By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Don’t get too excited about the results of Tuesday’s primary elections, particularly in Chicago. The results don’t represent either a mandate for, or a categorical rejection of, anyone or anything. They can’t when just 20.2% of Chicago voters cast a ballot on Tuesday, likely a new low according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
What the results do represent is a growing voter apathy. On both sides.
This election should have been a dominating one for the Chicago Teachers Union and its de facto leader, Mayor Brandon Johnson. Union members could have helped produce a new $100 million tax to benefit their allies and themselves. They could have put in power an establishment state’s attorney picked to perpetuate the criminal and social justice agenda led by current office holder Kim Foxx. Instead, the union vote didn’t materialize. For CTU’s leadership, this election should be considered a disaster.
On the other side of the voting ledger, crime has dominated the news, and so has the illegal immigration crisis. Few in Chicago are happy with the progressive leadership under Mayor Johnson. Protest votes should have been out in full force. The numbers should have been big. Instead, most people stayed at home.
Yes, the opposition, if you can call it that, may squeak out some wins, but be careful what you make of them. The main message may be that the unions weren’t motivated to come out and organize the votes. There probably wasn’t enough money at stake for them. What’s a $100 million? And they simply couldn’t tell the difference between the two Cook County State’s Attorney candidates in the primary race. So they stayed away from the polls.
Elsewhere in the state, voter apathy was also in full display. Many outlets reported “shockingly” low voter turnout, from Decatur to Mattoon to Rockford (just 12%!). Regardless, the few people who did vote decided several important races.
Here are four takeaways we observed:
1. Mayor Johnson loses big either way.
The real estate transfer tax hike, an initiative spearheaded by Mayor Johnson, likely failed to pass with nearly 54% of voting Chicagoans voting no. There is still a significant number of mail-in votes to count, but expectations are that the referendum will fail. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been called yet. (Add the inability to decide outcomes on election night as another reason for growing voter apathy.)
The referendum is a blow to Johnson whether it wins or loses. He wasn’t able to motivate Chicagoans to come out. Sure there was fanfare, with the CTU marching CPS students to the polls. Johnson even structured the tax to provide small relief to the overwhelming majority of Chicagoans – only hitting the city’s wealthiest homeowners and businesses. It was the perfect soak-the-rich campaign that should have won easily.
2. Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle also loses.
As of this writing, the race between Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris III for the Democratic candidacy for Cook County State’s Attorney is too close to call, but Burke has a slim lead.
Whoever wins won’t make much difference to Chicagoans, as neither is likely to dramatically change direction from Kim Foxx’s tenure.
The results are bad news for Toni Preckwinkle, as she backed Harris. Even if he somehow ekes out a win over Burke, the fact that the race was so close – and so few people voted – shows Preckwinkle’s influence over Cook County isn’t as ironclad as she thinks it is.
3. Members of Illinois’ Freedom Caucus crush attempts to take them out.
Members of the downstate Republican Freedom Caucus, Reps. Adam Niemerg, Blaine Wilhour and Brad Halbrook, all handily survived primary challenges this Tuesday.
The victories of Wilhour and Niemerg are particularly notable as they both faced teachers-union backed opponents. Wilhour won with a resounding 79% of the vote and Niemerg won an even bigger 88%.
And that’s after the unions spent several hundreds of thousands backing their candidates.
4. Mixed results on school district tax and bond referendums.
Results for school district bond and tax referendums were typical, with a mix of propositions passing and failing.
Notable referendum failures include Avoca SD 37’s (Wilmette) bond referendum, the details of which we covered here, with over 75% of voters saying no. Central SD 301’s ask for $195 million in bonds also failed, with more than 63% of voters casting a no vote.
Both those referendums faced a tough opposition of concerned residents, which goes to show that taxpayers can successfully band together and prevent wasteful spending if they organize.
In contrast, Glenbard Township High School District 87 managed to get its $183 million project approved – albeit just barely. The referendum passed 50.2% to 49.8% with a difference of just 89 votes.
As we covered earlier this month, the district’s pro-referendum machine spent more than $50,000 to get the proposal over the finish line while facing no major, formal opposition. The result would very likely have been different if residents had been able to officially organize.
*******
A final takeaway. Maybe, just maybe, the low voter turnout points to a real opportunity for those in the opposition – for those wanting to turn Illinois around. It takes fewer and fewer votes to win something these days.
The question is, does any real, principled, large-scale opposition exist anymore? And can it make its case, convincingly, to get out the vote?
For now, I think we know the answer.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Chicago criminals out on probation/parole/pretrial release continue violence in 2024
- Illinois lawmakers’ killing of school choice looking more absurd as Alabama, Tennessee, Texas set up choice expansions
- Pace of electric vehicle adoption must quadruple to reach Illinois goal
- Privilege, affinity and equity: How DEI is playing out in Illinois schools
- New Census release: 2023 data shows counties across Illinois still losing population
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Looks like Stan Marsh had his computer taken away from him by his mom. Life in her basement is now really lonely. A worn out GI Joe doll and some old National Geographic magazines with pictures of skimpily clothed natives are that’s left to entertain him. Poor Stan, lonely, forgotten, friendless, with no life. Sucks to be Stan
As a conservative voter in Illinois it makes absolutely no sense for me to vote in any statewide election. My vote for President, Senator, Governor or any other state wide office means nothing. In the rural areas there are more voters in one ward in Chicago than total voters in some entire counties. Local elections my vote could count. I’ve thought about it over and over again and the frustration of seeing Chicago/Cook County with their hands around the throats of conservatives has me convinced that it’s just not worth my time. Unless the democrats in this state open their… Read more »
You’re right. It makes no sense for you or other conservatives to vote. Spread the word to your MAGA friends.
You apparently are one of those people who have their heads stuck up their behinds and can’t/won’t notice the destruction the democrats have caused and are causing across the nation. It’s quite apparent that you being stupid can’t be fixed.
I vote and you don’t. Your opinion is worthless. You’ll do as the voters say and pay the taxes that the voters decide. Sucks to be you.
It bery nice of you to expose yourself to the majority of the readers here at Wirepoints as a flaming idiot. Suffering from the Trump Derangement Syndrome and living in mom’s basement as a keyboard warrior is frosting on your cake of stupid. I’m sorry for you being the object of so much scorn annd derision in your life and too bad you had to wear the pointy hat while staring at the corner while in school. The fruit of stupidity doesn’t fall far from the tree and you are absolute proof.
I vote in a red state where my vote counts. While I have known for most of my years that Illinois is a one party state, many folks never thought it would be openly and proud to be Marxist. You will reap what you sow. Because in the end no stone will be left unturned until they come for you which is absolutely the case here. You can jump for joy but unless you have a solid plan B when it does happen you will no doubt run for cover keyboard warrior.
Yet, they openly mock our candidates, and they mock us when we lose, because the game is rigged. You don’t live in a Democracy. You live in a Blue State(tm) where dissent will be crushed.
It’s hard not to mock the MAGA ignorance.
I vote, every election, including Tuesday’s primary with record low turnout. But our plight as Republicans in Illinois is no different than being a Democrat in Indiana. The problem is that we Republican are a million votes short statewide to make any effective change. My I’m not sure where these new Republican voters are going to come from because they haven’t showed up to the polls since Edgar was reelected. JB Pritzker managed to find 800,000 new Democrat voters in 2018 under extremely, extremely suspicious circumstances. My personal belief is that they were all gathered through ballot harvesting fraud. Hundreds… Read more »
Everyone seems to forget that Mark Kirk was elected in 2010 and Rauner in 2014. We win some statewide mid-terms. But after 2016, and JB’s 800,000 fraudulent vote machine in 2018, there’s no coming back unless we find 1,000,000 new voters, real or fake, alive or dead.
Perhaps you should convince OK Boomer Paul to vote. Instead he’s just a tax donkey.
Are you sure you are not the jack ass? Please clarify for all of us.🤣🤣🥁
So you don’t pay taxes? Probably do so I guess you’re a tax sheep, the ones that follow their democrat overlords as obedient toys of their herd. Looking at the comments, you are most definitely a failed individual.
You’ve certainly demonstrated your intellectual superiority with your comments here.
Rock the vote!
You’ve got to be kiddding
Maybe it isn’t voter apathy but voter disgust? I can’t imagine why any Union member other than the CTU would find any benefit to them in our current open border policies. I can’t imagine any law abiding citizen living in the low income crime ridden neighborhoods finding any benefit in the soft on crime policies of the State’s Attorney. I can imagine people in both these groups not willing to ask for a GOP ballot for the first time and skipping the whole enterprise all together.
I spoke with two Chicago Dems (which are to the left of the Normie dem) the other day over a couple of beers and this topic came up. They were like “yeah, it’s disorderly but we need workers”. I explained that many of the teenage girls are raped coming over, the single men have abandoned their families at home, they live in the streets and in tents because they have no marketable skills, they overwhelm the schools, the hospitals, and the public services. And they were like “Yeah, you’re right, but we’ll work through it”. I said it’s a humanitarian… Read more »
Never let a crisis go to waste. Seems to be their MO and unfortunately it’s is destructive to the republic.
They won’t work through it because the money will run out or become worthless through inflation. In late December 1979, the bankers quit supporting school bonds and the teachers missed a few paydays. Jayne Byrne eventually ordered the police pension fund to purchase school bonds. Anyone who has ever borrowed off one credit card to pay another credit card knows the folly of juggling money. Chicago is there now!
“The underlying psychology of “us and them” appears grounded in deep-rooted human tendencies to carve the world into groups and discriminate in favor of one’s own.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/tribalism-myth-group-solidarity-prejudice-conflict/621008/ If this sort of mutual back-scratching is a built-in “characteristic” of evolved humans, what hope do we [or anyone] have of making it go away? The Seventh Commandment has not eliminated adultery (for example). Is this also why we have no-fault divorce? OR, why we have persistent support for legalized abortion? What supposed verities no longer apply? Agreed that making shoplifting and littering mis-demeanors (like most speeding tickets) compounds lawlessness. It seems increasingly… Read more »
I see your point but I would disagree where there is nowhere left to run as there is always a place to run. It’s about what values a people, place, or location has at its heart. If you have a clear idea of what is important to you and your family, I think there are locations more favorable than others. Example for myself, I won’t be near any major urban areas (they are already collapsing) and near any Marxists. Grab a globe and start looking. Plenty of places under your nose. Just avoid the cities as that will not be… Read more »
When you calculate the spending on the bond dealer promotions at Avoca, you have to look at the intangible of groups like the League of Women Voters of Wilmette actively campaigning, but not submitting any campaign finance documentation.
They do it every time around here. But they never register with the Illinois State Board of Elections, and there is no enforcement or penalty for their campaign finance violations.
I have to pushback on the “no difference” between Harris and Burke.
She will actually try and prosecute violent criminals, gun crimes. Foxx didn’t even try.
VoiceofTruth, I hope you’re right. My first impression was that she would be better. She talked about detention and enforcing the $300 felony theft threshold.
But she must have gotten a lot of pushback. She walked that back and said there were plenty of ways these criminals wouldn’t be detained – first timers, other courts, etc.
And then she pushed hard her progressive credentials over and over – it was clear she didn’t like how she was being labeled.
In the end, IMO, it was hard to differentiate between the two of them.
What surprised me in CI was how many Democrats went and voted for Haley. They are like terrorists, intent on disruption for no good.
Also, the new balloting machines are not near as ‘secure’ as the old ones. Surprise. Slide your ballot into the scanner and hope all is well – you will never know. But this is what Democrats want – a way into the process via machines just in case the outcome isn’t certain state wide.
I noticed that Logan Square, an area seeing unprecedented amounts of crime, still elected an even more progressive alder person than the one they had. Some people can’t stay out of their own way.
Voters see little point in going to the polls when there’s no competitive races or the fix is clearly in. It’s starting to feel like Russia around here…
I am watching this from a distance. I don’t disagree with points about low turnout, voter apathy and so on. But I note that the progressive tax amendment failed badly in 2020 and this Bring Chicago Home tax with all of the “right” tax the rich factors failed to pass as well. It is as if a cadre of voters no matter the turnout just don’t trust governments in Illinois in their expenditure of funds. I am not sure Johnson or Stacy Davis Gates are contemplative types but if they can’t pass a relatively modest BCH tax with all of… Read more »
I mostly agree with what you say, but in 2020, the progressive tax won the majority in Chicago, 71 to 29, but lost throughout the rest of the state quite miserably. Which goes to my point, conservatives can win if there is low voter turnout. But we learned quite succinctly after Dan Proft’s 2022 PAC, that only Democrats can discourage Democrats from voting. Republicans don’t influence Democrats at all, not one iota. This election it’s looking very much like Democrat apathy all around the country. Republicans have some ‘red flags’ too, as the Democrat media likes to point out repeatedly,… Read more »
debtsor – clearly you have a point because Chicago overwhelmingly voted for the Fair Tax in 2020 while the rest of the state rejected it. But with the BCH tax there had to be Democrats (low turnout or not) rejecting the tax. It appears that the if the population gets a taste for a sufficient period of time of leftist governance the ability to raise taxes becomes far more difficult. At some level the lack of trust factor kicks in. This has to give pause to the First We Get the Money crowd.
What you now have in Illinois is a generational problem. When the public is less and less educated, each generation makes the next one less capable. Add to that each generation leaving the next with more and more debt, the final result is predictable. After many years of election defeats, much of the opposition to the progressive/liberal/woke agenda has either left Illinois or just given up. Can you blame them? Fighting against the Dem agenda makes sense if you believe the voters are simply ignorant of the truth. When you come to realize too many voters are simply under educated… Read more »
well said
And there are just a lot of Democrats in the state. They outnumber Democrats 55:45.
This is the first primary that I have not voted in in a long time, I’m in Iroquois county and they threw us in with the south side of Chicago for state rep. Though the one they gave they boot with redistricting is good riddance too.
But I get tired of the one sided elections. it’s either no opposing candidate or vote for not more than three and they list three.
The GOP keeps asking for money but what for? Springfield needs to face RICO charges.
The IL GOP sucks bad but its the voters’ fault too. The gerrymandered maps were drawn based on voting habits. If there are untold numbers of non-voting Republicans in any of these D+10 or less districts, we could swing these elections towards Republicans. Then Republicans would run in these districts for races that aren’t completely futile. So voters need to do their part first to prove they exist. It’s not a chicken or the egg thing. Republican Voters need to prove they exist, otherwise we’re not going to run candidates in futile races.
The IL GOP has given up on corruption and patronage to a great extent.
Have to ask yourself, is it worth it? I think we could promote patronage and award contracts based on political support and still avoid corruption.
Didn’t work under Rauner, as he still used the same Democrat hacks for patronage and contracting, and left his supporters out to hang.