Elections were held in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

on Tuesday, November 4, 1986.

Primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...

were held March 18, 1986.

Election information

1986 was a

midterm election Apart from general elections and by-elections, midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the term ...

year in the United States.

Creation of the Illinois Solidarity Party

After

LaRouche movement The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. ...

disciples won the Democratic primaries for

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

and Secretary of State,

Adlai Stevenson III Adlai Ewing Stevenson III (October 10, 1930 – September 6, 2021) was an American attorney and politician of the Democratic Party who represented Illinois in the United States Senate from 1970 until 1981. A member of the prominent Stevenson fami ...

created the Solidarity Party primarily to run Democratic candidates against them in the general election. He himself dropped off of the Democratic ticket for Governor, which he had won the primary for, and ran instead as the Solidarity Party candidate for Governor. The two

Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...

-affiliated candidates, Mark J. Fairchild for Lieutenant Governor and

Janice Hart Janice Hart (born 1955) was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of Illinois Secretary of State in 1986. Hart, a political unknown and a LaRouche movement activist since the age of 17, unexpectedly won the Democratic Party's nomination. Her op ...

for Secretary of State, had not seen their affiliations with LaRouche well-publicized until after they won their upset primary defeats over Stevenson-backed candidates George Sangmeister and

Aurelia Pucinski Aurelia Marie Pucinski (born April 29, 1947) is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Her second term expires in 2030. Early life Bor ...

. Illinois law required any unestablished party to run a full slate in order to obtain ballot access, thus, Stevenson ran candidates in all races.

Turnout

Turnout in the primary was 26.23%, with 1,602,156 ballots cast. 1,014,908 Democratic and 570,661 Republican primary ballots were cast. Turnout in the general election was 55.34%, with 3,332,450 ballots cast.

Straight-ticket voting

Illinois had a

straight-ticket voting In American politics, straight-ticket voting or straight-party voting refers to the practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot. The term can also refer to a straight-ticket voting option, some ...

option in 1986.

Federal elections

United States Senate

Incumbent Democratic Senator

Alan Dixon Alan John Dixon (July 7, 1927 – July 6, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary of ...

was reelected.

United States House

All Illinois seats in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

were up for election in 1986.

State elections

Governor and Lieutenant Governor

Incumbent

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

James R. Thompson James Robert Thompson Jr. (May 8, 1936 – August 14, 2020), also known as Big Jim Thompson, was an American attorney and politician who served as the 37th governor of Illinois from 1977 to 1991. A moderate Republican who sometimes took more ...

won reelection to a fourth term, defeating

. This was a rematch of the previous 1982 gubernatorial election, which saw Stevenson as a Democratic nominee. Stevenson, who had won the Democratic gubernatorial primary, withdrew from the Democratic ticket after Mark Fairchild, a follower of

, won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor. Stevenson refused to run on a ticket with supporters of LaRouche's ideology. Stevenson instead created the

Illinois Solidarity Party The Illinois Solidarity Party was an American political party in the state of Illinois. It was named after Lech Wałęsa's Solidarity movement in Poland, which was then widely admired in Illinois, which has a very large Polish-American populatio ...

and ran as its nominee.

Attorney General

Incumbent

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Neil Hartigan Neil F. Hartigan (born May 4, 1938) is an American lawyer and politician from Illinois. He served as the Attorney General of Illinois, the 40th Lieutenant Governor, and a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. Hartigan was also the Democra ...

, a Democrat, was reelected to a second term.

Democratic primary

Incumbent

defeated Chicago alderman

Martin J. Oberman Martin J. Oberman is an American government official and attorney who has served as a member of the Surface Transportation Board (STB) since 2019 and as STB chair since 2021. Oberman previously served as the chair of the board of directors at Metr ...

in the Democratic primary. Hartigan had originally declared his intention to forgo seeking reelection, and instead run for governor, but he ultimately reversed course and sought reelection after

entered the race for governor.

Republican primary

Republican Village President of Arlington Heights James T. Ryan won the Republican primary, running unopposed. Ryan stepped-down as nominee after allegations arose that he had committed

domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner v ...

against both his wife and ex-wife, which arose soon after he received his party's nomination. There had been originally been several other candidates running for the Republican nomination in the primary, but all withdrew soon after Democratic incumbent Hartigan announced that he would seek reelection. If he had been elected, Ryan would have been the first Republican sitting mayor elected to statewide office in Illinois since Edward C. Akin was elected Attorney General in 1898. After Ryan withdrew as the Republican nominee, he was replaced on the ballot by

Bernard Carey Bernard Carey was an American politician who served as Cook County State's Attorney from 1972 through 1980. Afterwards, he would serve on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and as a judge on the Circuit Court of Cook County. A Republican, h ...

, a member of the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

who had also formerly served as

Cook County State's Attorney The Cook County State's Attorney functions as the state of Illinois's district attorney for Cook County, Illinois, and heads the second-largest prosecutor's office in the United States. The office has over 700 attorneys and 1,100 employees. In ad ...

from 1972 through 1980. Ryan's withdrawal had taken place five months before the general election.

General election

Secretary of State

Incumbent Secretary of State

Jim Edgar James Edgar (born July 22, 1946) is an American politician who was the 38th governor of Illinois from 1991 to 1999. Previously he served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1976 to 1979 and as Illinois Secretary of State ...

, a Republican first appointed in 1981 and subsequently elected to a full term in 1982, was reelected to a second full term.

Democratic primary

Little known candidate

won an upset victory over

(who had the backing of

and others). While, not well-reported until ''after'' the primary, Hart was a member of the

Republican primary

General election

The Illinois Solidarity Party ran Jane N. Spirgel in the election. Spirgel was an outgoing member of the

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...

Board (on which she was the sole remaining Democratic member and had first been elected in 1974).

Comptroller

Incumbent

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior-level executi ...

Roland Burris Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who is a former United States Senator from the state of Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. In 1978, Burris was the first African American elected to ...

, a Democrat, was reelected to a third term.

Democratic primary

Republican primary

State Senator Adeline Jay Geo-Karis won the Republican primary unopposed.

General election

Treasurer

Incumbent

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

James Donnewald, a Democrat, lost the Democratic primary to former Treasurer

Jerome Cosentino Jerome "Jerry" Cosentino (June 13, 1931 – April 3, 1997) was an American politician from the state of Illinois. He was a Democrat who served as state Treasurer from 1979 until 1983, and again from 1987 until 1991. Life and politics Cosenti ...

. Consentino won the general election, earning him a second non-consecutive term.

Democratic primary

Incumbent James Donnewald lost renomination to former Treasurer

. Donnewald had been the party organization's favored candidate. Other candidates running included Cook County Board of Appeals member Pat Quinn and

member Robert D. Hart (who had the formal backing of

's NDPC).

Republican primary

J. Michael Houston, the mayor of

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

, won the Republican nomination. Houston was seeking to become the first Republican Illinois Treasurer in over twenty years. He was also seeking to be the first Republican sitting mayor elected to statewide office in Illinois since Edward C. Akin was elected

Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...

in 1898.

General election

State Senate

Some of the seats of the

Illinois Senate The Illinois Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state, State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adop ...

were up for election in 1986. Democrats retained control of the chamber.

State House of Representatives

All of the seats in the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

were up for election in 1986. Democrats retained control of the chamber.

Trustees of University of Illinois

An election was held for three of nine seats for Trustees of

University of Illinois system The University of Illinois System is a system of public universities in Illinois consisting of three universities: Chicago, Springfield, and Urbana-Champaign. Across its three universities, the University of Illinois System enrolls more than 9 ...

for six year terms. The election saw the reelection incumbent Democrat Nina T. Shepherd to a third term, as well as the election of new Democratic trustees Judith Ann Calder and Charles Wolff. First-term incumbent Republicans Galey Day and Dean E. Madden lost reelection.

Judicial elections

Multiple judicial positions were up for election in 1986.

Ballot measures

Illinois voters voted on two ballot measures in 1986, both of them

legislatively referred constitutional amendment A legislative referral (or legislative referendum) is a referendum in which a legislature puts proposed legislation up for popular vote. This may either be voluntarily or, as is the case in many countries for a constitutional amendment, as a man ...

s. In order to be approved, measures required either 60% support among those specifically voting on the amendment or 50% support among all ballots cast in the elections.

Bail Amendment

Voters approved the Bail Amendment, a legislatively refereed constitutional amendment which amended Article I, Section 9 of the

Constitution of Illinois The Constitution of the State of Illinois is the governing document of the state of Illinois. There have been four Illinois Constitutions; the fourth and current version was adopted in 1970. The current constitution is referred to as the "Constit ...

to further expand the population that may be denied bail.

Exempt Veterans' Organizations from Property Taxes Amendment

Exempt Veterans' Organizations from Property Taxes Amendment, a legislatively refereed constitutional amendment which would amend Article IX, Section 6 of the Constitution of Illinois to exempt property used exclusively by veterans' organizations from property taxes, failed to meet either threshold amend the constitution.

Local elections

Local elections were held. These included county elections, such as the Cook County elections.

References

{{United States elections, 1986