Moderate Judy Biggert held a narrow lead over conservative Peter Roskam on Tuesday in the battle for the 13th Congressional District seat in the U.S. House being vacated by seven-term U.S. Rep. Harris Fawell (R-Ill.).
With more than two-thirds of the primary votes counted, Biggert of Hinsdale had about 46 percent of the votes cast and Roskam of Naperville had about 40 percent in unofficial returns. Four other candidates in the crowded Republican field were trailing far behind.
The winner will meet Democrat Susan Hynes in the November general election. Hynes, 48, owner of a marketing and communications firm in Naperville and former chairman of the Democratic organization in Will County’s DuPage Township, ran a credible campaign against Fawell in her first bid for the traditionally-Republican seat two years ago when she garnered about 40 percent of the vote. She was unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.
In the 13th Congressional District GOP primary, David Shestokas, an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County, had about 4 percent of the vote; Walter Maksym, an Oak Brook-based attorney, had 2 percent; Andrew Clark, a retired project manager for AT&T had about 3 percent; and Michael Krzyston, president of a marketing services firm, received about 5 percent of the vote.
Also Tuesday, 6th District U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde of Bensenville and 14th District Rep. Dennis Hastert of Yorkville, both Republicans, ran unopposed for renomination. No Democrat filed to run in the primary in Hyde’s district. Hastert will meet St. Charles businessman Robert Cozzi in November.
In the 11th District, which covers a broad stretch of the south suburbs, Democrat Gary Mueller was leading Steve Barach by about 2,500 votes with 47 percent of the vote in. The winner will battle U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller in November.
To the north, state Rep. Jan Schakowsky held a narrow lead over state Sen. Howard Carroll in the three-way field in the heated race for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Sidney Yates in the 9th Congressional District, which covers parts of Chicago and the North Shore. With 44 percent of the vote counted, Schakowsky had 42 percent of the vote to Carroll’s 37 percent. Hotel heir J.B. Pritzker trailed with 20 percent.
And in the 8th Congressional District in the northwest suburbs, veteran Congressman Philip Crane was holding a 2-1 edge over challenger David McSweeney in the Republican primary with about half the votes counted.
The battle in the 13th District, which covers the southern one-third of DuPage County plus chunks of Will and Cook Counties, attracted national attention because Biggert and Roskam represented competing philosophies in the Republican Party. Each has served three terms in the Illinois legislature.
Biggert, 60, a lawyer and former president of the Hinsdale Township High School Board of Education, enjoyed strong support from Fawell, Gov. Jim Edgar, state Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) and other GOP moderates.
Describing herself as “fiscally conservative and socially aware,” Biggert supports abortion rights, a balanced budget and increased funding for public education.
Roskam, whose backers include Hyde and Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip (R-Wood Dale). is staunchly anti-tax and anti-abortion.
Roskam moved into the district only in January, just months after announcing his bid to succeed Fawell. He hounded Biggert over her vote for a $485 million school funding bill approved by the state legislature in November. The package included increases in cigarette, riverboat casino and telephone taxes.
But Biggert countered that her vote on the schools package should not be considered support of a tax issue, but rather an indication that she considers education a top priority.
She said she opposed an earlier version of the education funding package, which would have included a state income tax increase. She would have preferred to vote for a GOP plan that would have relied on the state’s budget surplus to fund increases in education aid, Biggert said, but that bill was never brought to the House floor.
