TheDemocratic Party performed well, winning a full sweep of all countywide offices and 11 out of 17 seats on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.[2] This came despite1994 having been a strong Republican election cycle nationally, including inIllinois’ statewide elections (with the national election cycle being dubbed the “Republican Revolution”).
Turnout in the primaries was 34.58%, with 911,577 ballots cast.[1][3]Chicago saw 555,937 ballots cast and suburban Cook County saw 23.95% turnout (with 355,620 ballots cast).[1][4]
The general election saw turnout of 48.16%, with 1,267,152 ballots cast.[5] Chicago saw 586,235 ballots cast, while suburban Cook County saw 50.54% turnout (with 680,917 ballots cast).[4][5]
Democrat Hynes won by a roughly 35-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel, as well asHarold Washington Party nominee Donald Pamon andPopulist Party nominee Loretha Weisinger.[6]
David Orr was reelected by a roughly 30-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee Edward Howlett, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Herman W. Baker, Jr. and Populist Party nominee Curtis Jones.[6]
Michael F. Sheahan was reelected by a roughly 40-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee John D. Tourtelot, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee William A. Brown and Populist Party nominee William J. Benson.[6]
Rosewell was reelected by a more than 20-point margin. He defeated Republican nominee Jean Reyes Pechette, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Robert J. Pettis and Populist Party nominee John Justice.[6]
The primary was won byJohn Stroger Jr., a longtime member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He defeated Cook County Clerk of CourtsAurelia Pucinski and county board memberMaria Pappas. Stroger had received the endorsement of theCook County Democratic Party organization prior to the primary.[9]
Stroger and Pappas also were seeking simultaneous election to district seats on the board, while Puchinski opted against doing this.[9]
Pappas centered her platform on passing a "truth in budgeting" bill she had previously proposed on the commission. She proposed reducing waseful spending by the county government. She also spoke of revisiting the question of whether the planned new facility forCook County Hospital was genuinely a necessary expenditure.[9] Pucinski released a 50-point policy platform, which included proposals to ban government agencies from being involved in "for profit" activity and imposing a 1,000% tax onbullets. She also promised that she would release quarterly reports updating residents on the status of her fulfillment of campaign pledges.[9]
President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Democratic primary[1]
Joe Morris received the Republican nomination, running unopposed on the ballot in the Republican primary. Morris, an attorney, was a first-time candidate for elected office. He had previously worked at theEqual Opportunity Commission as the first assistant to then-directorClarence Thomas (who had by 1994been appointed to theSupreme Court of the United States).[9] Morris was aconservative, and campaigned on a platform of giving the county government a "complete overhaul", including a holding convention and referendum for the purposes of authoring and ratifying a new county charter. Morris proposed passing legislation to prevent the board president from simultaneously serving as a member of the board itself (and therefore, unlike Stroger and Pappas, he did not contest a district board seat while seeking the presidency). Morris championed abolishing the offices ofassessor, clerk, recorder of deeds, and treasurer and instead folding them into a new united executive branch to function under the purview of the county board president. He also proposed consolidating the [[[Metropolitan Water Reclamation District]] into the Cook County Government, and placing term limits on its board members. He also proposedprivatizing theCook County Hospital and ceasing any new hospital construction. He also spoke of creating new business incentives and championing stronger regional coordination inChicagoland on matters of law enforcement.[9]
Originally,Palatine village president Rita Mullins was running for the nomination, but she withdrew her candidacy.[10] Her candidacy posed an conundrum for the county party, as she wanted to also run for a board seat if she were to run for the board presidency. However, the district in her area had been specifically districted with considerations for incumbent RepublicanRichard Siebel to run for it, and if both Seibel and Mullins were to seek the same seat it would create an intraparty conflict. When she was running, Mullins' platform centered on public safety, lowering taxes, shrinking the size of the county government, and cutting public services.[9]
Count Republicans had initially had hope that they might be able to attract a strong candidate who might be able to win the open-seat race. There had been hopes byCook County Republican Party leadership thatDonald Haider (a professor atNorthwestern University, and the1987 Republican mayoral nominee) might run. Overtures had also been made to recruit formerEvanston MayorJoan Barr to run, however she was ultimately conveyed the impression that Haider was the party organization's consensus choice to be slated for the post. Morris had indicated that he would abandon his plans to run if Haider entered the race. Haider, however, ultimately opted against running.[9]
President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Republican primary[1]
Morris' candidacy was considered a long shot. It struggled with a lack of funds.[2] During the general election, Stroger did not campaign heavily.[2]
Morris proposed drastically restricting the county's government, abolishing all of the county agencies except the State's Attorney's office and replacing them with a different arrangement of departments that would have been under greater control of the president of the Cook Cook County Board of Commissioners.[2]
Stroger was simultaneously running for a district seat on the board, while Morris opted not to seek a district seat and proposed passing a law prohibiting individuals from simultaneously holding both of these offices.[9]
In August 1994, amid the campaign,Roland Burris (theattorney general of Illinois) filed a state lawsuit against Morris and the Lincoln Legal Foundation alleging inconsistencies in the foundation's accounting of its finances. Morris publicly claimed innosence, and argued that the lawsuit was merely intended to hurt his candidacy. However, allegations Morris had previously been ousted from a leadership role at another organization (the Mid-America Legal Foundation) due to allegations of excessive expenditures of its funds on luxuries such as offices and travel. Morris asserted that allegations of wrongdoing at either organizations were unture.[11]
Stroger won by a more than 25-point margin over Republican Joe Morris. He also defeated Harold Washington Party nomineeAloysius Majerczyk and Populist Party nominee Jerome Carter.[6]
President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners election[7]
This was the first for the Cook County Board of Commissioners conducted with individual districts, as previous elections had been conducted through two sets ofat-large elections (one for ten seats from the city ofChicago and another for seven seats from suburban Cook County).[12]
Six of those elected were new to the Cook County Board of Commissioners.[13]
The number of commissioners each party held remained unchanged.[14]
Coinciding with the primaries, elections were held to elect the Democratic, Republican, and Harold Washington Partycommitteemen for the suburbantownships.[1]
Suburban Cook County elected asuperintendent for the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, with Republican Lloyd Lehman running unopposed in both his primary election and the general election, as no other candidates sought the office.[7][16] This was the only office for which only a single candidate filed. Lehman had been appointed to the office the previous year after Richard Martwick resigned. TheChicago Tribune observed that this office may have been the "most obscure election on the ballot".[16]
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