Underfunded but with plenty of political capital, state Rep. Jim Durkin on Tuesday won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, setting up a November showdown with well-funded Democratic incumbent Dick Durbin.
With 90 percent of the precincts counted statewide, Durkin, from west suburban Westchester, had 47 percent of the total while dairy owner and money manager Jim Oberweis had about 30 percent. Chicago attorney John Cox trailed with about 23 percent of the vote.
Durkin, whose campaign raised only $300,000 but received the backing of political heavyweights like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former IllinoisGov. James Thompson, said his victory defied the odds.
“We were told early on that it could not be done, that we’d be massively outspent,” Durkin told a crowd of well-wishers. “Well, we proved them wrong.”
Durkin thanked his supporters, singling out Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip. He then turned his rhetorical attention to his Democratic opponent.
“It is obvious to me that Dick Durbin does not represent our Illinois ideals or respect our Illinois values,” Durkin said. “It is time for a change and I can deliver.”
Oberweis, in his concession speech, said, “While I believe our message of hope and opportunity was and is the right message, it was just too difficult to overcome an elected official tied to the establishment.”
Durkin now faces several difficult challenges. Not only must he overcome Durbin’s immense campaign war chest–already more than $3 million at the beginning of the year–but he faces the possibility that voters will confuse his last name with that of the incumbent’s.
Durkin, however, said he will continue to stress his record in Springfield as evidence that he will be an effective legislator.
In particular, Durkin made headlines by sponsoring bills aimed at fixing a legal process that had landed innocent men on Death Row. He introduced legislation mandating pretrial reliability hearings before prosecutors could put jailhouse informants on the witness stand at trial.
Durkin’s legislation, which passed the Democratic controlled House but not the Republican Senate, also allowed pretrial interviews, under oath, of prosecution and defense witnesses in cases in which sentences of death or life in prison were possible.
One of eight sons, Durkin grew up in Westchester, attending Fenwick High School in Oak Park. After undergraduate work at Illinois State University, he earned a law degree from John Marshall Law School and went to work for the Illinois attorney general’s office and later the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
In the early 1990s, Durkin got involved in the Proviso Township Republican organization and was appointed in 1995 to fill the House seat vacated by Tom Walsh, who moved to the Senate.
As the only GOP candidate in the race to hold elected office, Durkin found himself fighting the label of political insider.
His opponents chastised him for supporting Gov. George Ryan’s $12 billion public-works program, Illinois FIRST, as well as dispensing pork-barrel projects from a secretive $1.5 billion fund lawmakers earmarked for their pet programs.
Oberweis told voters that experience in business rather than politics would be an asset in Washington. The dairy magnate and money manager from North Aurora said the U.S. Senate is long on lawyers but short on entrepreneurs.
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A graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago’s business school, Oberweisoperates Oberweis Dairy, which was started by his grandfather in 1927. Oberweis, whose campaign was supported by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), expressed positions similar to his competitors on major issues such as gun control and the death penalty.
But in his first campaign for public office, Oberweis created confusion over his views on abortion and opened himself to charges of waffling.
Cox, who campaigned the longest of the three, never got his message through to the voters.
Despite committing approximately $1 million of his own money to the race, he trailed Durkin and Oberweis badly.