IL-09: Jan Schakowsky planning May 5 retirement announcement

[3catwoman3]

5. Wasn' t always. Districts were re-drawn in 2022.

We are currently in what is now Jan Schakowsky district, the 9th. We moved here in 1994, at which time this part of McHenry county was in the 6th district, and was represented by Henry Hyde of the infamous anti-abortion Hyde Amendment. Hyde held that seat from 1975-2007, and was succeeded by Peter Roskam, another arch-conservative, who was in office from 2007-2019. McHenry county is the only Chicago collar county that isn't blue.

Democrat Sean Casten finally wrested that seat from Republican hands in the 2018 election. We volunteered for one of his challengers in the 2018 primary. There were too damn many people in the primary - 7 in all. Casten beat the candidate we were working for by 1,790 votes out of a total of 67,013 votes cast. Here's the vote breakdown:

Candidate % Votes
Sean Casten 29.5% 19,774

Kelly Mazeski 26.8% 17,984

Carole Cheney 17.4% 11,663

Amanda Howland 12.7% 8,483

Becky Anderson Wilkins 6.0% 4,001

Jennifer Zordani 4.1% 2,743

Ryan Huffman 3.5% 2,365

IMO, at least the bottom 4 candidates should have had the sense to drop out of the primary. They had to have known they didn't stand a chance. When you're 10 points behind the leaders, why stay in?

Casten has done a good job so far. It will be interesting to see who the Dems run to hopefully succeed Schakowsky.
In the 2024 state and congressional contests, and the very recent municipal elections, things did not go well for McHenry county democratic candidates.