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The
Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the List of counties in Illinois, most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, C ...
, general election was held on November 8, 1994. Primaries were held March 15, 1994. Elections were held for Assessor,
Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...
,
Sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...
,
Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...
,
President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners The President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of county government in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois. They are the head of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The presi ...
, all 17 seats of the
Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, which includes the City ...
, both seats of the Cook County Board of Appeals, seats on the Water Reclamation District Board, and judgeships in the
Circuit Court of Cook County The Circuit Court of Cook County is the largest of the 25 Illinois circuit courts, circuit courts (trial courts of original jurisdiction, original and general jurisdiction) in the judiciary of Illinois as well as one of the largest unified cour ...
. The Democratic Party performed well, winning a full sweep of all countywide offices and 11 out of 17 seats on the Cook County Board of Commissioners. This came despite
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
having been a strong Republican election cycle nationally, including in Illinois’ statewide elections (with the national election cycle being dubbed the “
Republican Revolution The "Republican Revolution", "Revolution of '94", or "Gingrich Revolution" are political slogans that refer to the Republican Party's (GOP) success in the 1994 U.S. midterm elections, which resulted in a net gain of 54 seats in the House o ...
”).


Election information

1994 was a
midterm election Apart from general elections and by-elections, a midterm election refers to a type of election where the people can elect their representatives and other subnational officeholders (e.g. governor, members of local council) in the middle of the t ...
year in the United States. The primaries and general elections for Cook County races coincided with those for congressional elections and those for state elections.


Voter turnout


Primary election

Turnout in the primaries was 34.58%, with 911,577 ballots cast.
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
saw 555,937 ballots cast and suburban Cook County saw 23.95% turnout (with 355,620 ballots cast).


General election

The general election saw turnout of 48.16%, with 1,267,152 ballots cast. Chicago saw 586,235 ballots cast, while suburban Cook County saw 50.54% turnout (with 680,917 ballots cast).


Assessor

In the 1994
Cook County Assessor The Cook County Assessor is the Assessor (property), 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 com ...
election, incumbent assessor Thomas Hynes, a Democrat, was elected to a fifth full-term.


Primaries


Democratic


Republican


Harold Washington Party


General election

Democrat Hynes won by a roughly 35-point margin.Chicago Tribune, 11/10/1994 He defeated Republican nominee Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Donald Pamon and Populist Party nominee Loretha Weisinger.


Clerk

In the 1994 Cook County Clerk election, incumbent first-term clerk David Orr, a Democrat, was reelected.


Primaries


Democratic


Republican


Harold Washington Party


General election

David Orr was reelected by a roughly 30-point margin. He defeated Republican nominee Edward Howlett, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Herman W. Baker, Jr. and Populist Party nominee Curtis Jones.


Sheriff

In the 1994
Cook County Sheriff The Cook County Sheriff is the sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, heading the Cook County Sheriff's Office. Office description Terms are currently four-years in length. Officeholders Election results , - , colspan=21 style="text-align:cent ...
election, incumbent first-term sheriff Michael F. Sheahan, a Democrat, was reelected.


Primaries


Democratic


Republican

No candidate ran in the Republican primary for Sheriff. The party ultimately nominated John D. Tourtelot.


Harold Washington Party


General election

Michael F. Sheahan was reelected by a roughly 40-point margin. He defeated Republican nominee John D. Tourtelot, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee William A. Brown and Populist Party nominee William J. Benson.


Treasurer

In the 1994 Cook County Treasurer election, incumbent fifth-term treasurer Edward J. Rosewell, a Democrat, was reelected.


Primaries


Democratic


Republican


Harold Washington Party


General election

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.


President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners

In the 1994
President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners The President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of county government in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois. They are the head of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The presi ...
election, incumbent first-term president Richard Phelan, a Democrat, did not seek reelection. Democrat,
John Stroger John H. Stroger Jr. (May 19, 1929January 18, 2008) was an American politician who served from 1994 until 2006 as the first African-American president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners (the primary executive officer of Cook County, Illi ...
, was elected to succeed him in office. Stroger was the first
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
to be elected to the office.


Primaries


Democratic

The primary was won by John Stroger Jr., a longtime member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. He defeated Cook County Clerk of Courts
Aurelia Pucinski Aurelia Marie Pucinski (born April 29, 1947) is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Her second term expires in 2030. Early life Bor ...
and county board member
Maria Pappas Maria Pappas is a Greek American attorney and politician who has served as the Cook County Treasurer since 1998. Prior to that, she served two terms on the Cook County Board of Commissioners; first as one of ten members elected from Chicago an ...
. Stroger had received the endorsement of the
Cook County Democratic Party The Cook County Democratic Party is an American county-level political party organization which represents voters in 50 wards in the city of Chicago and 30 suburban townships of Cook County. The organization has dominated Chicago politics (and ...
organization prior to the primary. Stroger and Pappas also were seeking simultaneous election to district seats on the board, while Puchinski opted against doing this. 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 for
Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (shortened ''Stroger Hospital'', formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of Cook County Health, along with Provident Hospital of Cook Cou ...
was genuinely a necessary expenditure. 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 on
bullets A bullet is a Kinetic energy weapon, kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is Shooting, shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made ...
. She also promised that she would release quarterly reports updating residents on the status of her fulfillment of campaign pledges.


Republican

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 the Equal Opportunity Commission as the first assistant to then-director
Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served since 1991 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President George H. W. Bush nominated him to succeed Thurgood Marshall. Afte ...
(who had by 1994 been appointed to the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
). Morris was a
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
, 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 of assessor, 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 proposed privatizing the
Cook County Hospital The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (shortened ''Stroger Hospital'', formerly Cook County Hospital) is a public hospital in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is part of Cook County Health, along with Provident Hospital of Cook Cou ...
and ceasing any new hospital construction. He also spoke of creating new business incentives and championing stronger regional coordination in
Chicagoland The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities ...
on matters of law enforcement. Originally,
Palatine A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.
village president Rita Mullins was running for the nomination, but she withdrew her candidacy. 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 Republican Richard 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. 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 by Cook County Republican Party leadership that Donald Haider (a professor at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
, and the
1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...
Republican mayoral nominee) might run. Overtures had also been made to recruit former Evanston Mayor Joan 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.


Harold Washington Party


General election

Morris' candidacy was considered a long shot. It struggled with a lack of funds. During the general election, Stroger did not campaign heavily. 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. 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. In August 1994, amid the campaign,
Roland Burris Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who served as Attorney General of Illinois from 1991 to 1995 and as a United States senator from Illinois from 2009 until 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, ...
(the attorney 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. Stroger won by a more than 25-point margin over Republican Joe Morris. He also defeated Harold Washington Party nominee Aloysius Majerczyk and Populist Party nominee Jerome Carter.


Cook County Board of Commissioners

The 1994 Cook County Board of Commissioners election saw all seventeen seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners up for election to four-year terms. This was the first for the Cook County Board of Commissioners conducted with individual districts, as previous elections had been conducted through two sets of
at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...
elections (one for ten seats from the city of
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and another for seven seats from suburban Cook County). Six of those elected were new to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. The number of commissioners each party held remained unchanged.


Cook County Board of Appeals

In the 1994 Cook County Board of Appeals election, both seats on the board were up for election. The election was an at-large election. Incumbent Democrats
Joseph Berrios Joseph "Joe" Berrios (born February 14, 1952) is an American Democratic politician who was the Assessor and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party of Cook County, Illinois, as well as a registered Illinois state government lobbyist. H ...
and
Wilson Frost Wilson Lee Frost (December 27, 1925 – May 5, 2018) was an American politician from Chicago, Illinois. For 20 years (1967–1987), Frost was a member of the Chicago City Council, and for twelve years (1986–1998) he was a member on the Cook Cou ...
were reelected. This was the last election to the Cook County Board of Appeals, which was reconstituted in 1998 as the three-member Cook County Board of Review.


Water Reclamation District Board

In the 1998 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago election took place on November 8, 1994, with primaries on March 15, 1994.


Judicial elections

Partisan elections were held for judgeships on the Circuit Court of Cook County, due to vacancies. Other judgeships had
retention election A retention election or retention referendum is a referendum where voters are asked if an office holder, usually a judge, should be allowed to continue in that office. The judge is removed from office if a majority of votes are cast against rete ...
s.


Ballot questions


Property tax cap advisory referendum

An advisory
referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
was held on whether the voters of Cook County wanted the
Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in ...
to pass a
cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...
on
property tax A property tax (whose rate is expressed as a percentage or per mille, also called ''millage'') is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or Wealth t ...
es. Voters overwhelmingly supported a tax cap.


Other elections

Coinciding with the primaries, elections were held to elect the Democratic, Republican, and Harold Washington Party
committeemen In the United States, a political party committee is an organization, officially affiliated with a political party and registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which raises and spends money for political campaigning. Political party c ...
for the suburban
township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...
s. Suburban Cook County elected a superintendent 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. 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. The ''Chicago Tribune'' observed that this office may have been the "most obscure election on the ballot".


See also

*
1994 Illinois elections Elections were held in Illinois on Tuesday, November 8, 1994. Partisan primary, Primaries were held on March 15, 1994. These elections saw the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party make significant gains, and conversely saw the Dem ...


References

{{Cook County Board of Review, state=collapsed
Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40 percent of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. ...
Cook County, Illinois elections Cook County 1994