For me the reason is his voting record in congress. For the past 17 years his voting record is the way I want him to vote. He is also responsive to the needs of the constituents. Many complain that he's never around, but I personally have yet to not have a response from him when I contact him. He is not a personal friend, he doesn't know me at all, he's my congressman.

Stupid voters! Illinois/Chicago has a long history of voting for the same do nothing and crooked politicians, term after term.

Typical Cook County and City of Chicago. If you are supported by the democratic machine you are in regardless of anything else. He was invited to appear with Halverson on Chicago Tonight a week or two before the election but "couldn't make it". I guess answering pointed questions is not something he wanted to do.
There will never be reform in Cook County. Keep reelecting the same people, let them hire all their cronies and keep raising taxes.
Some things never change.

Could it be that it wasn't a vote for Jackson, but a vote against Halvorson? There is a lot of "lesser of 2 evils" choices in this election year.

In Chicagoland race trumps all.

If you follow his record and stop all the negativity, you will see that what Jacquie Fields says is true. He has been good for his district, good for women, children and families. Is concerned about that old expression: "family values". Check his voting record and stop all the junk about race, Cook County politices, etc.
db

I had been telling folks from early on. Mrs. Halvorson was too busy and focused on what the Congressman was not doing, He does not live in the District, Yada Yada Yada. She repeated what bills she passed in the Illinois State House. She needed to tell us voters, Her plans instead of spending the majority of her campaign bashing Congresssman Jackson. Nasty campaigns are a big turn off, She did the same thing to Kizinger ( He is going back to Washington). This was a vote against Halvorson to just go away. She was the rising star in Illinois politics, but she found out quickly. You may be at the top of the ladder, but when it starts to rain you have to come back down and face the people that got you there. Well wishes to her and the family.

The fact of the matter is that JR had no competition. However, we can still vote for the Republican candidate. As far as the Peotone airport, that is another "bridge to nowhere". We don't need another airport, we need less government, less spending and less Congressmen like Jesse!!

There are some good points being made here. Congressman Jackson clearly has some loyal supporters, but there did also seem to be a bit of "voting against Halvorson."

If you were voting against Halvorson Tuesday, will you be voting for Jackson again in the fall or would you rather see Brian Woodworth take his place?

I think part of the win was the fact that people just didn't go and vote. Sadly, the ones who do the most complaining stayed at home. Primary elections are just as important. Since living back in Illinois these last 10 years, I haven't seen any change for the good. It's not just about voting for or against a bill. It's entails, getting out and seeing what is needed. When was the last time we actually had a decent company in our area that would employ people with a decent salary? Building retail stores, like Wal-Mart is not something to be proud of. Where is the growth in our area? We have all these 6-figure homes and no good paying jobs to offset it. Everyone can't work in the health or education field. To answer your question Chris, yes I will be voting for Woodworth. Side note, I do believe we should have term limits. It's nice to get people in with fresh ideas. Jackson needs to move past the Peotone airport issue.

Congressman Jackson is one of the most corrupt politicians I have ever witnessed, he gets away with everything from cheating on his wife to cheating to become Senator and nobody does anything about it. I am not sure why it is so surprising that Halvorsen got blown out, sure she was popular amongst H-F residents but where else? Sure she had some rust belt support in the Heights but that is a minority, elsewhere she was screwed from the start.

People are foolish if they the GOP candidate will defeat Jackson, most of the GOP votes will come from rural areas with intermingled votes from areas like H-F. That simply cannot overpower the vote of Jackson loyalists from areas like Harvey or Hazel Crest, with the addition of the local liberal youth vote who will come out for Obama.

What about Rod?

Ahhh JJ Jr. I guess the voters in Illinois love dirty politicians. Never mind he is under ethics investigation for trying to buy the Senate seat from Rod (who by the way is in jail) or that he was flying his mistress to and from Washington D.C. on taxpayers dime. I guess that's ok by many of the voters. Now, when he is finally exposed to have done something wrong, are the same voters that voted him in going to complain about his actions? People need to quit following the leader and stop being sheep.

Asi I have said before if you do NOT get a democratic ballot, how can you vote against JJ?????

Jessie Jr. played the race card to the hilt !! Also a lot of people don not know that they could have requested a Democrat ballot and voted against Jessie Jr. - Then you had quite a few that voted for him because he was black and running against that white woman !!

Both candidates were bad options. When are we going to get some real candidates so we can get some real change?