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GOP candidates prevail despite gay marriage vote

Suburban Republican lawmakers who voted in support of same-sex marriage were not penalized by conservative voters in their primary elections Tuesday.

State Reps. Tom Cross of Oswego, Ed Sullivan of Mundelein and Ron Sandack of Downers Grove all won their primary bids.

Sandack, a Downers Grove Republican, had the closest race out of the three lawmakers. He defeated teacher Keith Matune of Downers Grove by about 100 votes, according to unofficial results.

“I anticipated it would be a tough battle and it was,” Sandack said Tuesday.

Matune ran a campaign attacking Sandack's voting record, including the same-sex marriage vote.

He questioned Sandack's loyalty to the Republican party by saying Sandack's vote for same-sex marriage sided with “Chicago Democrats.”

The race drew a huge amount of campaign cash for an Illinois House primary race, barraging voters with robotic phone calls, TV ads and a blitz of attack mailers.

Meanwhile, Cross defeated DuPage County Auditor Bob Grogan to be the GOP nominee for state treasurer. He defeated Grogan by more than 101,000 votes, according to unofficial reports. Cross will take on Democratic state Sen. Mike Frerichs of Champaign in the general election this fall.

“I am humbled by the support of my fellow citizens and focused on working every day to restore fiscal sanity to our state,” Cross said in a prepared statement Tuesday.

Grogan made it clear last year that he wouldn't look to make same-sex marriage an issue in the race.

“I'm running for treasurer, and treasurer doesn't have a lot to do with that topic,” Grogan told the Daily Herald last November. “How Tom Cross votes on it is not relevant to me.”

Sullivan, a Mundelein Republican, won comfortably against challenger Bob Bednar of Mundelein.

Bednar didn't draw nearly the conservative support and backing Matune did against Sandack.

Sullivan was the first House Republican to go public with his intentions to back same-sex marriage last year and said his vote displays how he can reach across the aisle to work with Democrats.

Sullivan won by more than 1,400 votes, according to unofficial results.

Ron Sandack, right, won Tuesday's GOP primary for the 81st Illinois House District over challenger Keith Matune.
Bob Grogan
  Tom Cross Mark Black/mblack@dailyherald.com
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