Chicago, IL -
Low voter turnout certainly played into the mixed bag of results when it came to electing out LGBT judicial candidates in Illinois during Tuesday's primary.
Turnout was in the low 20 percent, making it the lowest turnout for a presidential primary in over 70 years, with only 308,063 of 1,288,293 registered voters showing up to polls in Chicago. While the voter apathy could be chalked up to no large Democratic contests on the ballot and the lack of enthusiasm for the weak Republican primary candidates, low voter turnout has real consequences in every race.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, the results appear to have both good news and bad news for getting greater gay and lesbian representation on the bench.
Mike Forti, a gay Democratic Cook County Judicial Circuit candidate for the Simmons Jr. vacancy, lost his race with 31% to Jessica O'Brien, who had 48%. Lesbian judicial candidate Deidre Baumann also appears to have lost in her bid for the Stewart vacancy with only about 8% of the vote, while winner Patricia Leeming garnered around 33%. Openly lesbian Judge Mary Trew also seems to have lost in her race for the 9th Subcircuit Epstein vacancy.
In the win column, lesbian judicial candidate Andrea Schleifer seems to have won with 61% of the cote in her Democratic race in the Rochford vacancy in the 12th Subcircuit. In the 8th Subcircuit, Cole vacancy, openly gay candidate John Ehrlich appears to have won with 35% of the votes, beating out the also gay candidate Brad Trowbridge's 10.49%. Gay attorney John G. Dalton also won his judicial primary without challenge in Kane County for the 16th Dist. 2nd Subcircuit seat, although he will still have to run against John Walters in the general election.
"Despite low participation, yesterday's election produced great results," concluded Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois. "In nearly 90% of the races, Equality Illinois PAC's endorsed candidates won the primary."
Turnout was in the low 20 percent, making it the lowest turnout for a presidential primary in over 70 years, with only 308,063 of 1,288,293 registered voters showing up to polls in Chicago. While the voter apathy could be chalked up to no large Democratic contests on the ballot and the lack of enthusiasm for the weak Republican primary candidates, low voter turnout has real consequences in every race.
With 98 percent of precincts reporting, the results appear to have both good news and bad news for getting greater gay and lesbian representation on the bench.
Mike Forti, a gay Democratic Cook County Judicial Circuit candidate for the Simmons Jr. vacancy, lost his race with 31% to Jessica O'Brien, who had 48%. Lesbian judicial candidate Deidre Baumann also appears to have lost in her bid for the Stewart vacancy with only about 8% of the vote, while winner Patricia Leeming garnered around 33%. Openly lesbian Judge Mary Trew also seems to have lost in her race for the 9th Subcircuit Epstein vacancy.
In the win column, lesbian judicial candidate Andrea Schleifer seems to have won with 61% of the cote in her Democratic race in the Rochford vacancy in the 12th Subcircuit. In the 8th Subcircuit, Cole vacancy, openly gay candidate John Ehrlich appears to have won with 35% of the votes, beating out the also gay candidate Brad Trowbridge's 10.49%. Gay attorney John G. Dalton also won his judicial primary without challenge in Kane County for the 16th Dist. 2nd Subcircuit seat, although he will still have to run against John Walters in the general election.
"Despite low participation, yesterday's election produced great results," concluded Bernard Cherkasov, CEO of Equality Illinois. "In nearly 90% of the races, Equality Illinois PAC's endorsed candidates won the primary."
