Chicago City Wire

The voting record of a former Chicago news anchor, who recently took a full-time slot with a progressive radio station, is in lockstep with most political journalists in Illinois and their allegiance to the Democratic Party.

Joan Esposito, 65, former WMAQ-Ch. 5 news anchor, started hosting the afternoon slot on WCPT 820 AM, “Chicago’s Progressive Talk”, on Feb. 11. Esposito, who left Channel 5 in 1999 to start a media training firm, replaces Ben Joravsky, who was cut from the station at the end of December, according to Robert Feder's media blog.

“Joan discusses local and national politics, breaking news of the day, and takes your phone calls on WCPT,” a station promotion reads.

Joan Esposito | Robert Feder media blog

Esposito has voted in six primaries, according to voting records, and in five of those primaries she voted Democratic.

Most of her colleagues in political journalism have likewise supported Democratic candidates nearly all of the time, according to a November 2018 analysis by Chicago City Wire (CCW). CCW looked at the primary voting records of 100 leading Illinois political journalists and found that 93 percent of the primary votes they've collectively cast have been for Democrats, versus just 7 percent for Republicans.

All told, out of 424 total primary votes recorded by the Illinois State Board of Elections, 395 of them were for Democrats.

In the March 2018 primary, 57 of the 100 journalists reviewed voted in the Democrat primary. One, Fox 32 Political Editor Mike Flannery, voted in the Republican primary.

Of the 100 journalist voting records analyzed, 79 had cast more Democratic ballots than Republican ones, and 18 recorded no primary votes. One journalist cast an equal number of Democratic and Republican ballots, and two cast more ballots for Republicans than Democrats.