Toni Preckwinkle declared victory in her bid for a fourth term as Cook County Board president in a race that landed voters in familiar territory: a rematch with Bob Fioretti. Other Democrats running for countywide seats similarly held strong leads Tuesday night, while the campaign pushing for a referendum raising property taxes to help bolster the Cook County Forest Preserve District’s budget hailed a “yes” vote.
Fioretti’s campaign — as a Republican — was a heel turn from his days as a staunch progressive member of Chicago’s City Council, where he served as alderman for the 2nd Ward. In their last battle for the same job in 2018, Preckwinkle defeated Fioretti, an attorney, in the Democratic primary. This time, he was recruited to run by the Chicago GOP, but entered the race after the June primary, giving him just 12 weeks to campaign while introducing himself for the first time as a Republican. Preckwinkle, meanwhile, had the advantage of incumbency and her position as head of the Cook County Democratic Party.
With 92% of precincts reporting in Cook County, Preckwinkle led with over 66% of the vote, according to unofficial returns, while Fioretti had about 30%.
Preckwinkle declared victory shortly after 9 p.m. “I extend my deepest gratitude to the voters of Cook County and I’m grateful they have entrusted me to run the nation’s second-largest county in the country for the past 12 years, and look forward to all the good work that lies ahead,” she said in an emailed statement.
Her fourth term will focus on the distribution of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funding, including her guaranteed income program, plans to eliminate $1 million in medical debt and establish a new Department of Mental Health.
“As chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, we celebrate our Democratic victories up and down the ballot in Cook County and across the state,” she said. Despite a broader effort by the local GOP to fill ballot vacancies and challenge incumbents, Democratic candidates for assessor, clerk, treasurer and sheriff secured re-election with double-digit leads over Republican and Libertarian candidates at the time Preckwinkle claimed her win, according to unofficial returns.
Fioretti gathered with friends and family at the Billy Goat Tavern Tuesday night, waiting for more votes to trickle in before officially conceding to Preckwinkle. Citing the growing Democratic stronghold in Cook County, Fioretti said he was in the race to “make some change.”
“We’re very disappointed that the Democratic machine seems to be in good shape in Chicago and Cook County,” Fioretti told the Tribune. “All these races are going right along the machine lines so someone has to challenge the machine and that’s what (I’ve) been doing.”
This is the first board president’s race since crime and bail reform have come to the forefront of voters’ minds alongside a rise in crime during the pandemic. Fioretti framed himself as the pro-law enforcement candidate while highlighting Preckwinkle’s association with embattled State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, her former chief of staff.
Preckwinkle has defended criminal justice reforms she helped oversee by pointing to investments in violence prevention efforts and arguing bail reform was an issue of justice that prevented low-level, nondangerous offenders from being held in jail simply because they could not afford it.
Fioretti highlighted what he described as Preckwinkle’s irresponsible budgeting practices. Preckwinkle has led the 17-member County Board since 2010, where she oversaw the growth of the county’s budget from roughly $3 billion during her first term to a projected $8.75 billion next year. She also pushed through an increase in annual pension payments and the expansion of the county’s health system.
While Fioretti criticized the growth in the county’s budget and attempted to remind voters of past tax hikes under Preckwinkle, allies touted her fiscal stewardship, including improvements to Cook County Health, a raft of COVID-19 recovery programs and improved bond ratings, as justifications for a another term.
Meanwhile, Tuesday’s ballot also featured a referendum question from the Forest Preserve District asking voters to hike property taxes to give the district an annual budget boost of $40 million.
With 68% of precincts reporting, the yes vote led with 67%. It requires a simple majority to pass.
“With the results we see tonight on the referendum, it’s clear that people deeply appreciate all the benefits the forest preserves of Cook County provides, starting with access to nature so close to home. It’s exciting to see,” said Arnold Randall, general superintendent of the forest preserve district. “Our work begins tomorrow on enacting plans to expand ecological restoration work, add more land to the preserve system, address critical long-term needs, continue to grow our programming and public outreach, and more.”
The referendum question called for a 0.025% increase above the current state-mandated Property Tax Extension Limitation Law cap for the district, bringing the limit to 0.076%. The owner of a median-priced home in Cook County pays $36 to $47 in property taxes per year to the district, and passage will raise the property tax by less than $20, according to the district.
Of the $40 million the Forest Preserve District is expected to raise, it planned to spend $7.3 million to buy more property, $6 million for facility maintenance, $6.3 million for land restoration and $9.7 million for pension payments. The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe and Brookfield Zoo, which both sit on district land, would get $2.4 million and $4 million, respectively, for capital maintenance.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, also seeking his fifth term, was leading with 72% of the votes against Republican attorney Lupe Aguirre and Libertarian candidate and sheriff’s office Sgt. Brad Sandefur. Accusations that Dart was soft on crime amid a local spike in shootings and theft were dampened as he successfully knocked several challengers off the ballot in the Democratic primary.
In his bid for a second term, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi led with 81% of the vote as he faces Libertarian candidate Nico Tsatsoulis. Kaegi took over the office four years ago on a platform that he’d clean up the office following two terms under Joe Berrios’ leadership.
Maria Pappas, Cook County treasurer since 1998, is competing for her seventh term. She faced off against Republican Peter Kopsaftis and Libertarian Michael Murphy. With 92% of precincts reporting, Pappas led with 73% of the vote.
Meanwhile, Cook County Clerk Karen Yarbrough faced former Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, a Republican and former member of the Cook County Board. Yarbrough led with over 69% of the vote.
Tuesday’s race was key to Cook County Republicans’ bid to thwart an effort to whittle their superminority on the county board even further. All 17 board seats were on the ballot, and only one incumbent Republican — Sean Morrison, the head of the Cook County GOP — ran for reelection.
The Cook County GOP put up a large slate of candidates to take on Democrats earlier this year, but few campaigns took off — several Republicans did not fundraise or launch websites, and seven were removed from the ballot. But among the key races considered competitive: the 14th District, where first-term Democratic Commissioner Scott Britton fought to hold onto his seat, and the 9th, where an open race to succeed a longtime Republican commissioner has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations.
Since the June primary, the Cook County Democratic Party has spent $550,000 to help Britton and Maggie Trevor, the party’s nominee in the 9th District, according to filings with the state board of elections.
Trevor faced Matt Podgorski, owner of the polling firm Ogden & Fry and a logistics manager for the bottling and distribution company Reyes Coca-Cola. Britton, meanwhile, was up against hedge fund manager Benton Howser.
Incumbents on the county board led their challengers across the board: Sean Morrison led Dan Calandriello with 52% of the vote and 94% of precincts in. With 97% of precincts in, Britton led Howser with 60% of the vote.
In the open 9th District race, the candidates were separated by less than 1,300 votes. With 94% of precincts reporting, Podgorski led Trevor with just over 50%.
