Nearly four years after Fritz Kaegi was elected on a promise to right the ship at the beleaguered Cook County assessor’s office, the first-time politician faced a strong challenge from Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Kari Steele.
With 32% of precincts reporting about 7:45 p.m., Kaegi had an early lead, with about 53% of the vote reported, against 47% for Steele. All those results were from city precincts; as of 7:45 p.m., the Cook County Board of Elections had not posted suburban results.
The assessor’s office is charged with valuing real estate parcels for taxing purposes, and Steele has criticized Kaegi over recent assessments, claiming they have unfairly targeted commercial property owners throughout the county, and late assessments are leaving property owners vulnerable.
Kaegi has countered that he has kept his promises to reform the office, which faced harsh criticism under his predecessor, Joesph Berrios — who the Sun-Times revealed in 2019 was being investigated by the Feds, but has never been charged — who allowed assessment methods that favored wealthier property owners and allowed them to pay less in property taxes than those in low-income and minority communities.
In a campaign ad that never mentioned his opponent — and featured a Chicago-style hot dog in a starring role — Kaegi said he had increased protections for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.
Steele was also put on the defensive after criticism that her husband, real estate lobbyist Maze Jackson, engaged in anti-Semitic and anti-Latino conversations on his local radio show, broadcast on WBGX (1570 AM).
But a series of investigative reports about the operation of Kaegi’s office, the Chicago Sun-Times found:
• Nearly $90 million billed for leasehold taxes in Cook County for businesses operating in government-owned properties since 2001 has gone unpaid.
• Some homeowners had been granted tax exemptions to which they were not entitled.
• And that Kaegi bungled COVID-19 tax relief through an unusual effort to estimate pandemic-related job losses in neighborhoods and use those calculations to lower property assessments.
Board of Review
In the Cook County Board of Review’s 1st District, Commissioner Tammy Wendt, who knocked off the board’s only Republican two years ago, was expected to face a strong showing from Ald. George Cardenas, who was being backed by the county’s Democratic Party in the primary.
As of 7:45 p.m., the Chicago Board of Elections was reporting Cardenas with a strong lead of 64% against Wendt’s 36% of the vote, with nearly 29% of precincts reporting. All results are from the city; the Cook County Board of Elections had not yet posted suburban results.
Cardenas has called for more transparency from the board, which handles tax appeals, and accused Wendt of not engaging with the public, and accused her of engaging in nepotism.
Wendt was accused by other commissioners of hiring her first cousin for a cushy $150,000-a-year job, leading her to fire back that she was facing bullying from other commissioners because, she said, she was “not part of the ‘Good ‘ole Boys’ network.”
