Republicans appear to lose District 17 as only seat on Cook County Board and gain none
Republicans appeared to lose their sole seat on the Cook County Board Tuesday as a former District 17 commissioner apparently failed in her bid to succeed the retiring incumbent.
The outcome seemed to complete the gradual elimination of Republican commissioners on the board during the 16-year tenure of President Toni Preckwinkle, the head of the county’s Democratic party, which spent more than $700,000 in this campaign on three races with some risk of Republican victory.
Unofficial results indicated Democratic Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg of La Grange had defeated Republican Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman of Orland Park in their race to replace Republican Sean Morrison of Palos Park.
With all precincts counted, Hoffenberg had 57.2% of the total.
District 17 stretches along the county’s western border from the O’Hare and Schaumburg area to more conservative-leaning areas to the south such as Palos Park, Palos Hills and Orland Park.
Jacob Kaplan, executive director of the Cook County Democratic Party, said the party's apparent sweep of county board commissioner races Tuesday night was "incredibly important because we'll be a bulwark against the cuts that happened at the federal level with the Trump administration."
Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, called the outcome a victory for “good government.”
“In short, this race wasn’t about D’s vs R’s. In my opinion, it was about the good guys vs the bad guys, and putting working people first,” he said. “I’m thankful for Democrats, Independents, and Republicans choosing good government tonight.”
Gorman served on the board from 2002 before stepping down in 2015 to work in the private sector and also served as director of the Illinois Tollway. She lost to Morrison in the 2022 GOP primary and was poised to face him again last March before his decision to drop out.
Late last week, Morrison shared a Facebook post on why Gorman “SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE EVER AGAIN.” He encouraged votes for every other Republican on the ballot except her.
Gorman dismissed his last-minute snub, saying that she never sought Morrison’s endorsement because she didn’t want it.
In his censure of Gorman, Morrison cited what he called a misleading use of old endorsements, as well as a number of intraparty disputes in the southwest suburbs.
Gorman’s website was recently updated to include current endorsements, but previously included endorsements from previous campaigns. They are labeled as such. Though acknowledging “major divisions” among southwest suburban Republicans, she denied circulating any false endorsements and claimed to have the support of the Illinois GOP, law enforcement unions and several Republican state representatives and municipal officials.
Meanwhile, Hoffenberg’s campaign was beleaguered in recent months by security camera footage of a brief kiss between her and Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek. Gorman had sought the video through a public records request, which raised Hoffenberg’s suspicions that Lyons Township Supervisor Chris Getty was surveilling her and feeding the information to Gorman.
An attorney, Hoffenberg said she wanted to streamline operations and modernize services if elected.
District 15
In District 15, Democrat Ted Mason of Elk Grove Village ― chief of staff to current Commissioner Kevin Morrison ― appeared to defeat Republican business consultant Daniel Lee of Hoffman Estates.
With all precincts counted, Mason had 66.3% of the total.
Mason became a candidate after Morrison pursued an unsuccessful bid for the 8th Congressional District seat in the spring primary rather than re-election. Lee defeated Gabriella Hoxie of Schaumburg in the GOP primary.
District 9
In District 9, incumbent Maggie Trevor of Rolling Meadows appeared to fend off a challenge from retired software engineer Jon Luers of Chicago.
Luers was placed on the ballot after the withdrawal of originally filed Republican candidate Ammie Kessem of Chicago, who’d accepted a position in the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Labor.
With 99.5% of precincts counted at 10:30 p.m., Trevor had received 63.3% of the total.
Trevor responded to her apparent victory Tuesday night.
"I'm delighted to have won,“ she said. ”I realize this was a big blue wave across the country, but I also hope this is at least in part due to the work I've been doing the last four years. I haven't heard from Jon Luers but want to thank him for a clean campaign and wish him luck."
The 9th District includes parts of Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Rosemont and Rolling Meadows.
Here is a look at where the other county board races stood as of 10 p.m.:
District 5
Democrat Kisha McCaskill was leading Republican Richard Nolan in the 5th District.
District 8
Democrat Jessica Vasquez was leading Republican Ramona Bonilla-Anaiel in the 8th District.
District 11
Democrat John Daley was leading Republican Charles Spizzirri in the 11th District.
District 12
Democrat Elizabeth Granato was leading Republican Xiaoli “Alice” Hu in the 12th District.
District 13
Democrat Josina Morita was leading Republican Aasi Siddique in the 13th District.
Uncontested races
Running uncontested Tuesday were Democrat incumbents Tara Stamps in District 1, Michael Scott in District 2, Bill Lowry in District 3, Stanley Moore in District 4, Alma Anaya in District 7 and Scott Britton in District 14.
Newcomer Democrats also free of challenge were Patricia Jones “Trish” Murphy replacing Commissioner Donna Miller in District 6, Drake Warren who defeated incumbent Bridget Gainer in District 10, and Miranda Hernandez who defeated Frank Aguilar in District 16.
epeterson@dailyherald.com
jbullington@chicagotribune.com
aquig@chicagotribune.com
Chicago Tribune reporter A.D. Quig contributed to this report.