O'Neill Burke holds slim lead over Harris in Democratic primary for Cook County State's Attorney
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The race for the Democratic nomination to be the next Cook County State's Attorney was too close to call late Tuesday night, with retired Illinois Appellate Court Judge Eileen O'Neill Burke holding a narrow lead over University of Chicago lecturer Clayton Harris III.
As of 10:30 p.m., O'Neill Burke was leading Harris by approximately a margin of 51% to 49%, a lead of about 10,600 votes, with more than 470,000 votes counted so far.
Harris was not ready to concede, and O'Neill Burke was not prepared to declare victory late Tuesday night.
"We will be patient, and we will let the democratic process play out, and we will build a safer, more just Cook County together," O'Neill Burke told supporters at her campaign headquarters around 10 p.m.
"We've waited a long time for this day to come, and it looks like we're going to have to wait just a little bit longer," Harris said at his campaign headquarters a short time later. "It's getting late, and I think that while the votes are still coming in, we have to make sure, we will make sure that every vote is counted and every voice is heard."
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners spokesman Max Bever said there were nearly 110,000 outstanding mail ballots that had yet to be returned to the board as of Tuesday night. Officials expect 80% to 85% of those ballots to arrive back properly postmarked by Election Day, so 70,000 to 80,000 valid mail ballots could come back in the next couple weeks, most of them by Friday, allowing for a clearer picture of how the race will turn out in the coming days.
The winner in the Democratic primary will face off in November against two other candidates. Former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti was the only Republican running for the seat in Tuesday's election. Andrew Charles Kopinski was the lone Libertarian candidate on the ballot.
The candidates are vying to replace Kim Foxx, who is stepping down after two terms leading the second-largest prosecutor's office in the country.
Foxx was a controversial figure during her two terms, facing criticism for her policy to not prosecute shoplifting cases as a felony unless the theft involved at least $1,000 worth of stolen goods.
She also faced backlash from the Fraternal Order of Police and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case. Smollett was eventually convicted of staging a hoax hate crime attack on himself, after Foxx dropped the original charges against him, a special prosecutor assigned to the case later brought a new indictment against him.
Foxx also was one of only two county state's attorneys to support a provision of the SAFE-T Act which abolished cash bail in Illinois, sparking criticism from some that she was soft on crime.
O'Neill Burke gives Foxx "a failing grade" for her time in office
O'Neill Burke and Harris gave Foxx vastly different grades for her tenure.
"I would have given her a failing grade," O'Neill Burke said in a pre-election interview with CBS 2. "I would not have stepped down from appellate court unless I thought we were at a critical juncture right now."
"Some of the things that she's done, especially when we talk about reform, have been nationally replicated, so the nation has taken note of it," Harris said.
While O'Neill Burke has said she would resume prosecuting retail theft cases of $300 or more as felonies if elected, Harris has said he would continue Foxx's policy of only prosecting cases of $1,000 or more as felonies.
While both supported the SAFE-T Act eliminating cash bail in Illinois, they differ in their assessment of how well the law is working so far.
"There are 140 people in Cook County right now that are on electronic monitoring for murder or attempt murder charges. That is significant and should give everyone pause," said O'Neill Burke.
She supports the idea of assessing how dangerous a defendant is versus the question of whether they can pay, but wants more training for prosecutors to properly prepare for the required detention hearings to have defendants held in custody ahead of trial.
Harris said more needs to be done to fight a false narrative that the law is allowing criminals to go free.
"The narrative was mass murderers are going to be out there," said Harris. "We're going to be so dangerous. And it hasn't shown. The data is actually showing that we're safer with this being implemented because now we're keeping the correct people incarcerated while we wait."
Harris said he's open to changes in the SAFE-T Act if needed as lawmakers, law enforcement, advocates, and other experts continue to evaluate the law's impact on criminal cases.
O'Neill Burke and Harris both have experience as prosecutors
Both Harris and O'Neill Burke spent part of their careers as Assistant Cook County State's Attorneys.
O'Neill Burke is also a former criminal defense lawyer, was elected as a Cook County judge in 2008, and then was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court in 2016. She retired from the bench last year to run for state's attorney.
She also has been criticized for her involvement as a prosecutor in a 1993 murder case. An 11-year-old boy was charged with the murder of an 83-year-old woman, and O'Neill Burke helped convict the boy in juvenile court, but his conviction was later thrown out by a federal judge over a coerced confession. She was not accused of any wrongdoing, and has noted the judge in the case also said the boy's attorney didn't provide sufficient defense.
O'Neill Burke also said she could not have known when she prosecuted the case that the boy's confession had been coerced.
"The most he could find was a case where I was never found to do anything wrong 30 years ago," she said. "As a prosecutor, you take the best evidence that you have and you put it front of the trier of fact. The trier of fact then determines whether the state has met their burden. Was that the most perfect case? No. But it was a murder that was unsolved for a year. And then there was a confession, which there were several facts in that case that corroborated that confession."
"I think that with there being a lack of remorse there, I think that judgment matters," said Harris. "I absolutely think that judgment matters. And I believe I'm the one with the better judgment for this office at this time."
After working as a prosecutor in the early 2000s, Harris also worked in various roles in Mayor Richard M. Daley's administration, is a former chief of staff at the Illinois Department of Transportation, and was also former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's last chief of staff after Blagojevich was arrested and later convicted on corruption charges, but was never accused of any wrongdoing himself. Harris has been a lecturer on public policy at the University of Chicago since 2009. He was also once a government lobbyist for Lyft.
Harris also had said he planned to add staff to a special prosecution unit targeting gang leaders who send kids to rob or carjack people. He also wants to create a new division in the office to address the root causes of crime, and to lead investigations into crimes such as straw purchases of guns, and leaders of organized retail theft rings and catalytic converter theft rings.
While O'Neill Burke more courtroom experience than Harris, Harris has touted his management experience in running various government offices as an asset, noting the elected state's attorney's job isn't to handle cases in court, but to oversee prosecutors and make sure they have the necessary training and resources.
