Norine Hammond won a hotly contested primary election last night against challenger Joshua Griffith.When all the voters were counted Hammond won with about 54 percent of the vote or 5,211 votes to Griffith’s 4,469.
Griffith did secure the majority of the vote locally picking up 519 votes to Hammond’s 295 votes.
A major part of Griffith’s campaign was his criticism of Hammond voting for a 32 percent tax increase in order to break a two year budget stalemate.
Hammond tells WGIL she thinks voters understood the reason behind her vote.
“Mostly people understood that Illinois was at a critical point in our state where we were going to junk bond status and higher education’s accreditation was being threatened,” Hammond says.
Griffith called Hammond and said moving forward he would like to see unity in the party because while they have their differences he does not want to see that seat “in the hands of a Democrat.”
He said he was disappointed with the way he was treated by the Republican Party.
Griffith said this was probably the most difficult, particularly mentally, things he’s ever done.
Looking forward to November Hammond says she’ll be putting together a strong campaign and she expects the same from John Curtis, the Democratic nominee for the seat.
