McConchie holds narrow lead in tight 26th District race

With more than 80 percent of the votes counted, Dan McConchie held a narrow lead early Wednesday morning in the tight race for the Republican nomination to replace retiring state Sen. Dan Duffy, according to unofficial results.

With 137 of 169 precincts reporting, the Hawthorn Woods resident had 10,387 votes, 36 percent of the total. Mettawa Mayor Casey Urlacher was just behind with 9,726 votes, 34 percent of the total, and Barrington Hills Village President Martin McLaughlin was third with 8,715 votes, 30 percent of the total.

Thr GOP primary for the 26th District seat ends an election campaign that at times descended into negative attacks in which the candidates argued about who is and is not a legitimate Republican or conservative.

Urlacher, brother of Chicago Bears legend Brian Urlacher, said he would provide fresh conservative leadership in the statehouse. He is in his third year as Mettawa's mayor.

McConchie, the vice president of government affairs for Americans United For Life, a national anti-abortion legal advocacy group, said he is a political outsider and national legislative expert. McLaughlin, who owns an investment advisory firm and oversees the investment of public and private pension assets, campaigned on his knowledge of pensions and his three years experience running Barrington Hills.

The 26th District is centered in the Barrington area and includes large portions of central and southwest Lake County, plus parts of northwest Cook County, northeast Kane County, and southeast McHenry County.

No Democrat filed to run for the seat, which Duffy, a Lake Barrington Republican, has held for the last eight years, but the party could place a candidate on the ballot before November.