The 40-year congressional veteran spoke Friday at his office in Harlem, a day after the ethics panel indicated he may have committed serious violations.

The panel did not disclose the allegations and Rangel declined to elaborate.

Rangel says he’s pleased that the matter will be addressed before the September primary election and the November general election. He says voters in his district deserve to know the truth about the allegations.

He says he’s eager to be able to tell voters the results of the investigation, “so that they would know who Charlie Rangel really is.”

Rangel says he’s ready to clear his name | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

A newcomer to politics, Watson is a retired Naval officer and high tech entrepreneur who has lived in Summerland, California  for 10 years. Along with three other local candidates he won the endorsement of Santa Barbara Tea Party after a stringent vetting process by the organization’s board.

“We were pleased to select Tom Watson as our preferred Congressional candidate,” reported Dr. Rolland Jacks, SBTP Communications Director. “He had shown his dedication to the Tea Party movement by participating in our activities and events as well as wholeheartedly expressing his appreciation for our group’s goals.”

On June 8, 2010, Watson won handily with 35.9% of the vote. The 49 year old Naval Academy Graduate and former US Navy F-14 flyer will now go on to defeat the incumbent, 72 year old Congresswoman Lois Capps, who has held the seat for six terms, following her victory in a special election in 1998 after her husband died while in office.

“I firmly believe in the Tea Party’s principles of limited government, lower taxes and upholding the Constitution,” said Watson. “SBTP has stood faithfully by me, and for that I am grateful. Their values are the values that have made America great.”

Santa Barbara Tea Party is a nonpartisan grassroots group of citizens dedicated to defending the principles set forth by America’s Founding Fathers. We are inspired by American heroes, from George Washington to Dolly Madison, who have fought for and represent the American Dream.

We are the core group that created and delivered Santa Barbara’s April 4, 2009 Tea Party with Lloyd Marcus and Tammy Bruce that garnered international media attention and spawned other Tea Parties along the California coast. Our Tea Party provides a public platform for education and advocacy toward our specific goals of limited government, lower taxes, and preservation of economic opportunity and the Bill of Rights.

SOURCE Santa Barbara Tea Party

Tea Party Congressional Candidate Wins Decisive Victory in 23rd CA District | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

But the results were mixed, as establishment candidates managed to win hard-fought races in Arkansas, California and Virginia.

Still, a tea party candidate claimed a key victory in Nevada, while in South Carolina, incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis was forced into a runoff by a challenger who attacked his vote for the 2008 Wall Street bailout.

Two of politics’ larger-than-life figures managed to cast shadows on the highest-profile races: Former President Bill Clinton played an active role in Arkansas’ U.S. Senate primary runoff, campaigning hard for incumbent  Blanche Lincoln as she fought back a tough Democratic challenge from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.

On the GOP side of the aisle, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement helped former tech executive Carly Fiorina win the  Senate primary in California and helped boost South Carolina state Rep. Nikki Haley to a runoff spot in the gubernatorial primary.

— Russ Walker is the elections editor of Yahoo! News.

ARKANSAS: Sen. Blanche Lincoln, with husband Steve at left, rejoices Tuesday in Little Rock. The incumbent eked out a surprise victory in her Democratic primary runoff against Bill Halter; she’ll face Republican U.S. Rep. John Boozman in her November re-election bid. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

ARKANSAS: Union-backed Lt. Gov. Bill Halter concedes to Lincoln in Little Rock. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

CALIFORNIA: Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman celebrates after easily defeating Steve Poizner to win the Republican nomination for governor.  (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/Lucy Nicholson)

CALIFORNIA: Democrat Jerry Brown talks to guests at his election-night party in Los Angeles. Currently the state attorney general, he was governor from 1975 till 1983 and wants his old job again. He faces Whitman in November. (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM/Mario Anzuoni)

CALIFORNIA: U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina arrives with husband Frank at the Anaheim Hilton to celebrate her victory in the Republican primary. A move to the right helped the former Hewlett-Packard CEO defeat Tom Campbell and Chuck Devore. (David McNew/Getty Images)

CALIFORNIA: Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, shown in an April 19 file photo, will defend her seat against Fiorina in November. Republicans are on offense in scores of House and Senate races nationwide as persistent economic woes and lukewarm support for President Obama weaken Democrats’ hold on Congress. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

SOUTH CAROLINA: In May, GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley campaigned in Columbia with the support former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, right. On Tuesday, Haley fell just short of the 50 percent she needed to win the primary outright; instead, she heads to a runoff. Haley’s campaign has been plagued by allegations that she had affairs with two political operatives, but Palin has stood by her endorsement of Haley, and that will probably help Haley defeat U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett in the June 22 runoff. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)

NEVADA: Tea party candidate Sharron Angle speaks to supporters in Las Vegas after winning the Republican U.S. Senate primary. A burst of late-race momentum boosted the little-known Angle — welcome news to incumbent Harry Reid. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

NEVADA: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, pictured May 26, will face challenger Angle in November. The CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM casts the race as “an epic showdown between a king of Capitol Hill and a conservative renegade who wants to turn Washington on end.” (Getty Images/Alex Wong)

NEVADA: Gubernatorial candidate Rory Reid, son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, exits a Henderson polling place after voting in the Democratic primary. He won. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

NEVADA: Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval votes Tuesday with daughter Marisa, 5, and son James Sandoval in Reno. He defeated scandal-plagued Gov. Jim Gibbons and will face Rory Reid in November. (AP Photo/James Glover II)

NEVADA: A Republican shows off his fashion accessories as he waits for primary election returns in Las Vegas.  Jim Gibbons became Nevada’s first incumbent governor in a century to lose a nominating election. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken)

SOUTH CAROLINA: Six-term U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis visits the Corner Pocket in Greenville after the election results come in. The advantages of incumbency weren’t enough for him to turn back Spartanburg County Solicitor Trey Gowdy, who attacked Inglis’ 2008 vote for the Wall Street bailout and won a GOP primary plurality. Gowdy and Inglis head to a June 22 runoff. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)

In Photos: Triumphs and defeats on Super Tuesday | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Atwater, the famed GOP operative who ran George H.W. Bush’s 1988 presidential campaign, was the universally acknowledged master of the political dirty trick — his was the diabolical mind behind the “Willie Horton” ad that did Michael Dukakis in — until a deathbed conversion in which he regretted the “naked brutality” of his career.

Atwater was also a native of South Carolina, and in recent months his home state has been living up to his political legacy in ways he never could have imagined — most recently with a Republican state senator using the slur “raghead” for GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, a Christian of Indian Sikh descent, and for President Obama.

South Carolina has always had a singularly mean-spirited and crafty political culture, especially on the GOP side, where dog whistles about race and religion come across loud and clear to its good ol’ boy base.

There were the rumors floated during the 2000 Republican presidential primary about a supposed illegitimate black child of Sen. John McCain, and there was the time in 1990 when political consultant Rod Shealy conspired to increase the turnout among anti-black white voters in the GOP primary by recruiting a black candidate (which he correctly reckoned would benefit his candidate) to run for Congress.

South Carolina has also of late become known for the sexual peccadilloes of Gov. Mark Sanford and the anti-Obama rage of one of its congressmen, Joe Wilson (he of the “You lie!” outburst during the president’s address to Congress on health care).

And now the state’s Republican primary for governor has tied those threads of political deviousness, sexual innuendo and white rage into an Atwaterian nightmare.

Front-runner Haley, an attractive “pro-family” candidate who has the backing of the tea party movement and Sarah Palin, has been the target of not one but two claims of infidelity to her husband — both lodged by conservative political operatives who claim to have slept with her. And on Thursday a state senator who is supporting one of Haley’s opponents casually referred to her as a “raghead” and claimed that she is a Manchurian candidate launched by a “network of Sikhs” to take over the governorship.

During a visit Thursday to “Pub Politics,” an online political chat show hosted from a bar in Columbia, S.C., state senator Jake Knotts said: “We already got one raghead in the White House; we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion.” Haley’s parents are Sikhs of Indian descent; she has converted to Christianity but still attends Sikh religious ceremonies on occasion out of deference to her parents.

According to the Columbia Free Times, Knotts also claimed that Haley was a plant being controlled by nefarious handlers:

Knotts says he believed Haley has been set up by a network of Sikhs and was programmed to run for governor of South Carolina by outside influences in foreign countries. He claims she is hiding her religion and he wants the voters to know about it.

The “raghead” remark seemed like an inevitable grace note in the gubernatorial primary. Knotts is supporting South Carolina Attorney General Andre Bauer’s candidacy, and this week a campaign consultant for Bauer named Larry Marchant came forward to claim he had a “one-night stand” with Haley — a married mother of two — at a school-choice conference in 2008. That allegation came just a week after Will Folks, a right-wing blogger and former campaign worker for Haley, claimed to have engaged in an “inappropriate physical relationship” with her.

Haley has categorically denied the charges and says she has been “100 percent faithful” to her husband.  Bauer, who fired Marchant and says he has had nothing to do with the charges of infidelity, has chosen a curious approach to staying out of the fray: He’s demanding that Haley take a lie-detector test to prove that she never cheated on her husband. Haley, meanwhile, has pledged that if she’s elected, she will resign if proof ever comes out that she did sleep with Folks or Marchant.

Neither Marchant nor Folks has come forward with proof of their claims, though Folks has released phone records showing that he frequently spoke to Haley on the phone late at night and claims to have seen a photo, allegedly taken by a private investigator, of himself and Haley in a “compromising position.”

As for Knotts, he has issued an apology for the “raghead” comment, claiming that it was “intended in jest” and that the “humorous content was lost in translation.” Though the “Pub Politics” show was webcast, host Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina political consultant, Tweeted that “technical issues” with prevented Knotts’ remark from being archived on the show’s site, so no video of it was immediately available. But he later Tweeted that he had his own version, as yet unreleased. (To add to the insular, high-school nature of the campaign’s glorious disarray, Donehue was the person Folks accused of first peddling Folks-Haley rumors to the press, allegedly prompting Folks’ confession.)

Even in his apology, Knotts managed to get another underhanded dig in at Haley, whom he says “is pretending to be someone she is not.” Bauer used identical language in his statement challenging her to a lie-detector test. The implication that she is, as Knotts put it, “hiding her true religion.” Meanwhile, the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody published a story Thursday saying her emphasis on her Christian faith has evolved over the years.

Haley has thus far used the bizarre attacks to her advantage, painting herself as a victim of a corrupt political culture, and has maintained a healthy lead in the polls. The primary is Tuesday, which leaves only three more days for Haley’s opponents to systematically eviscerate the myth of the Southern gentleman.

— John Cook is a senior national reporter/blogger for Yahoo! News.

‘Raghead’ slur is new ugly twist in S.C. race (The Newsroom) | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Gov. Pat Quinn, flanked by legislators from both parties, on Wednesday signed into law Senate Bill 355, which pushes the primary back for 2012 and beyond. The move was made after poor turnout during last month’s primary.

Quinn said signing the bill was a good day for democracy.

“It showed the exercise of democracy in making sure that we have as many people as possible participate in our elections,” Quinn said at a Statehouse news conference after signing the bill. “Democracy is not a spectator sport. It involves everyone.”

Primaries were moved to February in 2007 with bipartisan support in advance of the 2008 presidential primary election, which benefited then-Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential run.

Mullins said the February primary was too near the holidays, and the March primary is familiar to voters.

“A lot of people know there are elections in March,” Mullins said.

Many Illinois election judges spend most of the winter in warmer climates.

“A lot of the ‘snowbirds’ are back by the third Tuesday in March,” Mullins said.

Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aiello said the change should have little effect on his office.

He said voter turnout in February was 19 percent, compared to the March 2006 primary turnout of 18.8 percent.

One complaint from voters regarding the earlier elections was the increase of automated telephone calls in the last couple weeks leading up to it.

“The downside is the earlier election season,” Aiello said.

Matt Hopf can be reached at 782-3095.

Read the original article from The State Journal-Register.

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Mayor Daley said before the Feb. 2 Democratic primary, Quinn pledged cities would continue to get 10 percent of the state income tax money.

But now, Quinn is saying cities will get just 7 percent in the next budget.

If the cuts go through, the city will lose $300 million.

“This is a serious financial crisis, but it didn’t stop and just start after the primary. This was way before the primary – him coming before the Metropolitan Mayors’ Caucus and saying, ‘I’m with you. I support you. Nothing has changed from prior to the primary,’ after the primary,” Daley said.

Quinn’s office says dramatic measures are needed in these unprecedented times. The governor will outline his budget proposal on Wednesday.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

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The state Board of Elections voted Friday morning to declare the results from the Feb. 2 primary official. They said Brady won by 193 votes.

Brady’s closest opponent, state Sen. Kirk Dillard said in a news release Friday that it was a close race but that Brady ended up the winner.

Dillard says he’ll do whatever he can to help Brady defeat Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in November. They will also be up against Green Party candidate Rich Whitney.

Brady would offer voters a stark contrast with Quinn. Quinn is a Chicago resident familiar to voters across the state from his year as governor and his long history as a consumer activist. Brady is a Bloomington state senator and little-known in the Chicago region, where most voters live.

Quinn is a liberal on social issues and an outspoken advocate of raising taxes to help maintain state services. Brady opposes abortion and gun control and maintains that government spending should be slashed to close the biggest deficit in Illinois history.

Quinn’s experience is serving in public office or acting as a government watchdog and consumer advocate. Brady is a businessman and real estate developer who has spent 17 years in the Illinois Legislature.

Brady has already been taking aim at Quinn for some time. On Thursday, he tried to link Quinn’s early release of prison inmates to a fatal Springfield shooting, although he couldn’t explain just what he believed Quinn did wrong.

Brady said Jonathon Phillips, now in the Sangamon County Jail facing a murder charge, should still have been in prison for vehicular hijacking when he was accused of fatally shooting 24-year-old William Suggs Dec. 10. Instead, he was released after serving nearly three years on a six-year sentence.

Nothing indicates Phillips was part of the secret “MGT Push” release program that turned into a political embarrassment for Quinn. The administration says Phillips was not released improperly, but Brady disputed that, saying “they absolutely did something incorrect.”

Brady has also attacked Quinn on his handling of the state budget, and has called for across-the-board cuts rather than a tax hike as Quinn favors.

But Brady has also drawn consternation from opponents for some legislation he has introduced since the primary, including a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions in Illinois, and a bill that would allow for animal shelters to use gas chambers to euthanize multiple unwanted dogs and cats. Brady later backed away from the euthanasia bill.

Normally, the results of a primary are clear on election day, but officials said this race was perhaps the closest statewide election in Illinois history. Brady captured 20.26 percent of the vote in the GOP primary, while Dillard got 20.24 percent and five other candidates divided the rest.

The 193-vote margin amounts to 25 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all votes cast in the Republican race.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

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Tuesday is the deadline for counting absentee and provisional votes.

Election officials have five days to get the results to the state board of elections.

The primary race between State Senator Bill Brady and Senator Kirk Dillard has been too close to call.

• Watch Kirk Dillard on Good Day Chicago
• Watch Bill Brady on Fox Chicago Sunday

Brady is leading Dillard by just 420 votes. Dillard hopes the absentee votes narrow the gap, and he has not identified a threshold around which he would concede the election.

Both campaigns say they’ll follow the vote counts closely.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

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Pawnbroker Scott Lee Cohen said he had gotten in a fight with his drunken girlfriend, but that he never hit her.

However, court records tell a different story.

The police report said Cohen supposedly put a knife to her throat and pushed her head against a wall.

Gov. Pat Quinn said he knew nothing about the abuse allegations against Scott Lee Cohen until after Tuesday’s election.

While calling for Cohen to fully answer all questions about the charges, he predicted Cohen ultimately will have to drop out of the race.

“I think that will be the way it will go,” Quinn said at a news conference.

In an unrelated incident, the woman had been charged with prostitution six months beforehand. Cohen said he thought she was a massage therapist.

The misdemeanor charges were dropped when the victim failed to show up in court.

Read the original article from FOX Chicago News.

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Spokesman Matt McGrath says Hynes called Quinn to concede on Thursday morning.

Hynes had refused to bow out of the race the day after Tuesday’s primary, saying he was going to hold on until every vote was counted.

Hynes had trailed his rival for the Democratic nomination by a few thousand votes Tuesday, and Quinn’s lead has grown as more ballots have been counted.

With the Democratic race decided, the spotlight remains on Republicans, who have also been waiting for a primary winner to emerge in the governor’s race.

Hynes concedes democratic governor primary to Quinn | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

The spokesman says five years ago, Cohen was in the middle of a divorce and “he got involved with the wrong kind of people.”

The charge against Scott Lee Cohen in October of 2005: domestic battery.

He was accused of holding a knife to the neck of a 24-year-old woman and causing a “minor scar” – and pushing her head against the wall.

Cohen was arrested and $7,500 bail was set.

The case was dropped because the woman wasn’t in court.

The misdemeanor complaint says the woman was “a household member,” but she gave an address in Lake County, Illinois.

The woman had previously been charged with prostitution.

A spokesman for Scott Lee Cohen says Cohen had the woman arrested for destruction of property.

Steve Miller reporting

Read the original article from WBBM News Radio.

Domestic battery details surface of Dem nominee for Illinois lietenant governor Scott Lee Cohen | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

“I feel like I’m losing my country,” the silver-haired Winnetka resident said earnestly, over and over and over again.

Proclaiming himself the tea party candidate, Walsh expressed disappointment with Republican and Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., and he spoke of the fear and anger people across the country feel today.

“If I’m way off,” the 47-year-old Walsh told the Daily Herald last month, “I’m not going to win this primary.”

He wasn’t way off.

Despite facing hurdles that included a lawsuit by his former campaign manager, lackluster fundraising and criticisms of earlier liberal stances on some political issues, Walsh easily won the GOP primary Tuesday.

He’ll face Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean and Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer in November’s general election.

Walsh faces an uphill climb if he wants to beat Bean, who’s a member of the high-profile House financial services committee, suburban Republican leaders said Wednesday.

He’ll have to raise enough money to spread his message and be competitive – something Bean’s last GOP opponent couldn’t accomplish. He must also appeal to voters in a district that once was solidly Republican but has sent Bean to Congress three times.

Fortunately for Walsh, he has nine months to do it, said Dan Venturi, leader of the Lake County Republican Party.

“If the election were today, I would say Bean would win,” Venturi said. “But we have (nine) months, and that’s an eternity.”

Walsh topped a field of six candidates to win the Republican nomination in the 8th District, which includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties. All of the candidates espoused conservative Republican beliefs – opposing abortion, for example, and criticizing the Democratic health care reform plan.

But only Walsh claimed to represent the activists who held tea party protests last year, and it was only Walsh who talked of their anger and frustration and the need for, as he put it at a public forum last month in Barrington, a “revolution” in Washington.

He took the vitriol further at that forum by saying the race against Bean would be a war and that “she will be overrun.”

The approach was a hit with GOP voters Tuesday. Walsh won with 34 percent of the vote, far ahead of second-place finisher Dirk Beveridge, who managed 25 percent, unofficial results showed.

The GOP’s Venturi called the win “a bit of a surprise.”

“I think Joe did a better job getting at the tea party groups and the conservative base,” Venturi said. “He did a good job running a grass-roots campaign.”

That effort must build momentum if Walsh hopes to get the support of the national Republican Party and attract the millions of dollars a competitive congressional campaign requires, Venturi said.

The GOP already is focused on the neighboring 10th District race, which will pit Republican Robert Dold against Democrat Dan Seals for the seat being vacated by Senate candidate Mark Kirk.

If Republican forces think Walsh poses a real threat to Bean, they might sink some energy – and cash – into his campaign, Venturi said.

“If it’s a seven- or eight-point race, they’ll put money into it,” Venturi said. “But they won’t spend $3 million if it’s a 20-point spread.”

For updates, revisit dailyherald.com.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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But that process can’t even begin for another month, state election officials said Wednesday.

While unofficial totals show Republican Bill Brady of Bloomington clinging to a minute 500-vote lead over Kirk Dillard of Hinsdale, the results won’t be official until the Illinois State Board of Elections declares them so March 5.

No request for recounts can be made until then.

“Anything between now and then is speculation,” said Rupert Borgsmiller, election board assistant executive director.

On the Democratic side, unofficial results show Gov. Pat Quinn with a narrow 7,000 vote advantage over Comptroller Dan Hynes. Last night, Hynes said he wasn’t quitting, even as Quinn declared victory.

In some states, recounts are automatic if a race is within a certain margin, but not in Illinois.

After the vote is made official March 5, a candidate wanting a recount has to file a petition with the Illinois Supreme Court.

It comes with a fee of $10,000, but that amount might seem paltry to a campaign that has already spent many times that on ads and other promotions trying to win the election outright.

The Dillard campaign didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Republicans held a unity breakfast this morning intent on repairing the damage done by negative ads in a divisive primary campaign.

“I’m not sure what Sen. Dillard is going to do,” Brady said Wednesday morning.

By Mike Riopell, mike.riopell@lee.net

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Illinois recounts couldn’t start for at least a month | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

The general primary election turnout was “poor,” McHenry County Clerk Katherine Schultz said.

“It’s about what I was expecting,” she added.

The local turnout during primary elections varies but usually ranges from mid-to-upper 20 percent.

Tuesday’s voter turnout was 17.97 percent with 36,057 ballots cast, including early voting and absentee ballots.

Only late absentee ballots had yet to be counted.

Schultz said the early primary date might have affected the number of residents who voted.

“So many of your senior citizens are gone for the winter,” she said.

“Unless they’re following things back home, there’s probably quite a few of them that don’t realize there’s an election.”

By AMBER KROSEL – akrosel@nwherald.com

Read the original article from the Northwest Herald.

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Swarthout, the former Lake Forest mayor, took home the Republican primary nod for the sanitary district’s Ward 4 trustee seat over former sanitary district employee Alan Santi of Lake Bluff.

With 30 of 30 precincts reporting, unofficial vote totals show Swarthout won 1,326 votes for 79.5 percent of the total vote, while Santi received 342 votes for 20.5 percent.

No one was on the Democratic ballot.

Swarthout has served the eastern part of Lake County on the sanitary district board since 1973, except during the time he was Lake Forest mayor.

During his tenure, Swarthout said he always looked at the position as a job and the district as a business, not as politics.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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“This victory belongs to the people of Cook County, people who have demanded reform and accountability from their government,” Preckwinkle told about 150 chanting supporters at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza in Chicago.

“Today the people of Cook County have all spoken with one voice – black, white, Latino, Asian, gay and straight, North side, South side, West side, Chicago and the suburbs,” Preckwinkle said, promising to repeal the 1 percentage point sales-tax increase Stroger backed and saw imposed in 2008.

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Preckwinkle led with 49 percent of the votes.

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O’Brien had 22 percent, Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown had 14 percent, and Stroger trailed with 13 percent.

Preckwinkle’s lead was even larger in the suburbs, where she pulled in 53.6 percent of the vote.

On the Republican side, the slated candidate Roger Keats, a former Wilmette state legislator, led with 68 percent to 31 percent for Chicago police officer John Garrido.

Stroger cheered his county employees for “three very good years,” but also “an exhausting three years,” conceding, “Sometimes your message doesn’t get out.”

It was the voters, however, who delivered their message loud and clear in what amounted to a tax referendum on the sales-tax increase, which was half rolled back late last year over Stroger’s veto in a move to take effect in July.

O’Brien was actually the first Democrat to say he’d roll it back completely, and he told supporters Tuesday night that they had the momentum, but the clock ran out with the early primary. “We got our message out,” he said, “but the time frame was short.”

Keats called Preckwinkle “a friend of mine,” but said he was already looking to hit her on tax hikes she approved as a Chicago alderman, a line O’Brien tried against her but found ineffective.

Stroger insisted to the end the tax hike was necessary, though it brought Chicago’s overall sales tax to 10.25 percent, the highest for a major U.S. city.

“We have done a good job to maintain the county services,” he said in conceding defeat. “This is a bump in the road. Life goes on.”

Daily Herald Staff Writer Robert McCoppin contributed to this report.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

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The Illinois Board of Elections says turnout is lower than previous years.

Board of Elections spokesman Mark Greben says the turnout is below 30 percent of registered voters and the average has been 37 percent and higher in past years.

Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal says it started out as a very quiet day and was steady all day long. He says turnout likely won’t hit 30 percent for voters in the city.

He says all Chicago polls opened on time and closed on time.

Neal says there were only minor problems at polling places in the city, including three judges at three different precincts who were removed for drinking alcohol.

Illinois’ primary is the first election of 2010.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Officials say Illinois voter turnout lower than past | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Bye-bye, Burris, as in Roland, the Democrat who was appointed to the seat by bye-bye Blagojevich, as in Rod, the Democratic governor who was impeached for allegedly trying to auction off said nomination to fill bye-bye Barack’s briefly-held Senate chair.

The victor in the state’s once all-important Democratic primary tonight was State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.

The victor in the Republican primary going-away was Rep. Mark Kirk of the 10th District, an area once represented by John Porter and someone named Donald Rumsfeld.

Voter turnout was light on a snowy day, barely 30% state officials estimated.

A repudiation of the president’s party in the Land of Lincoln come November would be even more embarrassing than the repudiation of the president’s party in Massachusetts recently. There, Bay State voters elected Scott Brown as the first GOP senator from there since 1972, even before Richard Nixon admitted he was not a crook.

On the gubernatorial side, the races were much closer. Former Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who inherited the job upon Blago’s ouster, was holding a narrow primary lead over Dan Hynes, the state comptroller.

The three-way Republican race was too close to call among two state senators — Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard — and state party Chair Andy McKenna.

In the Senate race, both Kirk and Giannoulias face real challenges.

The five-term Kirk is a 50-year-old Republican who was born in Champaign but grew up in Chicago’s affluent northern suburbs that he now represents.

Kirk must harness the widespread anti-incumbent mood and convince Republican and independent voters statewide to pay more attention to his conservative, strong defense voting record and less to the socially moderate votes that served him well along the Lake Michigan shore.

Proving one’s true conservative credentials and dodging any taint of that new four-letter word — RINO — is fast becoming a crucial GOP litmus test across the country this year.

Kirk’s impressive fundraising skills will serve him well.

From Washington, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele chimed in late Tuesday: “With its unemployment rate among the worst in the nation, Illinois can no longer afford the binge spending and failed leadership of entrenched Democrats.”

Giannoulias will have the full-power of Chicago’s vaunted Democratic machine backing him.

But he comes from a family involved in a business that has become another four-letter word in the last year: bank. And the Giannoulias family’s Broadway Bank has had some trouble with regulators that party opponents used effectively against him.

Kirk may also mention this.

– Andrew Malcolm

Illinois primary election results; Kirk versus Giannoulias for senate seat | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Mix the high number of candidates with the short campaign season and experts predict that any one candidate could struggle to receive the majority of voter support.

“Every vote is going to count for the candidate you might favor,” said Macon County Clerk Steve Bean.

With the primary date coming just one month after the holiday season, voters have had less than 30 days to acquaint themselves with the multiple candidates asking for their votes.

Republican voters must choose among seven gubernatorial candidates, six lieutenant governor candidates and six U.S. Senate candidates.

Democrats must choose among two candidates for governor, six candidates for lieutenant governor and five for the U.S. Senate.

“It’s going to create some kind of ambivalence or confusion for whom to vote for,” said Larry Klugman, political science professor at Richland Community College.

The results of today’s primary will lead Illinoisans into a general election season where stakes are high for politicians, and the issues are serious for voters.

Republicans are trying to capitalize on voter frustration with the current Democratic leadership. As voters try to choose the best people to deal with the state’s $13 billion deficit, Democrats could be poised to lose some of their seats to Republicans.

“I don’t know when I’ve seen a primary where the actual stakes are so high,” Klugman said.

Despite the importance of the election, he doesn’t expect a repeat of the high turnout during 2008 primary election.

“I believe it’s an extremely important primary and there should be a big turnout, but I don’t see it coming,” he said.

Based on early voters and absentee ballots, Bean said he expects 10 to 15 percent of the county’s 71,000 registered voters to participate in the primary.

“Which is a little disappointing because of the primary races statewide,” Bean said.

“If there aren’t a lot of votes down here, then it’s all the impact of the votes in Cook County and the northern part of the state.”

In 2006, Bean said just 8,600 Macon County residents voted in the primary.

Two years later during the 2008 primary, nearly 27,000 voters were motivated to cast their ballot because of the presidential election and the possibility of changing Decatur’s form of city government.

Bean said he expected this year’s local races including the county treasurer’s office and the 51<+>st Senate District to draw more voter attention, but they’re just not doing the trick this year.

arueff@herald-review.com|421-6986

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Small turnout expected for today’s big stake’s election | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Mix the high number of candidates with the short campaign season and experts predict that any one candidate could struggle to receive the majority of voter support.

“Every vote is going to count for the candidate you might favor,” said Steve Bean, Macon County Clerk.

With the primary date coming just one month after the holiday season, voters have had less than 30 days to acquaint themselves with the multiple candidates asking for their votes.

Republican voters must choose between seven gubernatorial candidates, six lieutenant governor candidates and six U.S. Senate candidates. Democrats must choose between six candidates for lieutenant governor and five for the U.S. Senate.

“It’s going to create some kind of ambivalence or confusion for whom to vote for,” said Larry Klugman, political science professor at Richland Community College.

The results of today’s primary will lead Illinoisans into a general election season where stakes are high for politicians, and the issues are serious for voters.

Read the original article from Herald & Review.

Short campaign season closes with Tuesday’s primary | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.