The Latest Breaking News from Elizabeth Rochford

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon quoted both his late mother, who worried “that Springfield will change your notion of what the right thing is,” and former Chicago Police Supt. James Rochford, who once warned officers “If you lack integrity, get out — get out now.”

Instead of looking forward to their own majority, Republicans are now facing a 5-2 deficit on the court after Democrats Elizabeth Rochford and Mary K. O’Brien pulled out hard fought victories for two open suburban seats indirectly created by Kilbride’s ouster.

It wasn’t really possible for Democrats to draw the new state Supreme Court map in a way that would have assured them of winning one of the seats on the November ballot, as would have been their normal tendency. Instead, both seats are in play.

Abortion rights have become the focus of the race for court seats from two suburban Chicago districts.

Democrats hold the advantage in two races for open Illinois Supreme Court seats because last year they redrew the court’s boundaries for the first time in 58 years. The two down-ballot elections hold enormous stakes if the court changes hands — potentially impacting abortion, gun control and union…

The race in the fall could overturn Democrats’ dominance of the state’s highest court.

Four Republicans and three Democrats are vying for the seat previously held for two decades by retired Justice (and former Chicago Bear) Bob Thomas in the 2nd District, which was redrawn to cover a large part of northeastern Illinois, including DeKalb, Kendall, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties.