Lauzen tops Michels in 25th Senate GOP race

State Sen. Chris Lauzen resoundingly defeated opponent Sean Michels for the Republican nomination for the 25th Senate District.

With all precincts counted, Lauzen had 70 percent of the vote, according to Tuesday's unofficial totals.

The winner will face Democrat Leslie Juby of Geneva in the fall for the 4-year term.

Juby, a Geneva school trustee, had no opponent in the primary.

"I'm very gratified for people's landslide support," Lauzen said. "It shows that if you stand with your constituents rather than the political leaders and special interests, voters will back you up in the end."

Lauzen received 22,650 votes to Michels' 9,676.

Lauzen has been in for 18, first as state senator in the 21st District, then the 25th District.

Lauzen did not disagree with Michels' contention that he is on the outs with party leaders, particularly because he has sponsored legislation that would let voters select the parties' state central committeemen.

He said he would have supported the capital bill, until video gambling was inserted as one of the funding mechanisms. And he denied he was ineffective in representing the local needs of his district. And he criticized Michels, who is village president of Sugar Grove, over engineering contracts that village made while Michels was a trustee and president of a firm that until recently was owned by his father, James Michels.

As village president, Michels doesn't vote on matters unless there is a tie. As a trustee, he abstained several times from voting on the contracts in the late 1990s.

Michels said Tuesday he will support Lauzen in the fall.

"Chris has done a good job of calling people out on the issues ... we need good Republicans in office to correct the situation in Springfield," he said.

"He's got a bigger job, to really stop the bleeding."

Lauzen agreed. "All of our emphasis needs to be on getting people back to work," and cleaning up the budget mess, he said.