Toni Preckwinkle fends off challenger Brendan Reilly in primary for Cook County Board President
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle easily fended off a challenge from longtime Chicago Ald. Brendan Reilly in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, with Reilly conceding the race shortly after 8:30 p.m.
The Associated Press is projecting Preckwinkle will win the primary, taking 68% of the vote with 79% of the votes counted.
Despite his defeat, Reilly said he would "continue to fight for Cook County residents in any way that I can, advocating for the pragmatic essential policies we championed throughout this race."
"My commitment to this city and this county is completely unbroken," he added.
Preckwinkle is seeking a record-tying fifth term in office leading the country's second largest county, and will face Libertarian candidate Michael Murphy in the general election in November, after Murphy ran unopposed in his party's primary. No Republicans are on the ballot in the primary, although Eric Wallace filed as a qualified write-in candidate for the GOP, so presumably will make it to the general election once ballots are formally counted and certified.
If Preckwinkle wins the general election, and completes her fifth term, she will tie former Board President George Dunne as Cook County's longest-serving leader.
The Democratic primary was a hard-fought and at times bitter campaign between the more progressive Preckwinkle and the more centrist Reilly.
The alderman pitched himself as a fresh and new choice for county leadership, while the incumbent touts her expertise and experience at the helm.
Preckwinkle, 79, has been the Cook County Board president since 2010. Before that, she spent nearly 20 years as a Chicago alderperson, representing the 4th Ward on the South Side.
Reilly, 54, has represented the 42nd Ward in the Chicago City Council since 2007, when he defeated longtime incumbent Burton Natarus. The ward overs much of downtown Chicago, including parts of the Loop, River North, Streeterville, Magnificent Mile, and West Loop.
Preckwinkle has touted 15 years of balanced budgets during her time in office without any property tax hikes.
Reilly, who has been on the City Council for nearly 20 years, has said if voters pull back the cover on Preckwinkle's record there's more there, including a costly technology contract that resulted in months of delays for property tax bills and refunds.
The Cook County Board president is the chief executive of the county government in the nation's 2nd largest county, overseeing the county's public health and hospital system, jail, court system, forest preserves, 600 miles of roads and highways, and more. The office controls an annual budget of approximately $10 billion, with more than 22,000 employees. The president also chairs meetings of the 17-member Cook County Board of Commissioners, the county's legislative branch.
Preckwinkle has sought to make the controversy over the Trump administration's immigration enforcement operations a key issue in the campaign, claiming Reilly was "missing in action" amid "Operation Midway Blitz" in the Chicago area, but Reilly said that's "patently false."
"She knows as well as anybody that I have the great distaste for Donald Trump that most people in the Democratic Party do. My colleagues and I were together on stage with Toni Preckwinkle, actually, just a few months ago at the 'No Kings' rally in Grant Park," he said.
Tying Reilly to Trump has been a recurring theme for the Preckwinkle campaign.
"First of all, he's got a long-standing tie to Donald Trump," she said. "Financial contributions, and those contributions were made to him and his political funds."
Reilly has said campaign contributions he received from President Trump were donated to two charities, and argued the Cook County Democratic Party – which Preckwinkle leads – also took money from Mr. Trump.
"I think there's a difference between the Democratic Party taking money from somebody and him taking it in his personal campaign accounts," Preckwinkle said.
Reilly called Preckwinkle's accusations "a desperate attempt to distract from her recent record, which is very poor when it comes to taxes and executing on contracts and the like."
"So I hope that voters see through that for what it is," he added.
Reilly has repeatedly criticized Preckwinkle for what he said has been mismanagement of Cook County property tax bills and the technology company Preckwinkle signed off on to oversee an overhaul of the county's property tax system.
"That was supposed to be a three-year, $30 million contract to get this upgrade done. That was 11 years ago. All these years later, the bills came out over four months late. So, telling us to trust her now, that's a really big leap," he said.
Preckwinkle said she knew upgrading the county's property tax system was going to be a challenge, but she underestimated just how significant it would be. Nonetheless, she said she's confident the problem has been solved once and for all.
"The hard work is now done. The system has been modernized. The tax bills are going out on time. They're actually at the printer as we speak. They'll be out by March 2, due April 1, and we'll have a transparent and accountable system going forward," she said. "It's a lock."
Preckwinkle also has defended Cook County's embattled electronic monitoring system. Reilly said an arson attack on the Blue Line when a man with an extensive criminal history allegedly set a woman on fire while he was on electronic monitoring signals there's a lot of work yet to be done to get the system right.