In the category of “no news” was the Barak Obama win for U.S. Senate. This was never a contest and I hope that he will do good things for this state, we need a voice. Fizgerald was too much of an iconoclast for most of us and Durbin is more for personal face time on any camera that he sees.

But, Lloyd Karmeier defeated Democrat Gordon Maag in the fiercely contested race for Illinois Supreme court justice. No one should underestimate the explosion of this result. Karmeier’s win makes this the first time in history a republican has ever been elected from the Southern Illinois region to the Supreme Court. And it is the first time anyone living outside the democratic hotbed counties of Madison and St. Clair has won. An unbelieveable turn of events which was aided in large part by the mobilization of almost all doctors, nurses and other medical workers in this part of the state. Losing almost 170 doctors because the two counties are ground zero in lawsuit abuse was a major factor. Maag was supported with millions of dollars by trial lawyers while Karmeier received millions from doctors, tort reform people and business associations. Maag appears to also be losing his attempt to retain his present seat as an appellate court judge. He was on the ballot twice and is not getting the 60 per cent necessary to be retained. This is major news here.