First Reading

              November 2008
ILLINOIS GENERAL ASSEMBLY LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH UNIT
V
olume 22, No. 2
InSide this iss ue
Biographies of
New House Members
2
Biographies of
New Senate Members
5
96th General Assembly
Senate Members
6
96th General Assembly
House Members
7
Members Not Returning
to Current Office
8
Abstracts of Reports Filed
With General Assembly
9
L
incoln photo courtesy of the Lincoln Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, dated 1846.
Abraham Lincoln
9th-12th General Assemblies
Barack Obama
90th-93rd General Assemblies
Obama Victory Tops 2008 Election Results
The highlight of this year’s general election in Illinois was U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s election to be the 44th Presi­dent. He received over 61% of the vote in Illinois, and was the first Presidential candidate to win 3 million Illinois votes at an election.
Illinois House Democrats gained 3 seats, but fell 1 short of a veto-proof majority. Senate Democrats defeated a few strong challengers to keep their veto-proof majority, but gained no net seats. The House will have 70 Democratic and 48 Re­publican members; the Senate will have 37 Democrats and 22 Republicans.
Among the 10 open Illinois House seats, three had changes in party control—two from Republican to Democratic and one from Democratic to Republican. The two open Senate seats stayed in the same party. Senator Debbie Halvorson won her U.S. House race and will be replaced by a Democratic appoin­tee.
All but two incumbents (both House members) nominated in the primary were re-elected. In a large upset, Democratic challenger Emily Klunk-McAsey defeated House Deputy Re­publican Leader Brent Hassert by a wide margin. Democrat Keith Farnham eked out a 322-vote win over Republican Rep­resentative Ruth Munson. The House will have 12 totally new members, and the Senate 3.
Democrats added a seat in Illinois’ U.S. House delegation, for a partisan split of 12 Democrats to 7 Republicans. All 17 incumbents who ran were re-elected. Illinois Senate Major­ity Leader Debbie Halvorson won retiring Congressman Jerry Weller’s seat, changing it from Republican to Democratic control. Representative Aaron Schock won retiring Congress­man Ray LaHood’s seat, keeping it in Republican control and making him the youngest member of the 111th Congress. U.S. Senator Dick Durbin was re-elected to a 3rd term.
The only statewide referendum on the ballot was on whether to call a constitutional convention. It needed the votes of ei­ther 60% of those voting on that question or a majority of all voters in the election, but got only about 40%.
Illinois set records this year for both registration and total vot­ers. About 700,000 people voted early in the first Presidential election in which it was offered in Illinois.
President
President-elect