Democrats gaining in Springfield
Democrats were riding massive turnout Tuesday to possibly pad their numbers in the Illinois House and defend their overwhelming majority in the state Senate.
Early tallies had unexpectedly close Illinois House races in GOP stronghold DuPage County, and toss-ups across suburban Cook County where several incumbent Republicans faced tough re-election bids.
"So far I think we see a likely pickup of two seats," said Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker and Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan of Chicago.
In the House, all 118 seats were up for election, but only half featured contested races.
Before a single vote was cast, Democrats were assured 42 seats because the incumbent had no opposition. With a 67-51 advantage coming into Tuesday's election, the Democrats needed four seats to have supermajority status and be able to override the governor's vetoes and take other action without needing GOP input.
On the other side of the aisle in the Illinois House, Republicans had far fewer sure wins and even more uncertainty as election night wore on.
"We're up against unbelievable turnout and Democratic wins at the top of the ticket," said David Dring, spokesman for House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego. "We hope we can hold onto as many seats as we can."
Des Plaines Republican Rosemary Mulligan appeared to again fend off a Democratic challenger, but Elgin GOP Rep. Ruth Munson's re-election bid remained too close to call. She had 48 percent of the vote to Democrat Keith Farnham's 49 percent and Green Party candidate Dane Willman's 3 percent, with 97 percent of the vote in.
In the state Senate, Democrats were all but guaranteed of keeping control of the 59-member chamber. Entering Tuesday, they were assured of 26 seats either because incumbents weren't on the ballot this year or Democrats had no opposition. That's compared to 13 GOP seats in similar circumstances.
The key question for the Senate was whether Democrats could keep their supermajority status by retaining control of at least 36 seats. Two years ago, Democrats gained four suburban seats previously held by Republicans in pushing their ranks to 37.
Early tallies suggested that's where they'd remain, though they had opportunities to build their numbers.
In Lake County, Republican Dan Duffy of Lake Barrington defeated Democrat Bill Gentes of Round Lake, according to unofficial tallies. This Senate seat was left open by the retirement of longtime GOP member Bill Peterson, but Gentes' misleading statements to the Daily Herald about his employment hurt his candidacy and Democrats' chances of picking up this seat despite a strong turnout for Barack Obama in Lake County.
But freshman Democratic Sen. Linda Holmes of Aurora appeared to defend her seat, reporting 54 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Republican Terri Ann Wintermute of Bolingbrook, according to unofficial results.