Cullerton defeats Lewis in nail-biter; Conroy stomps Holan; DiCianni beat by Krishnamoorthi
By Dee Longfellow
For The Independent
Tuesday evening was filled with surprises, groans and triumphs until the biggest collective gasp of all – the one that came at 1:30 a.m. when the Associated Press and other media outlets officially declared that Republican nominee Donald Trump would become the 45th President of the United States.
Throughout Election night, local results trickled in and anxieties were high, compounded by the fact that the DuPage Election Commission had difficulty posting the results right away, a problem that seems to plague them at virtually every election. At 7 p.m. when the polls closed, the web site said no results would be posted until 7:30 p.m., but the earliest posting came in after 9 p.m. Candidates were left waiting in frustration to learn their respective fates.
One of the earliest elections to be called on Nov. 8 was the race for U.S. Senate which brought victory to Democrat Tammy Duckworth over incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R). She obtained 2,901,903 votes to his 2,143,631, garnering 54.4% of the total. [Note: All results were unofficial at press time.]
In the 5th Congressional District, Democrat Mike Quigley easily won another term with almost 70% of the vote over his Republican challenger Vince Kolber. The vote was 136,165 to 49,467.
In the contest for the seat vacated by Tammy Duckworth in the 8th Congressional District, Raja Krishnamoorthi handily beat Elmhurst resident Pete DiCianni (R) 125,452 to 94,389 (58.1% to 41.9%).
It was a hand-wringer to the bitter end for Villa Park resident Tom Cullerton, but in the end, he squeaked past challenger Seth Lewis and won his second term of office in Illinois Senate District 23 by a vote of 42,127 (50.69%) to 40,984.
Incumbent Deb Conroy won a staggering victory over Heidi Holan 22,834 to 16,021, garnering 58.77% of the vote.
In other area races, Republican incumbent Peter Breen beat challenger Steve Swanson 30,359 (56.81%) to 23,079 (43.19%) in Illinois State House Dist. 48.
In Illinois House Dist. 77, Democrat Kathleen Willis held her seat for another term, beating Republican challenger Anthony Airdo 8,122 (63.15%) to 3,739 (36.85%).
Here are the results in the County Board Races:
Dist. #1, 2-year term:
Sam Tornatore (R) beat Richard Accomando (D) 32,280 (56.33%) to 25,023 (43.67%)
Dist. #1, 4-year term:
Donald Puchalski (R) bested Roland Waller (D) 32,016 (55.86%) to 25,296 (44.14%)
Dist. #2, 2-year term:
Richard F. Blass (R) topped incumbent Elizabeth Chaplin (D) 36,225 (50.23%) to 35,898 (49.77%)
Dist. #2, 4-year term:
Elmhurst resident Sean Noonan, the Republican incumbent, ran unopposed and received 56,209 votes.
Readers should be reminded that these results are unofficial. They were obtained from the DuPage County Board of Elections, the Cook County Board of Elections and the Illinois State Board of Elections.
