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Fine bests Frank in 17th House race
Laura Fine (left) and Kyle Frank
Updated: November 7, 2012 12:44AM
GLENVIEW — Laura Fine, Democratic candidate for State Representative of the 17th District, has slammed her opponent by an almost two-to-one margin.
Fine, a Glenview resident who has served as Northfield Township clerk, as well as an instructor in the political science department of Northeastern Illinois University, racked up 29,503 unofficial votes (65.15 percent) with 82 of 86 precincts reporting.
Her Republican opponent Kyle Frank, a Skokie attorney, garnered 15,783 (34.85 percent) votes.
Fine was exuberant as she watched the votes being tallied in a room of supporters at the Wildfire Restaurant in Glenview.
“I’m so excited! All of our hard work paid off. Talking to people, knocking on doors, getting the message out and running a positive campaign worked,” Fine said.
“And the fact that the results are almost two to one ... it’s just amazing! I’m so excited to represent our district that I’m overwhelmed.”
Fine noted that she continued campaigning up to the very end, talking to people outside polling places through the dry morning hours and into the rainy afternoon and evening.
She added that she owed a great deal of thanks to those surrounding her for also putting in so much time and effort toward this end.
“Hopefully, hard work will continue to pay off and we’ll accomplish good things for this district,” she said.
In the meantime, Republican Candidate Kyle Frank’s gathering at Gusto Italiano Ristorante, in Glenview, was more sober.
Frank said that the reason Fine won the seat was because she had the financing to outspend his campaign efforts between 10 and 20 to one.
The support of Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois, put Fine over the top, he said.
“Madigan’s money bought this election. I had to raise my money myself to get the word out. We need to change this. I think we have to go to public financing as an option to stop some of these election results,” Frank said.
“I haven’t been bought and paid for by anybody … if I were elected, who would I represent? The voters of the 17th District or Mike Madigan’s interests? She will be representing Madigan’s interests.”
Fine said she wore out three pairs of shoes going house to house throughout the district asking residents what was important to them.
She said seven out of eight people she interviewed were concerned about the issues on which she campaigned. Fine wants to reduce lawmakers’ salaries, freeze property taxes when home values decline and make certain that schools sustain their achievement level without hiking property taxes.
She plans to investigate the high cost of insurance and the responsibilities insurance providers have to their customers; ensure that seniors have access to affordable access to prescription drugs; and upgrade and streamline health care.
Fine also said she will search for reasonable fiscal solutions to the stateʼs problems; find ways to get residents back to work; and coordinate efforts between local businesses and the state to keep families in their homes and food on their tables.
Frank campaigned on making Illinois affordable again. He wanted to improve conditions not only in the 17th State Representative District, but throughout the state.
He also wanted to end state income tax; privatize state services to cut costs; implement a fair pension system; and merge the CTA, Metra and PACE to decrease expenses.
Frank also planned to end health care duplication, as well as Medicaid corruption; limit school administrators’ salaries; and separate Chicago from Cook County.
He said he would not run again unless he can match his opponent’s financial support one to one.
