Cook County Dems trying for blue sweep in board races, GOP hopes to keep one seat, make gains

The Cook County Democratic Party has its eye on flipping the only GOP-held seat on the County Board in Tuesday’s elections, an effort that got a leg up Thursday when the outgoing Republican trashed his own party’s nominee and encouraged voters to skip the race.

In the far-reaching 17th District, Republican Commissioner Sean Morrison late Thursday shared a lengthy Facebook post about why the GOP nominee to succeed him, Liz Gorman, “SHOULD NEVER BE ALLOWED TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE EVER AGAIN.” Morrison encouraged votes for every other Republican on the ballot but her. Gorman said she didn’t seek his endorsement because she never wanted it in the first place.

The district stretches along the county’s western border, from the O’Hare and Schaumburg area down to more conservative-leaning areas like Palos Park, Palos Hills and Orland Park farther south. Gorman held the seat before Morrison and is seeking a comeback against Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg, a former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney.

The district’s lines were drawn with Morrison’s assent to concentrate Republican power during the last remap, but County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is also the Cook County Democratic Party chair, is leading the effort to flip it. The party has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 17th and two other battleground districts in the northwest suburbs centered around Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Elgin and Schaumburg.

In the race’s closing weeks, the Democratic tab is about $387,000 for in-kind services like postage, digital ads and mailers for Hoffenberg’s campaign. It spent another $390,000 combined on the 9th and 15th districts, where Democrats Maggie Trevor and Ted Mason, the chief of staff for outgoing Commissioner Kevin Morrison, are both running.

“This is a moment in time where party affiliation in my view is paramount,” Preckwinkle told the Tribune last week. “We’ve got a president of the United States who’s behaving in incredibly cruel and disgraceful ways, and unless you’re a Republican who’s prepared to disassociate yourself from him, I question your good judgment, not to mention your values.”

The county’s budget is particularly threatened by cuts to Medicare passed by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, but whether a possible midterm “blue wave” comes to pass — let alone makes it down far enough on the ballot to touch Cook County Board races — is an open question.

On the ground, most of the candidates say their constituents’ biggest concern is more provincial: property taxes. While the County Board hasn’t raised its levy except to capture new properties since the 1990s, local school districts have hiked theirs. Absent some federal relief, next year’s county budget is likely to necessitate new revenues, Preckwinkle has warned.

In his censure of Gorman on social media, Morrison highlighted what he said was her misleading use of old endorsements, as well as various long-standing intraparty disputes in the southwest suburbs.

Gorman’s website does include endorsements from previous campaign cycles, but those are labeled. While she acknowledged “major divisions” among southwest suburban Republicans, she denied circulating any false endorsements and said she had the support of the state GOP, law enforcement unions and several Republican state representatives and municipal officials.

Morrison’s post “caught us off guard. We never pursued the endorsement because I didn’t want to be tagged with the crazy stuff with his company,” Gorman said, a reference to a lawsuit brought against a former employee of Morrison’s investigation company. Both the employee and Morrison denied wrongdoing and described the suit as a shakedown.

Gorman served on the County Board from 2002 until 2015, with her final vote a “present” on Preckwinkle’s sales tax increase.

In a race for Orland Township Republican committeeperson in the spring, Gorman lost by 356 votes to Kenneth Duffy in a bitter continuation of a fight with Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau.

Gorman has loaned herself $235,000 and the state GOP has contributed a little over $30,000 on mailers, which make up about 70% of the total funds she’s raised since launching the campaign. In response to a Tribune Editorial Board questionnaire, Gorman said property tax relief is the district’s “most pressing issue” and pledged to work to consolidate functions between governments to save money.

Party spending accounts for about 75% of all the contributions Hoffenberg’s received. A former prosecutor in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and a criminal defense attorney, she has been the township clerk in Lyons since 2021. She won endorsements from the Chicago Federation of Labor and various trade unions.

Hoffenberg has pledged to keep the county’s tax burden under control, expand the tax base, improve infrastructure and boost local access to county services.

But the campaign has been overshadowed by what Hoffenberg described as a “peck” from Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek that was caught on township security cameras. Gorman asked for the video via an open records request, raising Hoffenberg’s suspicions that Township Supervisor Chris Getty was surveilling her and feeding information to Gorman.

Getty, running for the 4th Congressional District as an independent, denied any coordination. Gorman has not said who tipped her off about the footage, which Hoffenberg ultimately released.

“This race affords voters an opportunity to elect a fresh and independent voice to the County Board; someone who will fight for every community across the district,” Hoffenberg said in an emailed statement. “I understand the assignment, and I’m ready to get to work on day one to deliver results for residents when elected on November 3.”

Maggie Trevor, a former pollster and data scientist elected as the board’s first openly lesbian member, won her spot in 2022 by a scant 680 votes, winning 50.3% over Republican Matt Podgorski.

She faces Jon Luers, a retired software engineer who only entered the race in June.

Republicans appointed Luers to fill the spot on the ballot after the party’s nominee, Chicago police Sgt. Ammie Kessem, withdrew from the race in May to accept a position in the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Labor.

In a Tribune questionnaire, Luers was vague in response to questions about changes he’d make to county government, but said he would oppose any sales or property tax increases. Asked what programs he would support cutting in the budget, he suggested “there must be plenty of extra cash wastefully sloshing around” at the county’s health system.

Trevor, who worked for the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals in Oakland, California, and with Blue Shield of California, defended the system’s growth, noting its expansion came with improved insurance coverage across the state and higher reimbursements to the county health system. The coming cuts to Medicaid coverage will not only harm patients, she said, but could add pressure to raise taxes elsewhere to make up for federal cuts.

“I actually do understand the dynamics of the marketplace and understand what we are facing,” Trevor said. “You can’t just come in and say, ‘Cut this program, cut that program.’ It’s much more complex than that.”

Trevor touted environmental accomplishments during her time on the board, including a ban on carcinogenic coal tar sealant, and changes to county landmark incentives that helped save the Pickwick Theatre.

Democrat Ted Mason, 39, faces Republican small business owner Daniel Lee in the open 15th District race. The formerly Republican territory spans much of the far northwest suburbs, including Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates and Barrington Hills.

Lee is a plan and economic development commissioner in Hoffman Estates who is a restaurant and manufacturing consultant. He has described himself as “unapologetically conservative” and said he would prioritize fiscal oversight of the county budget.

After flipping the longtime Republican district blue in 2018 and serving two terms, Commissioner Kevin Morrison opted to run for outgoing U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi’s spot. Krishnamoorthi ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, and Morrison lost to fellow Democrat Melissa Bean.

Mason is Morrison’s chief of staff and has been the Democratic committeeperson for Elk Grove Township since 2014. Before starting at the board with Morrison, he worked for state Sen. Toi Hutchinson and then as Krishnamoorthi’s outreach director.

Lee ended the previous fundraising quarter with about $1,500 cash on hand. His biggest donor to date is the Schaumburg Township Republican Organization, which has given $4,600.

Mason ended the same span with $90,000 in the bank and has been heavily subsidized by the Cook County Democratic Party, which has so far spent about $170,000 on polling, mailers and ads since the beginning of September alone. Mason told the Tribune’s editorial board the most pressing issue for constituents is access to county services and public transit accessibility.

Mason said he’s taking “nothing for granted,” and has knocked both Democratic and Republican doors. “Out in the suburbs, things can go either way.”

Elizabeth Granato, who emerged from the open primary to succeed outgoing Commissioner Bridget Degnen to represent the 12th District, which includes Bucktown, Logan Square and Lincoln Square, faces Republican Xiaoli “Alice” Hu. Granato, 37, has already been a fixture at the board since at least 2022, when she became head of the county’s Bureau of Asset Management. She told the Tribune’s editorial board that “rising property taxes and the continued increase in the cost of living are the most pressing issues” for constituents in the district.

Hu, who works in inventory management at Lift Solutions Holding, highlighted her decades in procurement in a Tribune questionnaire, arguing she would “protect taxpayers … and establish rigorous tracking systems to keep major IT projects on time and on budget” to prevent another costly and delayed contract like the Tyler Technologies overhaul of the county’s property tax system. Her website characterizes her as an independent, not a Republican.

Running uncontested are incumbents Tara Stamps, 1st, Michael Scott, 2nd, Bill Lowry, 3rd, Stanley Moore, 4th, Alma Anaya, 7th, and Scott Britton, 14th, all Democrats.

Several newcomers, also Democrats, are also guaranteed spots on the board. They include Patricia Joan “Trish” Murphy, who is running to replace outgoing Commissioner Donna Miller in the south suburban 6th District; Drake Warren, who defeated incumbent Bridget Gainer in the north lakefront’s 10th District; and Miranda Hernandez, who defeated Frank Aguilar in the suburban and Southwest Side 16th District.

Other Democratic incumbents are expected to win in reliably blue districts. Kisha McCaskill, 5th, is up against Republican challenger Richard Nolan. Jessica Vasquez, 8th, is up against Ramona Bonilla-Anaiel, also a Republican. Finance Chair John Daley, 11th, in office since 1992, faces Republican Charles Spizzirri, while Commissioner Josina Morita faces Aasi Siddique in the 13th District.

aquig@chicagotribune.com