Dragging carts full of petition papers to get on the March primary ballot, candidates for Cook County offices filled the hallway beneath the county’s administrative building early Monday.
Standing a few feet away from each other were Democratic opponents for county board president, incumbent Toni Preckwinkle and downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly. Also in close proximity were Assessor Fritz Kaegi and Lyons Township Assessor Pat Hynes, who’s running against him. The two races are likely the closest-watched countywide and some of the most expensive.
The line-up is a Cook County pre-election tradition, that doubles as a show of electoral strength.
Being the first name listed on the ballot among candidates for an office is said to be worth a few extra votes. To be eligible to gain that pole position requires getting to the building before the 9 a.m. official start of filing.
It also proves to opponents a candidate didn’t need the extra time to gather more signatures. Democrats running countywide only need 7,858 good signatures to make it on the ballot, but typically aim to collect three times that amount to withstand petition challenges and to look imposing carting in reams of petitions.
Preckwinkle, unloading a more than foot-tall stack of nominating papers, submitted what she estimated was about 40,000 petition signatures for herself and other countywide candidates endorsed by the Cook County Democratic Party.
It’s her fifth time doing so. Her opponent, 42nd Ward Ald. Reilly, argues it’s time for a change.
He loaned his own campaign $100,001 last month, taking advantage of a popular loophole to open the floodgates to unlimited fundraising. Shortly after that loan, he accepted $50,000 checks each from Wheels Inc. founder Jim Frank, Howard Labkon of the scrap metal family that operated General Iron, investor Matthew Pritzker and retired investor Thomas O’Reilly.
Reilly raised a total of $913,000 in the most recent quarter, which includes the cap-breaking loan and another $120,000 from a separate 42nd ward campaign fund. He ended September with $1.4 million on hand.
Preckwinkle raised $282,000 that same quarter, ending it with $622,000 on hand.
Asked whether she was concerned about Reilly’s ability to spend on campaign messaging, Preckwinkle said, “I think we have a great record over the last 15 years of good fiscal management, of creating a healthcare system where we can deliver quality health care and, as I said, insure 400,000 people in Cook County, and we work together with the city and state to make our criminal justice system more fair.”
She did add, however, “I have to confess that I didn’t collect signatures. I raised money.”
Reilly collected “around 21,000” signatures and said he knocked a few doors and carried petitions with him in recent weeks, pitching voters on “new eyes on old products.”
“I think people are receptive to making changes in these big offices,” he said.
Cushioned by a recent $500,000 loan from earlier this year, Kaegi ended the most recent fundraising quarter Sept. 30 with $1.3 million in the bank. He received $100,000 from media mogul Fred Eychaner and $10,000 from Leo Smith last quarter.
This year, he is running without the county Democratic party’s endorsement in his third term bid. It’s “a lot of deja vu,” he said, harkening back to his first campaign when he ran as an outsider.
Even without party help, he estimates his team still rounded up over 20,000 signatures. Voters “want to see us fighting for them,” he said, adding that he planned to advocate for passage of a bill in Springfield that would allow more seniors to qualify for a local freeze on property tax assessments.
He suggested a vote for Hynes would be a return to “obsolete cronyism” that used to characterize his office, noting his opponent had taken political contributions from property tax and real estate interests.
Hynes said those donations make up a small percentage of his total haul, but called Kaegi’s suggestion that he would backtrack on broader ethics reforms “a red herring” and said he intends to keep all of the other ethics reforms Kaegi instituted in place.
Monday was also the first opportunity candidates for the Cook County Board, the county’s property tax Board of Review, and judges and township committeemen could file their petitions as well.
So far, the 12th district on the city’s North Side being vacated by Bridget Degnen attracted the most candidates. Four hopefuls — Isaiah White, Cat Sharp, Jose “Che-Che” Turrubiartez Wilson, and Liz Granato — filed to run in that district as of Monday morning.
Three filed to run in the 15th since incumbent Commissioner Kevin Morrison gave up the seat to run for Congress. Morrison’s chief of staff, Ted Mason, has filed as a Democrat, as have Republicans Daniel Lee and Gabriella Hoxie.
There’s a comeback brewing, of sorts, as well: former Republican county commissioner Liz Doody Gorman has filed to run again for her old seat in the 17th District. So has Trish Murphy, the daughter of the late 6th District commissioner Patricia Joan Murphy, a Democrat. Two other Democrats, Wesam Shahed and Sylvester Fulcher, also filed to run in the district.
Filing runs through Monday, November 3.