Race for Cook County State’s Attorney still too close to call, could take time to declare winner
As of Thursday morning, this race has not been called.
CHICAGO (AP) — An open race to lead the nation’s second-largest prosecutor’s office went into voters’ hands after a heated primary campaign in the Chicago area. The tightly-contested race remains too close to call, the Chicago Board of Elections says.
The Democratic matchup for the Cook County State’s Attorney primary features Eileen O’Neill Burke, a former appellate judge with a large campaign war chest, versus Clayton Harris III, a professor and attorney who’s held government posts.
The winner of the primary in the Democratic stronghold is expected to win outright in November against Republican candidate Bob Fioretti, a former Chicago alderman who lost a 2020 bid for the office. Also running is Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski.
O’Neill Burke held a narrow lead Tuesday night after polls closed on Election Day, but the race was still too close to call as of late Wednesday morning. The latest Board of Elections update shows O’Neill Burke leading Harris by less than 10,000 votes.
Potentially thousands of mail-in ballots still have to be counted, so it’s a race that may be not be settled soon. The Board of Elections says 109,000 mail-in ballots were requested, and they will continue to be processed and counted through April 2.
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The race is open because Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx didn’t seek a third term. She was among several progressive prosecutors elected in the past decade in major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Many have been criticized as being soft on crime, but in Chicago, both Democratic candidates have been more careful of their critique of Foxx, saying that they’ll continue her approach on some issues.
Harris says penalties for crimes should take racial disparities and communities into account. He often talks about his personal experiences as a Black man raising children in Washington Park, a neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. He says the office needs to beef up its special prosecutions unit and improve communication with police.
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“We hear gunshots sometimes, and nobody wants to live like that,” Harris said. “I understand how safety and justice affect our communities.”
Harris has featured those words, safety and justice, during his campaign and said Tuesday night those two concepts don’t have to be separate from each other for Cook County residents.
“Throughout this campaign, you have heard me talk a lot about safety and justice,” Harris said. “That’s what this campaign has been about: safety and justice, the fact that this is not an either/or proposition, that this is an ‘and’ proposition.
“So we are going to count every single vote, and we’re going to wait for this to come in.”
O’Neill Burke, meanwhile, says harsher punishments should be in place, particularly for those who contribute to the flow of illegal guns.
“Our justice system is not working right now, but I don’t think anyone living in Chicago right now would disagree,” she said.
O’Neill Burke has called for more attorney training and a unit to protect abortion rights, while continuing Foxx’s restorative justice efforts. Harris has said he’ll continue Foxx’s controversial policy not to prosecute retail theft as a felony, unless the value of the stolen goods is over $1,000. State law sets a $300 felony threshold.
When it comes to fundraising, O’Neill Burke is ahead with roughly double the amount of Harris, just under $2 million compared to roughly $750,000. Her sum includes money from top Republican donors.
“We all want the same thing,” O’Neill Burke said Tuesday. “We want a fair and effective justice system. We want a fair criminal justice system. We want illegal guns and assault weapons off of our streets.”
Harris, meanwhile, has picked up hefty endorsements from labor unions, progressive leaders and the Cook County Democratic Party.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has more than 700 attorneys and is the country’s largest after Los Angeles.
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