When Marco Sukovic, a 22-year-old Lincolnshire college student, threw his hat into the ring for state representative in Illinois House District 59, his campaign seemed to have a lot of potential.
Sukovic ran partially to challenge the Springfield status quo and put financial reforms in place, including tax reforms and term limits for legislators.
However, his bid to replace Rep. Carol Sente (D-Vernon Hills), who is not running for the seat again, folded Tuesday night, as Sukovic lost to his Republican opponent Karen Feldman by a 17 percent margin in the GOP primary.
With all of the votes in, the total showed Sukovic with 1,312 votes and Feldman with 1,869.
In analyzing the result, Sukovic’s campaign is likely to blame a series of mailers sent out on behalf of Feldman's campaign.
Sukovic called the content of the mailers “ridiculous” when they started showing up last month and suggested his opponent spent many thousands of dollars to send them.
“If her campaign is willing to waste that kind of money on these mailers, imagine the kind of money she’d be willing to waste in Springfield,” Sukovic said in a press statement.
The text of the mailers tries to paint Sukovic as an ally of embattled House Speaker Mike Madigan, stating that Sukovic is “Mike Madigan's favorite puppet “ and asking how much cash Sukovic gets from Madigan.
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