Quigley wins Democratic nomination

Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley bested 11 other Democrats to win his party's nomination Tuesday in a special primary to fill the seat of former U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who left Congress to be President Barack Obama's chief of staff.

A heavily Democratic district that includes Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, Quigley becomes the immediate favorite in an April 7 special election against GOP and Green Party candidates. The winner of that election will finish out the two-year term Emanuel won in November before he resigned.

"After all we've been through in Illinois in the last six months or so this is really the first chance the voters have had to say 'Enough is enough, we're voting for change and reform,'" Quigley told supporters.

Quigley, who has been a Cook County commissioner since 1998, campaigned as a reformer and fiscal watchdog. His reputation for taking on establishment Democrats in Cook County earned him the endorsements of both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Quigley had 11,714 or 22.2 percent of the vote.

Tuesday's primary pitted a dozen Democrats against each other, including Quigley, longtime Chicago Alderman Patrick O'Connor and state Reps. Sara Feigenholtz and John Fritchey.

Fritchey had 9,409 or 17.8 percent of the vote and Feigenholtz had 8,915 or 16.9 percent of the vote with 95 percent of precincts reporting. O'Connor was in 4th place with 6,083 or 11.5 percent.

"Mike is going to make a great congressman and I am going to be proud, along with all of you, to have him as the next congressman of the 5th District," Feigenholtz told supporters.

The race also included six Republicans and five Green Party candidates in a district that stretches from Chicago's wealthy North Side lakefront to ethnic enclaves on the northwest side and neighboring Cook County suburbs.

On the Republican side, Rosanna Pulido led the pack with 915 votes or 25 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting. Pulido is director of the Illinois Minuteman Project, part of a national volunteer civilian border patrol group that wants to stem illegal immigration.

The Green Party leader was Mathew Reichel with 164 votes, or 34.3 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting.

Voter turnout was low in the 578 precincts of the district. The 5th Congressional District has 348,678 registered voters in the city of Chicago and Cook County suburbs.

"It's always low in a special primary," said Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections. "There's a short amount of time to get to know the candidates. There's not as much enthusiasm or knowledge as you'd have with a presidential or gubernatorial election where there are months of buildup or scrutiny."

The race to the Tuesday's special primary was more like a sprint. Candidates had just two months to campaign and will have another month before the April 7 special election that will decide the district's next representative.

Voting traffic at the Lakeview East Cooperative Tuesday morning was steady but it wasn't busy, poll workers said.

Don Doughman said he voted for Quigley in part because of what he considered a barrage of negative campaign ads by Feigenholtz.

"I always vote for Sara, but we want change and that's not the way to do it," said Doughman, a 62-year-old sales representative for a downtown Chicago business.

Doughman also liked that Quigley drew support from Cook County politicians he considered reform-minded, including Quigley's fellow commissioner, Forrest Claypool.

"We need some cleaning up in this county," he said.

But it didn't take Ken Bellis, 44, long to cast his vote for Feigenholtz.

The 12-year district resident, who had voted for Emanuel, had previously voted for Feigenholtz as a state representative because of her support for gay rights and issues affecting people with disabilities.

Martin Plesha emerged from the polls with a one-word answer for how he voted: "Republican."

The 47-year-old, who runs a program business at Wrigley, said he always comes out for elections, even primaries. He said he thought it was important to get out the Republican vote in the Democratic stronghold.

The largely white district of Poles, Germans and Irish with a sizable Hispanic population has been Emanuel's since 2002. The district has voted overwhelmingly Democratic in past elections for Emanuel. It's the same seat once held by Blagojevich and former House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski.