Fredrick "Fritz" Kaegi is an American politician who has served as

Cook County assessor The Cook County Assessor is the assessor and county government officer of Cook County, Illinois. Office description Before the creation of the position of Cook County Assessor in 1932, the Cook County Board of Assessors completed assessments i ...

since 2018.

Early life

Kaegi was born in November 1971 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He grew up in the

Hyde Park Hyde Park may refer to: Places England * Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London * Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds * Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield * Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester Austra ...

neighborhood of Chicago. He graduated from

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducational ...

, and went on to get his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Career

For more than twenty years, Kaegi worked as a

asset manager Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of value from the things that a group or entity is responsible for, over their whole life cycles. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as buildings ...

. This included 13 years spent working at Columbia Wagner Asset Management. Kaegi holds the designations of Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Illinois Assessment Officer. He also is a member of the International Association of Assessing Officers.

Cook County Assessor

2018 campaign

A first-time candidate for public office, Kaegi ran for

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

. He largely self-financed his campaign. Kaegi's ran as a reformer under the slogan, "No favoritism, just fairness". In the Democratic

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

, he defeated embattled incumbent Joseph Berrios. Kaegi originally had appeared to have successfully challenged the ballot petitions of Andrea Raila, kicking her out of the race, thus making the primary a one-on-one race between Kaegi and Berrios. However, Raila was still appeared on ballots, as they had already been printed, but no votes were cast for her would be counted. However, after a lawsuit, judges made it so that Raila would be allowed to run, making it a three-person race again. Berrios was the powerful chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. During the primary election, Kaegi received the endorsements of the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'', ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', ''

Daily Herald Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', as well as politicians such as Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Robin Kelly, Mike Quigley, Bobby Rush, and

Jan Schakowsky Janice Schakowsky ( ; née Danoff; born May 26, 1944) is an American politician who has served as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat ...

. The ''Chicago Tribune'' described his victory against Berrios as a "rare topping of the

machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...

". After defeating Berrios to be the Democratic nominee, Kaegi won the general election against Republican Joseph Paglia.

Tenure

As assessor, Kaegi began the process of reassessing all of the county's properties, to be done over a three-year period. Kaegi reassessments have been seen as shifting the tax burden from residential to commercial properties. His predecessor, Berrios, had undervalued many commercial properties. Kaegi has received pushback from localities for the increased value assessments he has given to many commercial properties, as localities worry that if commercial property owners successfully appeal to the Cook County Board of Review, there is a risk that local tax bodies will need to give tax refunds to the ownership properties in question. Amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Kaegi moved to reduce the tax burden on most commercial and residential properties, to account for the pandemic's impact.

Personal life

Kaegi lives in Oak Park,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. He and his wife, Rebecca, have three children.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaegi, Fritz 1971 births Cook County Assessors Haverford College alumni Illinois Democrats Living people People from Oak Park, Illinois Politicians from Chicago Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni CFA charterholders