A City that Works’ Guide to the 2024 Chicago Primaries

Recommendations for competent governance and sensible ideas

The 2024 Illinois primary is coming up soon on March 19th, and early voting is already open. If you live in the state, I encourage you to vote.

Strictly as a matter of principle, I think anyone who can vote should vote - I’m a believer in civic responsibility, and think voting is both an easy and important duty of being a good citizen.¹ Beyond that, however, if you’re someone willing to subscribe to my occasional musings about municipal finances and competent governance, you’re likely more informed than the average voter, and as such I think you should have a particular interest in ensuring that our institutions are governed well. Please vote.

As a particular follow up to that - if you live in Chicago, I specifically encourage you to vote in the Democratic Primary. I don’t know the political makeup of those reading this newsletter, but in the past four presidential elections about 1/4th of all Cook County voters have voted Republican, so it seems reasonable to assume at least a portion of you weren’t planning on asking for the Democratic ballot. You would be wrong not to. Illinois has an open primary system, meaning you’re allowed to ask for either ballot and you don’t need to be registered with a party. Moreover, this year in the city of Chicago, there are quite literally no competitive races at any level in the Republican, Libertarian, or Green Party primaries - every candidate is running unopposed. Casting your vote for any of those candidates will have no impact on the outcome of their races whatsoever. In contrast, the Democratic primaries have a number of competitive races, and in Cook County the winner of these primary races is nearly certain to be the winner of the general election in November. If you want your vote to really have any kind of influence whatsoever on who eventually gets elected to office, you should vote in the Democratic Primary.

With that out of the way, here’s my overview of all the state and local² races in Chicago, along with my recommendations where applicable. Note that I’m not necessarily making a recommendation in every race; there are at least a few between well-qualified candidates where I don’t have a strong opinion (particularly amongst the judges). As always, please feel free to reach out at citythatworksnewsletter@gmail.com with any thoughts, questions or concerns.

Referenda and Local Options

The majority of local options on your ballot are strictly advisory and don’t have any actual bearing on policy - these include supporting a Lakefront National Park, opening a few new or previously closed police districts, and supporting a CBA to help local residents near the Obama Center. I generally think more police districts would be a positive, turning the lakefront into a national park seems like a waste of time, and that the CBA sounds too anti-development for me, but I haven’t studied any of these issues in any sort of depth since they’re all advisory. One major exception:

Establishing a New Real Estate Tax: Vote NO.

This is Bring Chicago Home, which I’ve talked about before and still think is a bad idea. While the ballot measure was ruled invalid by a judge in late February, as of March 6th the appellate courts have since overturned that ruling, meaning your votes will be counted. I still view it as a bad idea which will hurt our commercial real estate sector at a time when it’s ill-equipped to bear the pain, I still do not think it is a good idea to tie revenues from this proposal to a specific expenditure, I’m still unclear on how exactly these funds would be spent, and I still think you should vote against it. Vote No.

Countywide Races

State’s Attorney: Vote Eileen O’Neill Burke

In perhaps the highest profile race on the ballot, two candidates are running in the Democratic primary to replace Kim Foxx as Cook County’s chief prosecutor. Latest polls show the race to be wide open, with nearly 60% of voters still undecided per M3 Strategies, and it is highly likely that whomever wins the primary will defeat former alderman and perennial candidate-for-something Bob Fioretti, who’s running unopposed in the Republican primary.

While we haven’t talked a ton about public safety here (I know a lot more about finance, and like to talk about what I know), my general view of Foxx’s tenure is that the office has swung too far away from prioritizing public safety and deterring crime. We’ve seen a lot of coverage of veteran prosecutors leaving the office and charges being dropped even in what (from a layman’s perspective) seem like straightforward cases. I don’t think it is in Chicago’s best interest for this to continue.

Eileen O’Neill Burke is a former prosecutor, judge and defense attorney who I think offers the best chance at a course correction. She’s talked about the importance of rebuilding and retaining talent in the state’s attorney’s office, cracking down on felony gun charges and getting more serious about public safety. She’s been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and Daily Herald, along with a number of politicians I think highly of (including Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Congressman Mike Quigley, and Aldermen Scott Waguespack, Brian Hopkins, and Brendan Reilly, among others). She’s running against Clayton Harris III, another former prosecutor who’s also held a variety of managerial positions in Chicago government. Based on rhetoric, he still strikes me as somewhat of an improvement over Foxx, but I don’t think he would bring about the real sea change the office needs. Vote for Burke.

Circuit Court Clerk: Vote Mariyana Spyropoulos

The County Circuit Court Clerk’s is not really a very sexy job, and it’s kind of weird that we elect it. This is mostly a managerial position overseeing the county court system and making sure that documents go where they’re supposed to (so that judges, lawyers and the public have access where appropriate). As such, what you should really look for here is a candidate who (1) is capable of doing the job and being a competent manager, and (2) is going to act with integrity and avoid corruption. By those metrics I think Spyropoulos, a current commissioner on the water board, is a better choice. She’s made ethics and accountability a big pillar of her campaign, and has the government experience to serve as a competent administrator. Her opponent is incumbent Iris Martinez, who’s had some questions of late over a lot of her campaign funds coming from her employees (many of whom recently received promotions). I don’t know a ton about the nuances there, but a competent and clean candidate seems better than an incumbent with any question marks to me. Vote for Spyropoulos.

Other County Races

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District: Vote Waller and Steele (and one other)

The MWRD is the government entity responsible for managing the sewage system in Cook County, handling both waste- and stormwater. There are four candidates running for three seats, so you get to vote for three of them. Sharon Waller is the only non-incumbent, and is an environmental engineer who seems both well-qualified and to have a good platform for the district. Of the other three, Kari Steele is the current district president, and the Tribune highlights her emphasis on good fiscal management (the 2024 budget is actually lower than 2023 spending), which strikes me as a good enough reason to support her reelection. I don’t have a strong view on the other two candidates, who both seem pretty well-qualified - Marcelino Garcia is a lawyer who was first elected in 2018, while Daniel Pogorzelski was elected in a special election in 2022. I’ll leave it up to you to make a choice between them, but vote Waller and Steele.

Cook County Board 1st District: Vote Zerlina Smith-Members

The 1st District encompasses much of Chicago’s West Side as well as some suburbs including Oak Park and Maywood - it’s the seat formerly held by Brandon Johnson. Former CPS teacher Tara Stamps was appointed to fill that vacancy and is running for reelection against Austin resident Zerlina Smith-Members. Smith-Members seems like a bit of a perennial candidate - she ran for alderman twice in 2015 and 2019, getting 5% and 14%, and for Cook County Board President in 2022, getting kicked off the ballot. I’m pretty skeptical of her chances given that, and I’m not a fan of some of her rhetoric around how to handle the migrant crisis. On the other hand, I do appreciate her willingness to criticize Preckwinkle and Johnson, and her emphasis on the importance of public safety in her community. Meanwhile, Stamps is a strong advocate and political supporter of the CTU, and I continue to have a difficult time supporting candidates who are ideologically that far to the left. I don’t love her, but I still recommend to vote Zerlina Smith-Members.

Cook County Board of Review (3rd District): Vote Larecia N. Tucker

While the Cook County assessor is responsible for determining property values in the county³, the County Board of Review is the entity responsible for overseeing appeals to those assessments. The 3rd district encompasses Cook County’s south suburbs as well as much of Chicago’s South and West Sides. This strikes me as a race between a well-connected incumbent insider and an independent, reform-minded challenger. Tucker is that challenger - she currently works in an assessor’s office in Rich Township in the south suburbs and is running on a platform of bringing transparency and ethics reform to the office. She’s running to unseat Larry Rogers Jr., who’s been on the board since 2004 and has a whole host of conflict-of-interest question marks, including significant donations from property tax attorneys and previously employing his brother (who is now a tax appeal attorney, often bringing cases before Rogers). Ethical question marks around property tax appeals in Chicago are a tale as old as time, and that’s enough to disqualify Rogers in my mind. Vote Tucker.

State Races

State Senate (20th District): Vote Natalie Toro

The 20th District encompasses much of Bucktown, Logan Square, Hermosa and a few other neighborhoods on the Northwest Side, and is home to the only competitive state senate primary in all of Illinois for Democrats. There are four candidates running, but the two frontrunners are incumbent State Sen. Natalie Toro and activist Graciela Guzmán. Toro is a former teacher and lifelong resident of the district who was appointed to the seat after former Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas resigned her seat to serve as Mayor Johnson’s Deputy Chief of Staff. I’d characterize her views as broadly moderate and she was endorsed by the Tribune. Guzmán is an activist for the Chicago Teachers Union (who chose to endorse her over Toro, a former teacher and longtime member), is supported by many of the same groups that helped elect Mayor Johnson (she also previously served as Chief of Staff to Pacione-Zayas when she held the seat), and has broadly leftwing views. I’m broadly in favor of electing more sensible moderates and fewer CTU activists to office. Vote for Toro.

State Representative (4th District): Vote Lilian Jimenez

This district encompasses West Town/Humboldt Park/Ukrainian Village and a few other west side neighborhoods. Jimenez is the incumbent running for reelection against Kirk Ortiz and was first elected in 2022 - prior to that she worked for Governor Pritzker and Chuy Garcia. She’s a bit too liberal for me, but her experience contrasts pretty strongly with Ortiz’s, and my confidence that she’s capable of doing the job well is enough to win out for me here. Vote Jimenez.

State Representative (5th District): Vote Kimberly Neely DuBuclet

The 5th district encompasses the western half of River North and then is basically a 2-3 block wide stretch running down Michigan Avenue all the way to around 67th street in Woodlawn. Current Rep. Kimberly Neely du Buclet (who was appointed after former Rep Lamont Robinson was elected Alderman) is running for reelection against challenger Andre Smith. Smith doesn’t have much of a track record and doesn’t seem like a particularly formidable challenger to me, and I don’t know of anything concerning about du Buclet which would dissuade me from keeping a competent lawmaker in her seat. Vote du Buclet.

State Representative (6th District): Vote Joseph Williams

The bulk of the 6th district consists of Englewood, West Englewood and Back of the Yards, though it also stretches up to encompass the west half of the Loop and South Loop (running parallel to the 5th). Incumbent Sonya Harper is being challenged by Englewood activist and police district councilmember Joseph Williams. I don’t know much about Harper, but Williams strikes me as a pretty impressive figure who we could stand to have in Springfield. Vote Williams.

State Representative (21st District): Vote Vidal Vasquez

I’ve been using the benchmark of “is this district in Chicago” as my standard for whether to include it here, and as best I can tell this district has like 3 or 4 blocks on the southwest side of the city, with the remainder in suburbs including Berwyn, Cicero, LaGrange and Bedford Park, so it just makes the cut. Progressive incumbent Abdelnasser Rashid is running for reelection against retired Chicago Police Sergeant Vidal Vasquez, who’s running on a pretty moderate platform around public safety, restraining property tax hikes and school choice. I like that platform. Vote Vasquez.

State Representative (22nd District): Vote Angie Guerrero-Cuellar

This is another Southwest Side district encompassing Midway Airport and the surrounding area. Angie Guerrero-Cuellar is the incumbent representative and is a moderate who seems to be doing a good job. Vote Guerrero-Cuellar.

State Representative (23rd District): Vote Edgar Gonzalez, Jr.

Gonzalez is the incumbent in this district, which consists of much of Little Village and Brighton Park. He’s being challenged by Joseph Edward Mercado, a 22 year old college student who ran unsuccessfully for alderman last year and doesn’t strike me as a serious contender. Vote for Gonzalez.

State Representative (24th District): Vote Theresa Ma

This district encompasses Chinatown, Bridgeport, and parts of Pilsen. Ma is a progressive incumbent being challenged by Lai Ching Ng, about whom I’m unable to find much information at all. In that absence, I’d recommend sticking with the incumbent. Vote for Ma.

State Representative (27 District): Vote Tawana Robinson

This is a southside district running from Roseland and Beverly down to the south suburbs around Orland Hills. Rep. Justin Slaughter is the incumbent and is facing repeat challenger and CPS teacher Tawana Robinson. Slaughter strikes me as a very competent legislator, but he’s too far to the left on some criminal justice issues for me to recommend him (earlier this year, he was the legislator who proposed a bill preventing the police from stopping cars for most traffic violations, for example). I’m not really sure what to make of Robinson, who doesn’t have a ton on her platform, but I wouldn’t recommend a vote for Slaughter. Vote Robinson.

State Representative (31 District): Vote Michael Crawford

This is a south side district mostly encompassing Auburn Gresham as well as portions of Englewood and some south suburbs. Mary Flowers has represented the district since 1985. There’s some drama in her reelection this time around, with House Speaker Emanuel Welch backing her primary challenger Michael Crawford in a manner raising enough eyebrows that the Chicago Tribune wasn’t willing to endorse either candidate. I take their point, but 40 years in an office is a long enough time to encourage some change. Vote for Crawford.

State Representative (35 District): Vote Mary Gill.

This district on the South Side covers much of Beverly, Mt. Greenwood and some of the near south suburbs. Mary Gill is a fresh incumbent (appointed last year to the seat) running for reelection against David Dewar, who’s run for office in Beverly unsuccessfully a few times. Gill seems like a good incumbent and I don’t have a good reason to oppose her. Vote for Gill.

State Representative (36 District): Vote Rick Ryan.

Just north of the 35th, this district covers a bit of Beverly as well as suburbs including Evergreen Park, Oak Lawn, and Chicago Ridge. This is an open seat thanks to the impending retirement of State Rep. Kelly Burke. She’s endorsed attorney Rick Ryan, who is running against Markham city administrator Sonia Anne Khalil. Ryan seems like a pretty moderate candidate and is backed by a lot of the more centrist Chicago politicians and unions, while Khalil is an outsider running on a more progressive platform. I see no reason to deviate from my general theme of prioritizing moderate candidates. Vote for Ryan.

Judges

The below recommendations are primarily based on my read of “this person seems well qualified to be a judge and their opponent does not,” and don’t necessarily encompass every judicial race on the ballot - some have two good candidates and I don’t really have a preference⁴. In the interest of brevity I’m just listing the people I’d recommend, but feel free to reach out with any questions on these or any other judicial races and I’m happy to offer thoughts.

Judge of the Appellate Court (Vacancy of Cunningham) - Vote for Cynthia Y. Cobbs

Judge of the Appellate Court (Vacancy of Delort) - Vote for Celia Louise Gamrath

Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Flannery, Jr.) - Vote for Pablo F. deCastro

Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Mitchell) - Vote for Neil Cohen

Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Murphy) - Vote for Edward Joseph Underhill

Judge of the Circuit Court (Vacancy of Propes) - Vote for Debjani ‘Deb’ Desai

Judge, 3rd Subcircuit (Vacancy of Brosnahan) - Vote for Martin Douglas Reggi

Judge, 7th Subcircuit (Vacancy of Solganick) - Vote for Owens J. Shelby

Judge, 10th Subcircuit (Vacancy of Wojkowski) - Vote for James V. Murphy

Judge, 11th Subcircuit (Vacancy of Daleo) - Vote for Kim Przekota

Judge, 19th Subcircuit (Converted from Associate Judgeship of Senechalle, Jr.) - Vote for Bridget Colleen Duignan

Judge, 20th Subcircuit (Converted from Associate Judgeship of Budzinski) - Vote for Michael J. Zink

1. Genuine offer: if you aren’t sure if you’re registered, or don’t know how to vote, please feel free to reach out at citythatworksnewsletter@gmail.com and I will personally help you figure out how to do it. No excuses.

2. Why no federal? I’m pretty skeptical that I can tell you anything new about anybody running for Congress or president, and it’s also outside the scope of this newsletter. I think it’s underratedly important for people to not stray too much from their primary focus, so I’m not going to waste your time with those.

3. More on how property taxes work here.

4. As a high profile example, I explicitly don’t really have a view on who’s better between Joy Cunningham and Jesse Reyes for Illinois Supreme Court - they both seem like qualified candidates who would do a fine job.