Complete coverage of the local and national primary and general elections, including results, analysis and voter resources to keep Chicago voters informed.
The longest-serving member of the Cook County Property Tax Appeals Board overcame a major attempt to unseat him in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Personal injury attorney Larry Rogers Jr. – who has represented much of the South Side and southern suburbs for 20 years – was seeking the party’s nomination for a sixth term as one of three commissioners on the county’s Board of Audit.
As of election night at 8:45 p.m., Rogers had 61% of the vote to challenger Larecia Tucker’s 39%, with 86% of precincts counted, according to unofficial results.
Rogers’ victory represents a huge setback for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who did so Hundreds of thousands of dollars to defeat Rogers. Kaegi and Tucker had portrayed Rogers as an obstacle to efforts to reform the county’s allegedly unfair property tax system.
But Rogers accused Kaegi of acting unethically and pointed out that the Board of Review had the power to overrule Kaegi’s office and reduce tax assessments for property owners who appeal the initial assessment of their properties.
Rogers argued during the campaign that it was a conflict of interest for Kaegi to almost fully fund his challenger and try to replace him with an ally at the agency that reviews the assessor’s work.
Kaegi described the campaign to defeat Rogers as the next stage in his long-standing efforts for good government. Kaegi is in his second term as assessor after defeating the county’s former Democratic boss, Joseph Berrios, in the 2018 election with promises of “equality, transparency and fairness against a broken property tax system that has been at the expense of middle-class residents.” , had dropped off.
As of Tuesday, Kaegi had donated $680,000 to his new political action committee, Stop Tax Corruption Cook County, focused on defeating Rogers. Tucker’s campaign received more than $50,000 from Kaegi, records show.
Rogers countered by lending his campaign $850,000 of his own money in the final month of the race to try to defeat Tucker’s challenge. He also received strong support from attorneys representing property owners who were appealing their taxes.
In the latest disagreement between Rogers and Kaegi, the Board of Review lowered the valuation of the Arlington Park property where the Chicago Bears have proposed building a new football stadium.
Tucker works for the Rich Township government and is a real estate agent. She had promised to be independent of Kaegi if elected.
“Stamps faces Smith members in county board race”.
Also Tuesday, Cook County Board Commissioner Tara Stamps faced a Democratic primary challenge. Stamps is a close ally of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
At 8 p.m., Stamps had a huge lead, with 85% of the vote and 15% for challenger Zerlina Smith-Members.