Two Du Page County state representatives appeared to be beating back challenges Tuesday.
In the Republican primary in the 39th District, State Rep. Ralph Barger of Wheaton was locked in a tight race with Vincent Persico of Carol Stream. Barger held nearly a 3-to-2 lead over the Glen Ellyn schoolteacher, but most of the early precincts counted were from Wheaton, where Barger is considered stronger. He is the city`s former mayor.
In the neighboring 44th District, Republican State Rep. James Stange of Oak Brook was coasting to an easy win over William Russ, who unsuccessfully tried to paint Stange as failing to represent the Cook County portion of his House district.
Stange was rolling up a 4-to-1 lead in the Du Page County side of his district. But counting on the Cook County side of the district was slow in early going Tuesday night.
In Du Page County`s state senate race, Republican State Sen. Judy Baar Topinka of North Riverside ran unopposed. In the Democratic race, the party`s endorsed candidate, Suzanne Osterbusch of Downers Grove, was neck and neck with Robert Pechous Jr. of Berwyn. Osterbusch leading by 46 votes with two-thirds of the returns in.
Pechous, elected last year to the board of Morton College, was counting heavily on a name-recognition factor-his father is a former state
representative and now Berwyn Health Department supervisor-to provide him a winning margin.
But heavy voting in Berwyn, apparently spurred by Berwyn Mayor Joseph Lanzillotti, who also is the regular Democratic organization township committeeman, could prove to be Pechous` undoing. Lanzillotti, in a half-page advertisement in local papers, last week declared that Pechous wasn`t the party`s choice.
In the northwest suburbs, meanwhile, a lawmaker was locked in a philosophical tug of war for his re-election. Rep. James Kirkland (R., Elgin) was trailing his chief opponent, attorney Peter G. Fitzgerald of Palatine as the first results of the hotly contested 66th District race were telephoned to his campaign headquarters.
On the Democratic side, a number of incumbents in key primary fights were clinging to early leads. Reps. Louis Lang of Skokie, Monique Davis of Chicago and LeRoy Van Duyne of Joliet were leading challengers in early returns.
Most other Democratic incumbents were expected to have few problems winning renomination, although Democratic strategists were carefully watching the re-election efforts of seven-term incumbent Rep. Douglas Huff, who is under federal indictment for extortion, conspiracy and income-tax fraud.
Lang, who was appointed to the House last July, was grasping a 500-vote lead over challenger Ira Silverstein, an attorney from Chicago.
Republicans were keeping a close eye on a contest in Kane and McHenry Counties between freshman Rep. Delores Doederlein (R., East Dundee) and James A. Alpeter of Dundee.
Kirkland, facing the most organized opposition in any of the state`s legislative contests, had to battle with Fitzgerald`s support from the conservative GOP organizations in Palatine and Barrington Townships and from the powerful Illinois State Medical Society.
Early returns from precincts in Fitzgerald`s home base showed Fitzgerald holding a 126-vote edge.
Despite his backing from House Minority Leader Lee Daniels (R., Elmhurst), Kirkland`s willingness to consider voting for a general tax increase last year and his vote against the financially well-heeled medical society on malpractice legislation cost him support in key areas of the district.
With contributions nearly twice those of the incumbent, challenger Fitzgerald was viewed as being more politically and philosophically attuned to conservative voters in the district which spans the wealthy suburbs of northwestern Cook County and the blue-collar areas of Elgin.
In Chicago`s 35th District, incumbent GOP Sam Panayotovich was expected to coast to a victory, and will face Clement Balanoff, 10th Ward Democratic Committeeman, in the November election. Balanoff, the son of a former state representative, declared an early victory over former State Sen. Glenn Dawson. With more than half the vote counted, Balanoff was holding a commanding 1,600- vote lead.
In the Senate, 12-year incumbent Sen. Earlean Collins (D., Chicago) was the only incumbent challenged in Tuesday`s voting. She was expected to again top Jesse Butler, a West Side minister who polled about 36 percent of the vote in an identical 1986 matchup.
