Lake County voters, who voted 54 percent to 46 percent to have Gov. Bruce Rauner face re-election in November, also decided the fate of four fiscal measures during the recent primary election, according to results posted on the county’s election results page.
Voters in Deer Park approved a village law regarding non-home rule sales taxes 74 percent to 26 percent, while voters in the Arden Shore North Fire Protection District authorized the district to increase its corporate limiting rate 91 percent to 9 percent.
Lake Zurich Community Unit School District 95 will now be able to issue $77.6 million in building bonds after voters approved the move 67 percent to 33 percent.
The new funds, which will be available just as the district pays off an existing $65 million issue from 2000, was necessary for educational progress, according to Superintendent Kaine Osborne.
“This vote shows us that the community trusts us to do what is right for their kids and to invest in the schools wisely for the next generation," Osburn told The Daily Herald.
Backers of the bond issue organized a group, Future 95, that explains the district is using $34 million of its reserve fund without depleting it to get the improvements underway.
The money will add modern classroom technology and air-conditioning to some schools and fund a new school to replace May Whitney Elementary.
However, the voters of Gavin School District 37 were not convinced of the merits of establishing a debt service extension base, defeating the proposal 55 percent to 45 percent.
The question about who will be facing off against U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) this fall in the 10th Congressional District was also answered.
Republican Douglas Bennett garnered 38 percent of the vote to defeat Jeremy Wynes and Sapan Shah for the right to challenge Schneider.
Bennett, the current vice chairman of West Deerfield Township, told the Chicago Sun-Times in January that one of his primary concerns in running for statewide office was high college tuition costs.
"I think education is one specific need that we really have to address," he told the Sun-Times editors. "When I went to school, tuitions cost about what a car would cost, and now they cost the equivalent of a new house."
Bennett also positioned himself as a champion of fewer regulations and increased government accountability, telling the Sun-Times he supported the REINS Act, which ties regulations that cost $100 million or more to Congressional approval.
In other races, Republican Erika Harold swept to victory in the GOP primary for attorney general, winning with 62 percent of the vote.
Harold, the 2003 Miss America pageant winner, used her contest winnings to finance a degree from the Harvard Law School, according to her campaign website. Already an exemplary student (she was a Chancellor's Scholar at the University of Illinois and member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society), Harold became an anti-bullying advocate, and practiced law for Sidley Austin LLP and Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.
Jason Helland, secretary of state; Darlene Senger, comptroller; and Jim Dodge for treasurer were all running unopposed in the GOP primary.
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