Cook Sheriff Dart in rematch with Baker on Democratic side

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart faces a rematch with challenger Sylvester Baker in the Democratic Primary Tuesday.

Dart is a former assistant state's attorney and state legislator who says, "I enjoy what I do." He insists he rejected requests to climb the political ladder to another office, such as Cook County Board president or U.S. senator, because he takes pleasure in the immediate impact he has running the office he's headed since 2006.

Dart, who came to the sheriff's office from outside a law-enforcement background, boasts of reforms he's made, such as altering the eviction process to make sure families have ample notice and access to social-service agencies. He says he could move the Cook County Jail into full compliance and out from under the decades-old Duran Decree, which deals with jail crowding, later this year.

Baker is a retired sergeant who spent 21 years in the sheriff's police and accuses the department of being a "patronage dumping ground." He says Dart's "clannish" promotion practices favor Irish officers and attempts to lay blame at his feet for the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal. Dart counters that jurisdiction over cemeteries was unclear until new legislation was passed this year. Baker pooh-poohs Dart's campaigns against dogfights and Internet prostitutes as little more than publicity stunts.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican Frederick Collins and Green Party candidate Marshall Lewis in November.