Frerichs Defeats Demmer In Illinois Treasurer Race: Reports

ACROSS ILLINOIS — Voters across the state have picked democratic incumbent Michael Frerichs to a third term as Illinois Treasurer.

Frerichs handily defeated challenger Rep. Thomas Demmer, a Republican, with 2,009,698 votes. Demmer had 1,630,070, according to unofficial results. Libertarian candidate Preston Nelson trailed with 82,727 votes.

Late on Tuesday night, the Associated Press called the race for Frerichs, who is a former senator from Champaign. Demmer, 36, of Dixon, congratulated his opponent on a "hard fought campaign" in a Twitter post and wished him the best in his next term.

The treasurer is responsible for investing funds as a way to prevent tax hikes and funding cuts from essential services in municipalities across Illinois. The treasurer also serves as the trustee for two Illinois college savings plans and handles the state's unclaimed property program.

"Every dollar earned by the State Treasurer is a dollar that does not have to be raised in taxes or cut from funding for essential services in your community," Frerichs wrote in a Patch candidate survey.

During his term, Frerichs has earned more than $1 billion for Illinois taxpayers. He also reformed the state's I-Cash program by changing laws and systems, improving marketing of the program and making it easier for residents to claim money. Since 2015, his office returned $1.5 billion in unclaimed property from more than 1 million different claims.

Recently, Frercihs' office made history, returning the largest unclaimed property dollar amount in the nation’s history: $11 million. That amount belonged to the estate of a Chicago man, Joseph Richard Stancak, who died of natural causes in 2016.

"I have made returning unclaimed property to Illinoisans a priority. Over sometimes fierce opposition from special interests, I fought to modernize our unclaimed property laws and system," Frerichs said in Patch candidate survey. "This included taking on life insurance companies that did not pay benefits even when they knew, or should have known, that their customer had passed away."

According to Frerichs, other highlights of his term include overhauling the state's Bright Start college savings program, which went from one of the lowest rated in the nation to a top Gold rated program for five consecutive years, and launching a state-facilitated retirement savings program for private-sector workers who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Demmer, who was the state representative for the 90th District, hoped his experience as the Republican point person for the state's fiscal issues would help earn voters' trust as the best choice for state treasurer. He said he also hoped to bring a new perspective to the state treasurer's office and dissed Frerich's support of tax hikes, calling him a "rubber stamp"for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker's administration, according to the Daily Herald.

"The treasurer should be speaking up and advocating for taxpayers in the big public discussions of the day," Demmer said. "The state treasurer should be someone who is going to be an outspoken advocate for taxpayers and challenge the status quo."