(The Center Square) – With nearly half of Illinois’ votes counted, Kamala Harris is the projected winner of the state’s 19 Electoral College votes. Harris is at 57%. Former President Donald Trump is at around 41%.
One of the issues before the state’s voters is the non-binding advisory question asking whether millionaires should pay a 3% surcharge for property tax relief. With less than half of the vote counted, about 63% are in favor, 37% are not.
Former Gov. Pat Quinn has been promoting the idea.
“So that’s 77,323 millionaires, if they had to pay 3% more would generate $4.5 billion for property tax relief in Illinois,” Quinn recently told an Illinois House committee.
The Illinois Policy Institute said such an idea is bad for business.
“This could create the highest tax on businesses in the country and further damage the state economy,” the group said in a statement. “It would do so without generating nearly enough to cover the state’s own bills, let alone provide meaningful property tax relief to homeowners.”
The other two referendums, one about access to fertility treatments and another about election worker safety, both have wide margins approving the non binding questions.
In a congressional race that was circled as a possible seat that could flip, the 17th Congressional District just might do that. Although it is early with only about 20% of the votes counted, Republican challenger Joe McGraw is leading Democratic incumbent Eric Sorenson 51% to 49%.
In other races, Democrat Nikki Budzinski leads her Republican challenger Josh Loyd in the 13th Congressional District 56% to 44%. In the 12th Congressional District, Republican Mike Bost has a commanding lead over Democrat Brian Roberts 77% to 23%.
The 6th Congressional District was expected to be a tight one, but now Democratic incumbent Sean Casten leads over Republican challenger Niki Conforti 54% to 46%.
Democrats appear to be maintaining their control in the city of Chicago and Cook County.
In the battle to replace outgoing Democrat State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, Eileen O’Neill Burke leads Republican Bob Fioretti, 60% to 36% with more than 1,200 of 1,430 precincts reporting. Democrat county clerk candidate Monica Gordon leads Republican Michelle Pennington 60-36% as well. Democrats have solid leads in the city’s congressional races.
In Chicago Board of Education races, results are mixed so far for teachers union-endorsed candidates.
