Grace: For the love of election nights

I love election nights. Teamwork. Deadlines. Pizza. A journalist's dream night, really.

And today's primaries should be especially interesting. In the national and state races, we have:

• Ethan "The Son Also Rises" Hastert versus Randy "Apology" Hultgren for a chance to take on incumbent Rep. Bill Foster for his U.S. House seat.

• Incumbent Chris Lauzen versus Sugar Grove Village President Sean Michels for a chance at Lauzen's Illinois Senate seat. Neither probably will be inviting the other one to Thanksgiving dinner anytime soon after what has become a contentious race.

• Incumbent Kay Hatcher versus Bob McQuillan versus Keith Wheeler for Hatcher's Illinois House seat. Be sure to read reporter Eric Schelkopf's story about Hatcher's speech at Saturday night's Batavia Chamber of Commerce awards dinner honoring citizens of the year Bob and Linnea Miller. I attended the dinner. It sure didn't sound like a joke to me. Jokes have punch lines. There was no punch line. I don't think this should affect anyone's decision on whether to vote for her, but I do think she needs to change how she presents awards to people.

(The video tribute Saturday night to alderman Linnea, who recently passed away, and to Bob was incredibly touching. Though I sadly never had the pleasure of meeting her, the photos of her painted the portrait of a woman who took a great amount of joy in life. It reminded me of the opening sequence from the recent Pixar film, "Up.")

In the county races today, I'm particular interested to see the results from:

• Robert Russell versus Donald Kramer for the chance to take on Democrat and current Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez.

• Incumbent Barbara Wojnicki versus Susan Secondi versus Albert Lentkaitis Jr. for Wojnicki's Kane County Board seat, in what has been dubbed by some to be the third Campton Hills referendum. Last I checked, though, if Susan Secondi wins, that does not mean the village will be dissolved. Just saying.

Although I think the incumbents will be preparing for the general election in the Illinois legislative races after today, I'm honestly not sure who will win the other three races I've mentioned.