Page "Lynn Morley Martin" Paragraph 4

In 1990 Martin ran for the U. S. Senate in Illinois against Democratic incumbent Paul Simon.

She was initially considered a formidable challenger, but her campaign floundered — in ads, Martin poked fun at Simon's trademark bow-tie, but the humorous ad campaign was seen by some as petty and mean-spirited — and Simon won with 65 percent of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the state ; Edwards County in the southeast and McHenry County outside Chicago in the heart of the district Martin represented for most of the 1980s.