We will stipulate this upfront. Toni Preckwinkle has had a storied career of political service in Chicago, first as 4th Ward alderman serving as one of Chicago’s few independent City Council voices during Richard M. Daley’s mayoralty and then as the four-term Cook County Board president.
Throughout, this formidable intellectual and leader has been a consistent voice of progressivism before that term was slung around as liberally as it is now. She has been an ardent advocate for policies to help our society’s have-nots with their most basic needs — health care, housing, income.
Some 16 years ago, Preckwinkle defeated Todd Stroger, tapped by the remnants of the Democratic machine to succeed his father, John Stroger, as Cook County Board president, in the name of reform. In many corners of that sprawling government apparatus, she cleaned things up and got government to do what it’s supposed to do — provide services to taxpayers and do so reasonably economically. She has support among some business leaders who view her as an effective partner; we heard from them on her behalf.
Had Preckwinkle opted to retire after her current term expires, we would be going on at greater length about her formidable record of accomplishment. Instead, she is vying for a fifth four-year term on March 17, which coincidentally will be the day she turns 79. She told us that she has been motivated and energized by a determination to withstand the attacks on her county by President Donald Trump. We don’t doubt her sincerity.
There is another side to her record as well. That part of the narrative involves her central role in propelling her proteges, Kim Foxx and Brandon Johnson, into positions of power in Cook County and Chicago.
Foxx, of course, served two terms as Cook County state’s attorney after a stint as Preckwinkle’s chief of staff. Foxx opted not to run for reelection in 2024, in our view because she most likely would have lost due to the unpopularity of her emphasis on helping those she believed wrongfully accused of crime over prosecuting offenders, even as violent crime rates were soaring in Chicago.
Johnson, we don’t need to remind Chicagoans, is the city’s mayor and has presided over a period of economic stasis and a series of yawning budget deficits that have fractured the City Council and led to an aldermanic majority that has seized control of the budget process from Johnson’s administration. Preckwinkle endorsed Johnson’s election to the County Board in 2018, in so doing helping to oust Commissioner Richard Boykin, one of the board’s leaders for the repeal of her widely hated soda tax. She endorsed Johnson’s mayoral campaign in 2023.
Today? While happy to defend Foxx’s tenure as state’s attorney, Preckwinkle declines to comment on what she thinks about Johnson’s performance in office. That silence speaks volumes.
The negative side of the ledger has entries that range beyond her promotion of politicians who’ve underperformed. Preckwinkle in her day job has helped give us a governmental failure of epic proportions. The board president’s decadelong project to overhaul the county’s antiquated information technology — something she envisioned as a legacy initiative when it began — has been so balky under Texas-based vendor Tyler Technologies that the resulting delay in distributing property tax revenues to local taxing bodies over the past several weeks is costing school districts throughout Cook County well over $100 million in interest on loans to maintain operations and other expenses.
The episode has punctured Preckwinkle’s reputation for managerial skill — a primary reason this page has endorsed her in previous elections despite some disagreements with other aspects of her record.
So we believe it’s time now for a change at the top of county government.
As we saw when Eileen O’Neill Burke defeated Preckwinkle-endorsed Clayton Harris III last year to become Cook County state’s attorney — a reaction in part to Preckwinkle’s heavy emphasis on criminal justice reform as reflected in Foxx’s tenure — we believe local voters will be better served by both a fresh eye and a more moderate Cook County Board president as this region attempts to emerge from a period of economic stagnation and recapture some of the dynamism we used to see in Chicago.
But, as they say in political circles, you need somebody to beat somebody. Preckwinkle’s opponent is Brendan Reilly, 54, who represents much of downtown Chicago as 42nd Ward alderman. Reilly is a City Hall veteran, first winning office in 2007, and has been a voice of reason on behalf of taxpayers and economic growth during the tumultuous period of Chicago politics following the retirement of Mayor Richard M. Daley in 2011.
Preckwinkle and Reilly met together with the editorial board last week and discussed the Tyler Technologies contract as well as other issues in the race. Preckwinkle acknowledged the fiscal pain the Tyler-related woes are causing taxing bodies but emphasized that other elected officials in Cook County had agreed to hire Tyler years before and had signed on at various stages when decisions had to be made on whether to stick with Tyler or find another vendor.
She pledged categorically that tax bills will be mailed in time for the first installment due April 1 of this year and that the Tyler problems were all solved. We will see.
Reilly said the original contract with Tyler was flawed and didn’t give the county enough opportunity to address the situation when things went awry or to penalize Tyler sufficiently when it didn’t meet deadlines. He pledged to amass a team of lawyers and technology experts to examine the system and Tyler’s abilities to continue maintaining it, which as of now is the plan despite the harsh criticism of the vendor by all the county’s elected officials.
That absolutely should happen regardless of who wins the primary in March.
Separately, Reilly has good ideas on how to reform Cook County’s land bank, which holds roughly 1,000 properties the county has accumulated via sales due to unpaid taxes. He wants to emulate what cities like Detroit have done by establishing an independent intergovernmental oversight agency that could think more strategically about how to turn those properties into economic development opportunities. That would require legislation in Springfield, for which he said he would lobby.
We agree with Reilly that the county could do far more to coordinate with state government and the city of Chicago, on the land bank and on other issues on which all those governmental bodies have an interest. Chicago is the economic engine of Chicago. A thriving Chicago means more tax revenue for the city, county and state. Elected officials should cooperate on ways to further that goal — without raising taxes.
On that score, Reilly promised not to raise the county’s base property tax levies, as Preckwinkle to her credit has done over her 15 years in the job. Should he win, we will hold him to that pledge.
Preckwinkle’s oversight of Cook County’s sprawling health system, by far the largest part of county government, has left the operation in good shape. We believe Reilly, the son of a former chief of medicine at Cook County Hospital, can continue with that good work.
Toni Preckwinkle has served the city of Chicago and Cook County ably throughout her long political career and done much to make life better for the unfortunate among us. She deserves great credit, and she has our gratitude.
But, as the Book of Ecclesiastes offered us, there’s a season for everything. The time has come at last for a new leader of the Cook County Board.
Brendan Reilly has our endorsement.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
