Illinois Comptroller Election Results: Mendoza Ahead of Munger

Democratic challenger Susana Mendoza appeared poised to unseat appointed Republican Leslie Munger in the Illinois Comptroller's race.

Munger, 60, was appointed to the post by the governor in January 2015 after the death of Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka. Mendoza, twice elected to the Chicago city clerk's post, served six terms in the General Assembly.

Mendoza led Munger by more than 200,000 votes with more than 90 percent of the 10,088 precincts reporting.

The comptroller is responsible for paying the state's bills, signing state-government paychecks and overseeing the state's fiscal accounts.

The Mendoza-Munger race turned out to be the costliest race in the state. The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform shows that Munger raised $8.6 million since the spring, and Mendoza has raised almost $2.1 million in campaign funds.

photo via SusanaMendoza.com

Original story:

Munger vs. Mendoza — sounds like a heavyweight prize fight, not an election for two women seeking the comptroller's post in the state of Illinois. Few people really know what the comptroller does. Ask many Illinoisans who the last comptroller was and you may well get blank stares and random guesses in return.

Ask if they remember Judy Baar Topinka, however, and there's a far better chance they do. One of the state's most colorful and frank politicians, Topinka held the comptroller's post from 2011 to 2014. She died of a stroke one month after winning re-election in November 2014, the culmination of a career in public that spanned more than three decades.

Now, Leslie Munger, 60, of Lincolnshire, and Susana Mendoza, 44, of Chicago, are angling for your votes in a special election for comptroller. Munger, a Republican, was appointed to the post by the governor in January 2015 after Topinka's death. Mendoza, twice elected to the Chicago city clerk's post, served six terms in the General Assembly.

The comptroller pays the state's bills, signs state-government paychecks and oversees the state's fiscal accounts. The office may seem obscure, but this is a critically important position in a financially beleaguered state with a $9.5 billion backlog in unpaid bills. (To put that crushing debt into perspective, the Land of Lincoln owes more money than the value of Chicago's pro sports franchises combined — the Chicago Bears franchise is valued at $2.45 billion; the Bulls at $2.3 billion; the Cubs at $2.2 billion; the White Sox at $1.2 billion; and the Blackhawks at $1 billion.)

Munger vs. Mendoza isn't a heavyweight prize fight, but many see this election as a proxy war between two of the state's biggest political heavyweights — GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Mike Madigan. Unable to pass a real state budget for the last two years, both Rauner nor Madigan look like bad guys to most voter these days. Both Munger and Mendoza are telling voters they think for themselves and will be independent minded in office.

This has emerged as the costliest race in the state of Illinois, too. The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform shows that Munger has raised $8.6 million since the spring, and Mendoza has raised almost $2.1 million in campaign funds.

Despite the financial advantage for Munger, a Paul Simon Public Policy Institute poll earlier this month shows Munger trailing Mendoza, 32 percent to 40 percent, with 22 percent of voters undecided. Munger, however, has secured endorsements from the state's largest newspapers.

Who is Leslie Munger?

Born in 1956 and raised in Joliet, Munger earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois in 1978 and her master’s degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in 1982. She and her husband, John, have lived in Lincolnshire for 20 years and have two adult sons, Tom and Andy, and two dogs, Maddie and Daisy.

She's spent her career in the private sector, working at Unilever/Helene Curtis as a brand management executive, overseeing an $800 million portfolio of familiar hair-care products — Suave and Finesse — as well as the Degree antiperspirant business. Before that, she worked at Procter & Gamble and McKinsey & Company.

"I am also a long-time active community volunteer and former Board of Directors member for the Riverside Foundation, a not-for-profit residential facility for developmentally disabled adults in Lincolnshire. In addition to Riverside, I have served on the School District 103 Foundation Board for seven years, three of those years as president," she writes on her Linkedin page. "The Foundation raised money for education enhancements in the school. I remain an active alum at the University of Illinois, serving on the Student Affairs Advisory Council, and for my sorority, Gamma Phi Beta, where I serve as a member of my chapter's House Corporation Board."

She was also Cub Scout Pack 78 den co-leader for five years when her sons were boys.

She's been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune, the Daily Herald, the State Journal-Register and the Champaign News-Gazette editorial boards.

Who is Susana Mendoza?

Born in 1972, Susana Mendoza grew up in Bolingbrook after her parents immigrated from Mexico. She graduated from Bolingbrook High School, where she played varsity soccer and later became the first woman enshrined on the school's "Wall of Fame." She earned a B.A. in Business Administration at Northeast Missouri State University in 1994 and All-Midwest honors in soccer. She and her husband, David Szostak, live in Portage Park on the North Side of Chicago and have a 3-year-old son. Her mother, Susana, also lives with them.

She was first elected to public office in 2001 as a state representative in the 1st House District, where she served six terms. Three years into her legislative career, Crain's Chicago Business profiled her in its annual "40 Under 40" feature. In 2007, she quarreled with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who felt betrayed by Chicago Democrats or a capital projects bill. (Blagojevich remains in prison for his various misdeeds in office.) At the time, Mendoza said of him: "It is an obvious example that the governor is a pathological liar. If he honestly believes, in his lunacy, that 10 people from the City of Chicago controlled the fate of that doomed capital bill, he needs medical attention.”

She was the first woman elected to the clerk's office in Chicago in 2011. In 2015, she won election to her second term as city clerk. She oversees the city vehicle sticker program, and she's credited with overhauling and modernizing that system. Mendoza also earned national attention for getting a citywide ban on the sale of puppy-mill pets. This spring, Chicago Magazine ranked her as the 47th most powerful person in the city of Chicago.

Mendoza has the strong backing of Illinois labor unions.

What Munger Wants to Do

Website: VoteMunger.com

What Mendoza Wants to Do

Website: SusanaMendoza.com.com

Watch Munger vs. Mendoza

A feisty debate unfolded on Oct. 25 between Munger and Mendoza on WTTW's Chicago Tonight.