the first Democrat from Champaign County to be elected to any statewide constitutional office in the county’s 181-year history.
Your thoughts?
*** UPDATE *** From the Frerichs folks…
As announced yesterday the co-chairs of Treasurer-elect Frerichs’ transition team are Congresswoman Robin Kelly and Michael T. Carrigan, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO. The transition team’s members will also include:
• Paul Miller, Director
• Zach Koutsky, Deputy Director
• Charise Williams, Deputy Director, Civic Engagement
The transition team is in formation and more details will follow.
