Mayfield easily retains 60th House seat

State Rep. Rita Mayfield, a Democrat from Waukegan, won re-election in Illinois’ 60th House District handily Tuesday.

With all 51 precincts counted, unofficial vote totals show Mayfield received 20,133 votes, or about 75 percent. Her Republican challenger, Jackie Burleson received 6,844 votes, or about 25 percent. Tuesday’s vote totals did not include early-voting or vote-by-mail ballots.

“I’m grateful to the voters for letting me fight for them in Springfield for another term,” Mayfield said Tuesday night.

Mayfield identified pension reform as the biggest issue facing state leaders. She said she’s interested to see how Tuesday’s statewide ballot question about public pensions will affect the issue. The question asked voters whether they want to make it tougher for governments to increase employees’ pension benefits.

Burleson, a Waukegan Township resident who works in construction, admitted early on he was a longshot to win.

Mayfield had thousands of dollars at her disposal for campaign signs and other advertising, state board of elections documents revealed. Burleson, meanwhile, didn’t raise enough money to reach the $3,000 threshold that would require him to file paperwork with the state.