A number of top Cook County officials, most of them running unopposed, will stay in their offices for the next four years.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle will return for a second term. Favored by many to one day run for mayor of Chicago, she spent her first term cleaning up messes left behind by the previous administration, as well as trying to push through reforms within the county's hospital and prison systems.
"It's been an interesting ride these last four years," Preckwinkle said at a September fundraiser. "It's a mixed blessing to succeed someone who's inept. We've tried to clean things up in Cook County. It's been a challenge on the fiscal side and a challenge on the performance side."
In her first six months in office, she added, "I spent a lot of my time firing people, explaining [that the Board President's office] was not a place to employ family members, but a place to employ people."
Cook County Assessor David Orr similarly will have another term. In the last several years, he found himself at the center of the struggle for marriage equality. When his office was sued by several couples who, under the state's previous gay marriage ban, were denied marriage licenses, he refused to fight the lawsuit in court.
At the wedding of activist Vernita Gray and her partner Pat Ewert in December, 2013, officiating judge Patricia Logue said of Orr, "We've never met a finer opponent."
Also running unopposed Nov. 4 were Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, Treasurer Maria Pappas and Assessor Joseph Berrios.
See related articles at the links:
www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Rauner-called-as-next-governor-of-Illinois/49532.html .
and
www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/ELECTIONS-2014-Durbin-tops-Oberweis-GOP-takes-Congress-local-LGBTs-win/49534.html .