Next up for Greenberg: Bean

Long Grove businessman Steve Greenberg had a sizable lead over two other Republicans on Tuesday in the quest to face Democrat U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean for Illinois' 8th Congressional District seat.

With ballots in 512 of 521 precincts counted, Greenberg dominated with 28,351 votes, or about 57 percent. Kirk Morris of Gurnee was second with 11,325 votes and Kenneth Arnold of Gurnee had 9,916 votes.

The 8th Congressional District covers Lake, McHenry and Cook counties.

Representatives of the Democratic and Republican congressional committees and many local political observers had predicted Greenberg would win Tuesday.

Greenberg acknowledged the support he's had from a GOP congressional fund-raising effort but said he earned "the people's endorsement" Tuesday.

"We knew we head the team and the grassroots support that would take us over the finish line," he said. "People feel we have the right message, and that's going to resonate with Democrats, independents and Republican voters alike."

In the Democratic primary for the 2-year seat, Bean was cruising past poorly funded challenger Randi Scheurer of Lindenhurst. With ballots in 512 of 521 precincts counted, Bean had 61,990 votes to Scheuer's 12,579.

Bean's camp in the primary barely acknowledged she even had a challenger.

Instead, Bean campaigned for presidential hopeful Barack Obama and promoted legislative proposals.

Bean, who attended Obama's election night event, declined to look ahead to a likely Nov. 4 general election showdown with Greenberg.

"I'm enjoying the moment with Barack tonight," Bean said. "We'll go there when we have to."