Illinois Comptroller special election, 2016
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A special election for Illinois Comptroller took place on November 8, 2016. After comptroller Judy Baar Topinka died shortly after her reelection in 2014, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner appointed Leslie Munger, a former business executive and unsuccessful 2014 nominee for the Illinois House of Representatives, to fill her seat at the beginning of his term in 2015. Per Illinois state law, a special election was held to elect a comptroller to finish Topinka's term. Munger ran as the Republican nominee against Democratic Chicago City Clerk Susana Mendoza. State Senator Daniel Biss ran for the Democratic nomination, but dropped out in November 2015.
Mendoza defeated Munger by 49% of the vote to Munger's 44.9%, becoming Illinois' tenth comptroller on December 5, 2016.
Topinka died in December 2014, shortly after being re-elected to a second term in November, but before that second term began, outgoing Democratic Governor Pat Quinn (who lost his own bid for re-election) appointed his former budget chief Jerry Stermer to fill the remainder of Topinka's first term, allowing Governor-elect Bruce Rauner to make his own appointment for what would have been Topinka's second full term.
In an early January 2015 special session, the Democratic-led Illinois General Assembly approved a bill requiring that a special election be held at the next regular statewide election for any vacancy in any statewide executive office that occurs more than 28 months before the end of the term. Governor Quinn signed the bill shortly thereafter. Whoever incoming Governor Bruce Rauner appointed to fill Topinka's second term would serve only until a 2016 special election, instead of serving the full four-year term. The special election law received criticism from Republicans, who described it as a move to weaken Governor Rauner by shortening the term of his appointee.
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