O'Neill Burke Defeats Fioretti For Cook County State's Attorney: AP

COOK COUNTY, IL — Retired Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke easily won the Cook County State’s Attorney’s race, beating Republican Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Kopinski, according to the Associated Press. AP called the race just before 9 p.m. Tuesday.

This was the first time Burke ran for office on the Democratic ticket. She was favored to win after a razor-thin victory in the March Democratic primary against Clayton Harris.

All were contending for the job as Cook County’s top prosecutor left open by incumbent Kim Foxx, who announced she would not be seeking a third term.

With 64 percent of votes in, here is where the unofficial vote tallies stood:

* O'Neill Burke (D) - 1,014,101 (65.4%)

Fioretti (GOP) -468,208 (30.s%)

Kopinski (L) - 68,580 (4.4)

Source: Chicago Tribune

Candidates Make Their Case

Since winning the March primary, O’Neill Burke has been lying low, who is favored to win the seat.

O’Neill Burke squeaked by in the March primary opponent, winning by just 1,571 votes over Democratic opponent Clayton Harris.

Fioretti has accused O’Neill Burke of misrepresenting herself in the Democratic primary by telling voters she’d be “tough on crime,” particularly as Foxx often drew criticism from law enforcement and traditional tough-on-crime supporters during her two terms.

In her speech after winning the primary, O’Neill Burke stated she was unfairly cast as the “tough-on-crime” candidate.

“I think a lot of the concern was unfair that I was going to be very hard on crime. I want to be effective,” O’Neill Burke said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to lock everybody up.”

O’Neill Burke later said she would work on her campaign’s messaging.

O’Neill Burke is a lifelong Democrat and fourth-generation Chicagoan. She has spent more than 30 years in Cook County’s criminal justice system as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, a circuit court judge and an appellate judge, according to her campaign bio.

After eight years on the bench as the First District Illinois Appellate Judge, O’Neill Burke retired as justice to run for the state’s attorney seat.

According to her Patch candidate survey, O’Neill Burke says her top priority, if elected, would be tackling the surge of gun violence in communities and mass transit.

“Ordinary handguns have been converted into automatic weapons with simple switches and extended magazines. The number of mass shootings our community faces has exponentially increased and it is unacceptable. Additionally, gun violence or any violent crime perpetrated on patrons using mass transit must end. We cannot have a vibrant, successful Cook County unless people can safely and affordably travel throughout this region.”

O’Neill Burke also wants to continue building on the restorative justice programs currently being utilized in drug courts, mental health courts and veterans courts for non-violent offenders to help people get back on track.

She thinks the SAFE-T act has been effective by focusing on whether an individual is a danger to the community to determine incarceration during pretrial, regardless of wealth.

O’Neill Burke also supports “no-knock warrants” provided they are tightly regulated, and that accountability measures are in place, such as body-worn cameras.

Fioretti is a former two-term Chicago alderman in the city’s 2nd Ward. Fioretti is a veteran civil rights attorney who has been active in the Chicago community for many years.

He feels the most pressing issue in the Cook County State's Attorney Office “is the current policy of coddling violent criminals. The public has lost faith that the State's Attorney is on their side,” Fioretti said in his Patch candidate survey.

“Law enforcement does not feel the current Administration supports or respects them. That will change when I am State's Attorney. In addition, many assistants have left the office in disgust at the current Administration's policies. I will invite them back to the office and offer the same pay grade and title as when they left. Too much institutional knowledge has walked out the door.”
Fioretti claimed he is different from his Democratic opponent because he has represented the wrongly convicted, “while my opponent wrongly convicts them.”

If elected, Fioretti said that his term would be a success if he can restore the public’s faith in the office “that violent criminals will be treated the way violent criminals should be treated.”

He does not think the SAFE-T Act has been effective. Like his Democratic opponent, he supports “no-knock” warrants only in extraordinary instances.