Bob Morgan Elected To 58th District State House Over Rick Lesser

The state's former marijuana czar defeated a former village trustee to replace Rep. Scott Drury in the Illinois House after his unsuccessful bids for governor and attorney general in the Democratic Party primary. Democrat Bob Morgan, 38, a health care attorney and chair of the West Deerfield Township Democrats, won 63.7 percent of the vote to 36.3 percent for Republican Rick Lesser, 63, an estate planning attorney and a former president of the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Chamber of Commerce who served as a trustee of Lake Bluff from 2003 to 2011.

Outgoing state representative Drury departs after three terms in office. He made headlines when he voted “present” on Speaker Mike Madigan’s reelection. He was the only Democrat not to support the longtime party boss, and he said he was stripped of committee assignments and an engraved desk clock as a result. The 58th District includes all of Bannockburn, Deerfield, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest and small portions of Glencoe, North Chicago, Northbrook and Riverwoods.

Neither candidate faced a competitive primary. Morgan ran unopposed on the Democratic side after declaring his candidacy last June. Lesser was slated after the primary in August by a group of local GOP leaders to replace Cindy Masover, who ran unopposed but dropped out of the race for family reasons.

Morgan raised significantly more money than Lesser. According to third quarter campaign finance reports, Lesser started at the end of July with no money in the bank, raised about $46,500 and had spent about half of it by the end of September. The largest donors to Lesser’s campaign are the candidate himself and the Illinois Opportunity Project, which contributed $11,100 in August. Morgan, on the other hand, had nearly $160,000 in the bank to start the quarter and added an additional $96,000. He spent more than four times as much as Lesser last quarter and still had $164,312 in the bank heading into the final month of the campaign. His largest donors were the Illinois Political Action Committee for Education, with $20,000, and the Health Care Council of Illinois, with $15,000.

Morgan was endorsed by the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, while Lesser was endorsed by the Daily Herald.

Election results

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Lesser grew up in Highland Park and moved from Deerfield to Lake Bluff after raising four children. His 12-person law firm is based in Lake Forest, he said at a candidates forum last month.

“I know this district very well. Most importantly, I am also now a grandpa,” Lesser said. “I am very concerned about the future [my grandson] is going to face as I see people leaving this state in record numbers. We lost 30,000 people last year out of this state. It’s like the city of Highland Park just picked up and left. I am very concerned about that. I think that this is simply the result of bad policy in Springfield. It’s the result of taxes which are too high, it’s a result of spending which is out of control, it’s a result of making promises for government employees without saving the money in order to meet them, and the result has been a very bad economy for Illinois, as we see Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana – neighboring states with just as bad weather – prospering, we see Illinois with property values shrinking.”

Lesser called for term limits and promised to serve no more than eight years and refuse to collect any pension benefits. He said professional politicians in the state legislature needed to be removed through term limits and campaign finance reforms.

“I am unusual among Republicans in that I am a socially moderate person, I do not share a lot of beliefs with some of the national party people. I believe that a woman should have a right to choose. I believe that government should not be intruding into these areas. I am socially a very moderate person, including on guns, including on gay marriage, including on many of these issues,” Lesser said.

Bob Morgan said he decided to run after seeing what he described as significant failures of the state and federal government. He cited President Trump’s travel ban as an inspiration for his decision to seek elected office.

“I decided that Illinois was not representing my values because they were holding school funding hostage in Illinois, that was a political game that was impacting me and my family and my community, and I saw the ways in which we needed to do better,”Morgan said. His focus in office would be on expanding health insurance coverage and reducing health care premiums to the middle class and making sure the budget does not spend more than it receives in revenue, he said, while touting his independence from Democratic Party leadership (while he has raised tens of thousands of dollars from union-backed political action committees, Morgan has not received any donations from PACs backed by state party leaders.)

“I’ve been independent since the first day of this campaign and I look forward to being an independent legislator down in Springfield, refusing to take any money or support or staff from Mike Madigan or party leaders,” Morgan said. “I think that distinguishes me for this campaign because when you are faced with some significant issues, whether it’s property tax reform or gun safety laws, I will be burdened and beholden to you, not to party leaders.”

More About Lesser and Morgan

Read more about these candidates on their official websites:

• Rick Lesser
• Bob Morgan

More Illinois voting info: Everything To Know About The Illinois 2018 Midterm Elections