Politics & Government

Bellar Faces Cunningham Again in 18th Senate District Race

Barbara Bellar beat out Ricardo Fernandez in Tuesday's primary for the Republican slot in the race for the 18th State Senate District.

will be campaigning against Bill Cunningham for the second time in two years for a seat in the Illinois General Assembly.

Bellar will be seeking the 18th State Senate District seat as a Republican against Cunningham, a Democrat who now serves as the 35th State House District Representative.

Bellar won Tuesday’s primary with 9,757 votes, compared to opponent Ricardo Fernandez with 3,401 votes, or 74 percent. Bellar commended Fernandez for “his efforts to make things better in Illinois.” She described their interactions as “friendly all the way through.”

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Moving forward on to the next race, Bellar said she’ll be focusing on issues people expressed concerns to her about while she was campaigning before the primary.

“We need jobs. We need to get back the ones we lost and create new ones,” Bellar said. “We need to make Illinois more business friendly. Also the pensions are breaking the back of Illinois.”

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While she wouldn’t get into specifics, Bellar said she’ll be working to convert people who voted Democrat in the past to choosing Republican in November.

Cunningham described the 2010 campaign against Bellar for his current seat as “spirited,” and that he looks forward to facing her again. 

“I have my record of service to the (35th) district that I will run on,” Cunningham said. “I’m confident that when the voters examine (my record), I will be able to count on their support.”


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