Judy Baar Topinka re-elected as Illinois Comptroller

CHICAGO -- Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has been re-elected to a second term over Democratic challenger Sheila Simon.

The Riverside Republican is a former three-term state treasurer and chairwoman of the Illinois GOP. She campaigned on having a better understanding of the check-writing job's intricacies than her opponent.

Simon, of Carbondale, is the current lieutenant governor. She says she would have brought unprecedented transparency to the position. She sought to portray Topinka as an old-style politician guilty of using clout to push various agencies to the head of the line in getting checks from the state.

Topinka says she has implemented a policy of prioritizing payments for nonprofits and social service agencies as the state deals with a multi-billion dollar bill backlog.