Robin Kelly's landslide was impressive, and any effective legislation has to be passed in Congress. State legislation has little effect since there are no customs checks between Phoenix and Chicago. Still, Kelly's victory wasn't the first electoral black eye that the NRA suffered in Illinois politics. That was seven years ago.
The 33rd legislative district was in Chicago's northwestern suburbs. ("Was" because redistricting has occurred since, and I'm talking about the election of'06.) More than half of it lay in the Cook County's "panhandle" north of Du Page County. In '06, the state senator seat in the 33rd was held by a Republican who was retiring. Dan Kotowski was the Democratic nominee.
And Kotowski was the former director of The Illinois Coalition Against Handgun Violence. The NRA was not pleased. They revved up to defeat him. (The Brady Campaign gave money to support Kotowski.) This wasn't what we think of as friendly ground. It was suburban, instead of city; it was relatively far from the real city. (It was immediately north of O'Hare Airport, which is technically part of the city, but this isn't where city people live.) If not totally lily-white, that area is very nearly.
NDFA went out to campaign for him. He was our big victory that election. He got 51.3% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2008 with 59.9% of the vote. The next election was in 2012; he got 57.3% in the 28th legislative district -- somewhat the same area and somewhat different, new number.
In the legislature, Kotowski, while not a single-issue man, stuck (If you'll pardon the expression) to his guns. The sudden conversion that Toi Hutchinson reported was evidenced by co-sponsoring legislation which Kotowski had authored to control long guns.
Notes after the jump
1) "Legislative District": Once upon a time, such districts elected one senator and 3 representatives. The representatives ran at large. (You could cast 3 votes for one candidate, 1 1/2 votes for each of two candidates. No party nominated more than 2 candidates for state rep in any legislative district. Progressives got some interesting candidates elected, many of them Republicans.) Now, each legislative district is split into 2 state-rep districts. The district from which senators are elected are still called "legislative districts" rather than "senatorial districts." There are 59 legislative districts in Illinois. Sequential numbers don't necessarily label neighboring districts, but the first 20 numbers are all in, or close to, Chicago.
2) IL state senators serve three terms in a decade -- two of 4 years each, one of 2 years. If the census year is 10X and the new districts are established for the year 10X+2, then:
1/3 run in 10X+2, 10X+4, and 10X+8.
1/3 run in 10X+2, 10X+6, and 10X+8.
1/3 run in 10X+2, 10X+6, and 10X+10. As you can see, years ending in 0 and 4 have only 1/3 of the senate seats contested; years ending in 6 and 8 have 2/3 of senate seats contested. Which seats fall into which slots is determined by lot after the map is approved, but it is done by blocs. If the 1st legislative district is up for election in a given year, then so is the 4th, the 7th ... the 55th, and the 58th.