O'Neill Burke, Fioretti Vie For Cook County State's Attorney Job: 2024 Election
COOK COUNTY, IL — Voters will be deciding between Democrat Eileen O'Neill Burke and Republican Bob Fioretti for the Cook County State's Attorney race. Third-party Libertarian Andrew Kopinski is also running. The current incumbent, Kim Foxx, announced that she would not be seeking a third term.
Cook County voters have come to learn that the real race in an election year is the March primary, heavy with Democrats. Since eking out a victory over Dem opponent Clayton Harris in the primary, O'Neill Burke has been lying low, but is favored to win on Nov. 5.
Throughout her stormy two terms as Cook County State's Attorney, Foxx drew praise from criminal justice reform activists and criticism from traditional tough-on- crime supporters.
O'Neill Burke caught criticism when she proclaimed after her primary victory that she was unfairly cast as the "tough-on-crime choice."
"I think a lot of the concern was unfair that I was going to be very hard on crime. I want to be effective. That doesn't mean we're going to lock everybody up," O'Neill Burke said in her victory speech.
Fioretti has seized upon this point in an electronic campaign mailer claiming O'Neill Burke "misrepresented" her tough-on-crime stance to voters.
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, 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."
Comparing her time to joining the state's attorney's office in 1991 as a young prosecutor, where there were 2,300 for 50 jobs. She calls the office today "woefully understaffed."
"No one ever went to the State's Attorney's office to make money," O'Neill Burke said. "Young lawyers went there for the training and the experience."
One of her goals would be to create an "education unit" that would be the gold standard for training prosecutors and the equivalent to a master's degree in trial work.
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. Such collaborative programs, she said, have been proven to reduce recidivism.
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 that they are tightly regulated, and accountability measures are in place, such as body-worn cameras.
O'Neill Burke has been endorsed by the Chicago Tribune , the Daily Herald , Lawyers Co-Committee Chairs , numerous organized labor and organizations, elected officials across Cook County, and the Retired Judges Co-Chairs .
This is Bob Fioretti's second run for the Cook County State's Attorney job. He is running for the office as a Republican, after making similar runs for Cook County Board President once as a Democrat, losing against Toni Preckwinkle in the 2018 primary, and later, in 2022 as a Republican.
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 worked as the senior supervising attorney of the General Litigation Division for the Corporation Counsel as part of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's administration. He has been involved in more than 500 civil rights cases, and he has personal trial experiences that have led to more than 100 state and federal verdicts and appellate court decisions. He also has been appointed to numerous cases as an Illinois Special Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant State's Attorney, according to his campaign bio .
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."
"I will compare my civil rights record with hers any time. I am unapologetically the law-and-order candidate. My opponent pretended to be a law and order candidate in the Democratic primary in order to attract GOP crossover votes. Once that mission was accomplished, on the day her victory was declared (on April Fool's Day no less), she was quoted as saying 'I don't know why anyone would mistake me as a law-and-order candidate. That's a mistake.'"
He believes, if elected, 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."
"The Democratic Party's current philosophy on crime is that the criminal defendant is the good guy, law enforcement is the bad guy, and the victims don't matter. I want to change that on day one," Fioretti said.
Fioretti called Foxx's interactions with law enforcement, lack of empathy for victims, and her coddling of violent criminals "unacceptable."
Fioretti does not think that the SAFE-T Act has been effective, citing Cook County court records. He supports "no-knock warrants" only under extraordinary circumstances, and would prosecute drug dealers tied to opioid overdose deaths.
"As alderman, I had an open door policy. I never asked anyone who walked through the door about the age, ethnicity, religion or zip code they lived in," Fioretti said. "I helped everyone and held regular town hall meetings in my ward. I would hold similar meetings in different parts of the county on a regular basis."
Fioretti has been endorsed by former Riverside police chief, Thomas Weitzel , who told Patch that law enforcement has been "demoralized" by the current Cook County State's Attorney.
"I believe it is time for a complete change in the Cook County State Attorney's Office, and my endorsement is purely for public safety," Weitzel said. "It is not a Democrat/Republican issue for me; it's about victims, victims' families, and a better working relationship with police."
