The votes have been counted in the special election contest to replace Rahm Emanuel in the fifth congressional district on Chicago's North Side. Labor lawyer and author ("Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back") Tom Geoghegan had been a favorite of many online progressives, many of whom were watching and directing money to the race from outside the district. Geoghegan wasn't, though, the favorite of voters in Chicago's 5th, as the Chicago Tribune's John McCormick and Dan Mihalopoulos report. Out of a field of a dozen candidates, better-known Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley pulled in 22% of the vote to take the Democratic nomination (which is tantamount to winning the congressional seat in this heavily Democratic district). Geoghegan finished 7th, with 6% of the vote. Geoghegan generated a good deal of online excitement -- he was an ActBlue favorite (with nearly $214,000 in contributions), was feted by online DC progressives, and won the Democracy for America endorsement -- but that didn't amount to a whole lot of votes on the ground in this strange and messy compressed-schedule race. But, the Atlantic James Fallows points out, all that national netroots attention could serve to raise the profile of Geoghegan and his pro-but-questioning take on the modern labor movement. As the Nation's John Nichols sees it, "the fact that Geoghegan was defeated as a candidate does not mean that the big bold ideas he advanced should be dismissed." (Photo credit: QuigleyforCongress.com)