9th district Cook board candidates offer different backstories
The two candidates in the race for the District 9 seat on the Cook County Board bring different backgrounds to the table.
Incumbent Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, an Elmwood Park Republican, is an experienced public official, having served as a school board member, a village trustee and a village president in addition to his five terms on the county board.
Challenger Frank McPartlin, a Democrat also from Elmwood Park, is running for his first elected office, though he has long been involved in local political campaigns.
The two men are running in a newly redrawn 9th District that includes a bigger chunk of the Northwest suburbs than ever before. The dogleg district stretches from River Forest in the south and select wards of Chicago in the east all the way out to Arlington Heights at the far northwest tip. It takes in portions of Rosemont, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights along the way.
Voters in the 9th District will decide their commissioner in the general election Nov. 4.
McPartlin, 56, works as a special assistant in the Cook County Bureau of Administration. The son of a longtime labor leader, McPartlin said he would be an advocate for labor and the district's working families.
"The 9th District is now mostly middle-class families," he said. "The middle class needs strong representation on the board. I would protect county workers and their pensions, and I would protect all working families in the district."
McPartlin said he would lobby for greater automation and, where possible, consolidation of county services. He believes the county's forest-preserve system should be a higher priority than it is.
Silvestri, 57, is running on his experience, saying that he understands the complexities of county government. He said he has a strong record of collaborating with other commissioners and county officials to get important measures accomplished, including a strengthened Ethics Ordinance and creation of an independent board to oversee the county's health and medical system.
Silvestri disagreed with McPartlin about the forest preserves, which he said are a high priority for current commissioners.
"I think they're in the best shape they've been in a long time, and I'll work to keep things going in the right direction," he said.
Both candidates support Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle's efforts to encourage municipalities to annex the county's unincorporated areas. Silvestri said the county needs to provide incentives, though, that will make the unincorporated areas more attractive to surrounding municipalities.