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Illinois Comptroller's Race: Dems 1, Rauner 0

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza
Brian Mackey
/
NPR Illinois
Susana Mendoza, the Democratic Chicago city clerk, has been elected Illinois comptroller.

Illinois Democrats have won the state office of comptroller away from Republicans.

Susana Mendoza, a Democrat from Chicago, won a special election for a two-year term.

Mendoza defeated incumbent Leslie Munger, who was appointed after Judy Baar Topinka died in office.

The campaign became a proxy battle in the war between Democrats and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who personally spent millions on the race.

Mendoza says her victory is a repudiation of Rauner’s so-called Turnaround Agenda.

“I think what we saw tonight was a rejection of the extreme agenda which is making so many people in the state of Illinois victims,” Mendoza told her supporters.

Rauner has refused to negotiate a balanced budget until Democrats first pass pro-business, anti-union legislation.

Illinois owes much more money than it’s collecting in taxes. As comptroller, Mendoza can prioritize which bills get paid first — and which have to wait.

Brian Mackey formerly reported on state government and politics for NPR Illinois and a dozen other public radio stations across the state. Before that, he was A&E editor at The State Journal-Register and Statehouse bureau chief for the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.
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