Drizzly skies, a dearth of contested races and bait-and-switch presidential politics combined to help keep Illinois voters away from the polls in record numbers for last month's primary election. Although official statewide figures were still being compiled at presstime, election officials suspect turnout may have been the lowest in memory for a presidential primary.

Ironically, statewide registration this year reached an all-time high for a presidential primary: 6.7 million, up more than 600,000 from the 1996 primary. Some of the increase likely stemmed from the spirited presidential races still underway in each major party at the registration deadline. By election day, however, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush had wrapped up the bids, reducing the presidential vote here to a symbolic gesture that roughly four out of every five registered Illinoisans found unappealing.

Despite the anticlimactic presidential contests, however, the election did produce a few tasty tidbits for political junkies. Among them:

• Money isn't everything. Publishing company heiress Shawn Margaret Donnelley pumped $1.9 million of her own money into her race. Former Sportmart CEO Andrew Hochberg ponied up more than $1 million. Neither won the Republican nomination for the 10th District in Congress, nor did any of the four other millionaires in the 10-person field. Instead, the prize went to non-millionaire Mark Steven Kirk, who spent only about $400,000, but had the support of his former boss, outgoing U.S. Rep. John E. Porter, and most GOP party leaders in the North Shore district.
  
  
• Being a political ally of Gov. George H. Ryan is not fatal. Sure, Rep. Edgar I. Lopez, a Chicago Democrat who helped arrange Ryan's visit to Cuba, was bumped by a challenger who blasted Lopez for accepting a $1,000 contribution from the embattled governor. And one of Ryan's harshest Republican critics, Sen. Chris Lauzen of Aurora, was an easy winner.
  
  
• But Sen. Dave Sullivan, a Park Ridge Republican, also coasted to nomination despite his opponent's efforts to highlight Sullivan's tenure as a top aide to Ryan in the secretary of state's office. State Rep. Tim Johnson of Sidney won the GOP bid for Congress in the 15th District with Ryan's endorsement, besting the choices of both U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who wanted state Rep. Bill Brady of Bloomington, and retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Ewing, who backed his son, Samuel Y. Ewing of Normal.
  
  
• And two other House Republicans, Reps. Sidney H. Mathias of Buffalo Grove and Mark H. Beaubien Jr. of Barrington Hills, easily rebuffed challengers who criticized their support for Illinois First, Ryan's massive public works program.
  
  
• Money isn't everything, part two. Illinois Appellate Justice Morton Zwick spent more than $1 million seeking the Democratic nomination for the Illinois Supreme Court seat being vacated by Justice Michael A. Bilandic. He finished dead last in a four-way race won by Cook County Circuit Judge Thomas R. Fitzgerald, presiding judge of the criminal division.
  
  
• Dodging the bullet, GOP-style. Kirk's victory relieved Republican fears that a pro-life, social conservative might emerge from the crowded field to capture the nomination in the strongly pro-choice 10th District, thus giving a winning edge to the Democratic nominee, state Rep. Lauren Beth Gash of Highland Park, an abortion rights supporter. Like Porter, Kirk is pro-choice, and the 10th figures to be one of the most closely contested races this campaign season.
  
  
• Republican strategists also could breathe easier after Rep. William A. O'Connor of Riverside turned back Cicero trustee Michael A. Frederick, an ally of Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese. Her ongoing feud with Hispanic community leaders might have made it more difficult for Repub-licans to hold the seat with Frederick as their nominee.
  
  
• Some Democratic leaders, meanwhile, were sorry to see Rep. Cal Skinner of Crystal Lake ousted by

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  Crystal Lake Treasurer Rosemary Kurtz, figuring that their nominee, Jeannine Smith of Lake in the Hills, would have matched up better with the outspoken Skinner than with Kurtz, a retired school teacher.
  
  
• Money isn't everything, part three. Appointed Illinois Supreme Court Justice S. Louis Rathje and DuPage County Circuit Judge Bonnie Wheaton each spent more than $1 million vying for the GOP nomination for the 2nd District seat on the high court. Both lost to Appellate Judge Bob Thomas, a former placekicker for the Chicago Bears, whose tab ran closer to $600,000.
  
  
• Win some, lose some. Internecine warfare in Chicago area minority communities claimed five sitting House Democrats -- in addition to Lopez, Reps. Sonia Silva and Coy Pugh of Chicago, Wanda J. Sharp of Maywood, and Willis Harris of Dolton. But Republicans can't capitalize on the upsets; there are no GOP candidates running in any of the five districts, all of which are overwhelmingly Democratic.
  
  
• Time to mend fences? Even though the presidential contests had been decided for weeks, some 340,000 Illinoisans opted to vote for an also-ran. The contrariness should be particularly worrisome to Republicans-- one in three GOP primary voters marked for someone other than Bush, with two-thirds of them favoring U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. In contrast, Gore had the support of roughly six of every seven Democrats.
  
  
• Incumbents rule. Besides the six defeated House members, Sen. Ned Mitchell, a Sesser Democrat, fell to Rep. Larry D. Woolard, a Carterville Democrat. Otherwise, sitting lawmakers did very well, with 16 surviving primary tests and another 111 nominated without opposition, a 95 percent success rate. Sixty percent of the March winners, meanwhile, face no opposition in November.
• Illinois' U.S. representatives fared even better. Voters nominated all 18 incumbents running again, including four who are unopposed in the general election.
  
  

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