Dems Nab Chicagoland U.S. House Seats; IL General Assembly Reddens
By Stephen Gossett in News on Nov 9, 2016 4:04PM
Getty Images; Photo: Mark Wilson
When (*holds nose, chokes back vomit*) President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he’ll be greeted with Republican control of both Congressional chambers. But Chicago area voters, at least, didn’t give him any favors in the U.S. House. House Democratic incumbents retained their seats and picked up one on Tuesday night. On the state level, Gov. Bruce Rauner had some success, chiseling down the Democrats’ majority in the General Assembly.
In one of the few pieces of conventional wisdom not currently wasting away in embers, Brad Schneider seems to have been boosted by the presidential-election push in Illinois, beating again-competitor Republican Bob Dold by the narrowest of margins, 52 percent. Also noteworthy, Raja Krishnamoorthi kept the Eighth District blue, also by a slimmer-than-most victory margin (58%). He will claim seat of Democratic Senator-elect Tammy Duckworth, who handily defeated Sen. Mark Kirk.
Here Chicago-area U.S. House results, with win margin, according to the Associated Press:
District 1: Bobby Rush (D incumbent) - 73%
District 2: Robin Kelly (D, incumbent) - 80%
District 3 Dan Lipinski (D, incumbent) - uncontested
District 4: Luis Gutierrez (D, incumbent) - uncontested
District 5: Mike Quigley (D, incumbent) - 68%
District 6: Peter Roskam (R, incumbent) - 60%
District 7: Danny Davis (D, incumbent) - 84%
District 8: Raja Krishnamoorthi (D) 58%
District 9: Jan Schakowsky (D, incumbent) - 66%
District 10: Brad Schneider (D) - 52%
District 11: Bill Foster (D, incumbent) - 60%
On the state level, feeling the pinch of a Susana Mendoza win for Comptroller after so much money expended, Gov. Rauner made inroads on Tuesday in Springfield. The Democratic supermajority is no more in the state legislature. Republicans grabbed two Senate seats and multiple in the House. Speaker Mike Madigan and the Dems still hold a majority, but don’t be surprised if the governor starts to paint the gains as some sort of mandate.
As with the national stage, every new answer begets another question right now.