Democrats Not Fighting For Burr Ridge Area District

BURR RIDGE, IL – No state Democratic money is going to help Burr Ridge Democrat Suzanne Akhras unseat the Republican state House incumbent.

This is a signal the state party believes state Rep. Nicole La Ha, a Homer Glen Republican, will win the District 82 race on Nov. 5.

Patch left a message for comment with a state party official Monday.

So far this election season, La Ha has raised nearly $400,000, much of it from the state GOP, according to state Board of Elections records.

Meanwhile, Akhras has collected $154,000, mostly from individual donors.

Democrats are willing to spend big money in districts seen as battlegrounds. In Elmhurst-based District 45, for instance, the party has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to candidate Marti Deuter, an Elmhurst alderwoman.

Last week, La Ha announced she received endorsements from nine area municipal leaders, including the mayors of Burr Ridge and Darien and the village president of Hinsdale.

District 82 includes all or parts of Burr Ridge, Darien, Western Springs, Hinsdale, Lemont and Orland Park, among other towns.

Days before last Christmas, area Republican leaders picked La Ha to fill the seat left vacant by the resignation of Egofske, Lemont's mayor, who resigned after 10 months on the job.

Egofske himself was appointed after Republican Jim Durkin of Western Springs resigned following the November 2022 election. He was the House's GOP leader.

La Ha is a former Homer Glen trustee, the 2022 Mrs. America and the former Illinois State Republican Caucus press secretary. She has Egofske's endorsement.