It's Congressman Quigley, Now

By Kevin Robinson in News on Apr 8, 2009 2:20PM

In an election result that came as a surprise to almost nobody, (except, perhaps, for Rosanna "chicagolady" Pulido), Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley handily won Rahm Emanuel's Fifth Congressional District seat last night. In spite of the fact that Rahm "forgot" to vote for him, with 69 percent of the vote.

Out of nearly 45,000 votes cast, GOP candidate Pulido garnered 24 percent of the vote, and Green Party candidate Matt Reichel ended the night with about 7 percent. Once Quigley is certified as the winner of the election, he will be sworn in on April 21 and head to Washington, DC to finish out Emanuel's term in congress. Quigley told the Tribune that he would be back in Chicago every weekend, eschewing an apartment in the District in favor of sleeping on his office couch.

With Quigley headed to congress, his successor on the Cook County Board of Commissioners will be chosen at an April 11 meeting of the Democratic committeemen whose wards overlap his county district.

In case you were wondering, the Chicago Board of Elections is reporting turnout in the City at a little over 10 percent [PDF]. As of post time, here are the numbers, via the Tribune:

572 of 578 precincts reporting

Quigley 30,122 69%
Pulido 10,513 24%
Reichel 2,868 7%

In other election news, voters in the 36th precinct of Ward 19 voted to uphold the current "prohibition of the sale at retail of alcoholic liquor" by a vote of 35 to 21 [PDF]. For a complete list of results from the suburbs, click here.