Hare, Braley pick up Q-C area seats in Congress
Democrats Phil Hare of Rock Island and Bruce Braley of Waterloo won election to Congress Tuesday from districts of each side of the Mississippi River, making the Quad-Cities a major contributor to a projected new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.
With all precincts in the Illinois 17th District reporting, Hare -- a long-time aide to retiring U. S. Rep. Lane Evans -- had 57% of the vote to 43% for Andrea Zinga, the former television news anchor making a second run for Congress.
The final was Mr. Hare 114,638, and Ms. Zinga 85,734.
In Iowa's lst District, the vote from Scott County, the largest in the district and home to Republican Mike Whalen, gave Braley a big edge, sealing Whalen's fate. Braley had 29,383 votes to Mr. Whalen's 25,096, an eight-point edge. Mr. Braley was also leading elsewhere in the district.
"It was a year when the wind was just too strong in our face," Whalen said in a concession speach shortly after 10:30 p.m.
The twin victories in the Quad-Cities area gave Democrats one of the many boosts up they got in an election in which they took control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994.
Hare held onto the Illinois seat, being vacated by the retiring Rep. Lane Evans, and Braley picked upa Republican seat now held by Jim Nussle, who gave it up for what turned out to be a failing race for the Iowa governorship. All told, The Associated Press reported early this morning, the Democrats would have a minimum of 221 seats -- enough to take control -- and were leading in an additional 13 districts.
In Rock Island County, Mr. Hare, of Rock Island, led by an even wider margin than districtwide. With 98 percent of precincts counted, Mr. Hare had 63 percent of the vote (28,628) to Ms. Zinga's 37 percent (16,987).
Mr. Hare is a former staffer of Congressman Evans. Ms. Zinga, a former television news anchor from Coal Valley, lost to Mr. Evans in 2004.
Mr. Hare carried Fulton County. In the unofficial final count there, he had 7,834 votes to Ms. Zinga's 4,951.
He also carried Whiteside County, where the final tally was Hare 4,444 and Zinga 3,289. In Knox County, the final was Hare 3,191 and Zinga 2,348.
In Greene County, with 13 of 14 precincts reporting, the vote was Hare 1,139, and Zinga 985.
In Warren County, with all precincts in, the vote was Hare, 3,032, and Zinga 2,941.
Ms. Zinga carried Adams County. With all precincts in, the vote was Zinga 10,751 and Hare 6,911.
