More Than Half Of Area Legislative Races Offer No Choices

There are seven Senate seats and 19 House seats from the WNIJ listening area on the ballot in the fall elections. There also are countless posts at the county level with only one candidate.

Three of the Senate races and eleven House races have only one candidate. That's 14 of 28 legislative seats in the WNIJ area where there is no opportunity to make a choice on the November ballot. In many cases, the lone candidate is the only person who has been on the ballot from the beginning.

You can find out more about each candidate by clicking on his or her name below.

All three solitary Senate candidates are incumbents:

• Democrat Steve Stadelman from the 34^th District in southeastern Winnebago County
• Republican Dave Syverson from the 35^th District, which wraps around the 34^th District and stretches southeast into western Kendall County  
• Republican ChuckWeaver from the 37^th District, a jagged area running from the western Illinois border to east of I-39 and from just north of Peoria into Lee County.

Two of the unopposed House candidates – both Republicans -- are not incumbents:

• Nick Sauer in the 51^st District, which is in southwestern Lake County
• Ryan Spain in the 73^rd District, which includes pieces of LaSalle, Bureau, Marshall, Woodford, Stark and Peoria counties.

Only one incumbent Democrat – Litesa Wallace in the 67^th District, in southwestern Rockford – is alone on the House ballot in northern Illinois.

Republican incumbent state representative all alone on the ballot are:

• Mike Fortner in the 49^th District, with pieces of eastern Kane, western Dupage, and northwestern Cook counties
• Keith Wheeler in the 50^th District, in southern Kane and northern Kendall counties
• David McSweeney in the 52^nd District, largely in southeastern McHenry County with parts of Lake, Cook and Kane counties

• Barbara Wheeler in the 64^th District, in McHenry and Lake counties
• Steven A. Andersson in the 65^th District, which includes pieces of McHenry and Kane counties
• Bob Pritchard in the 70^th District, which is in DeKalb, Kane and Boone counties
• Brian Stewart in the 89^th District, which includes Stephenson County and parts of JoDaviess, Whiteside, Ogle and Winnebago counties
• Tom Demmer in the 90^th District, which is in DeKalb, Lee and Ogle counties

Your choices are limited if you want to vote for someone other than the only name listed on the ballot. Illinois law says that you may cast a write-in vote for a candidate whose name is not on the ballot. However, if that person has not registered to be a write-in candidate, those votes will not be counted. You’ll have to check with the appropriate election authority – county clerks for most local elections, or the Illinois State Board of Elections for state offices – to find out who is eligible.

You can find articles about contested legislative races and other issues in the November election at the WNIJ Elections 2016 web page.