Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx was taking a commanding lead over her three Democratic challengers Tuesday night, appearing to win a second term after months of swatting away criticism for her handling of the Jussie Smollett case.
Foxx had 47% of the vote with about 72% of precincts reporting, according to unofficial totals. Former prosecutor Bill Conway, who poured millions of dollars of his father’s money into his bid to oust Foxx, was in second place with 33% of the vote. Gambling lobbyist Donna More, who ran against Foxx for the seat in 2016, had around 15% of the vote while former 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti had 5%.
Concerns around the spread of the coronavirus meant candidates pared down their election night watch parties — if they chose to have in-person events at all.
Foxx’s party, at Hotel Essex in the South Loop, was a smaller gathering largely for reporters. Foxx cancelled her larger Election Night party “to prioritize public health during these unprecedented times,” Foxx’s campaign manager Chrystian Woods said in an email.
Instead of politicos rubbing shoulders with campaign donors, a roomful of journalists tapped away at their phones and laptops as a TV cameraman bickered with a campaign staffer about a snafu with his wireless internet connectivity ahead of polls closing.
Foxx was the only candidate in the Democratic field to move forward with an in-person campaign event, which will also be broadcast on Facebook Live.
“Criminal justice reform is on the ballot,” Foxx said in a campaign video released before polls closed Tuesday. “I need your vote to secure a fairer and safer future for Cook County. Too much is at stake for you to sit this election out.”
Instead of a big election night party at Old Crow Smokehouse in River North near his campaign office, Conway spent his election night like he’s spent much of the last few days — at home with his family.
“He has some family in town, so they’re doing a small get together,” said Eliza Glezer, a campaign spokeswoman.
Taking precautions to limit social contact, Conway and his staff have spent the last few days phone-banking and pushing their message on social media. The former prosecutor’s staff wasn’t with him Tuesday night as he delivered his post-election remarks on Facebook Live after the results start to come in this evening.
“Even our campaign manager won’t be with him,” Glezer said.
Foxx’s handling of former “Empire” actor Smollett’s case dogged her throughout the primary, with her opponents trying to paint her handling of the case as damaging to public trust in the office.
Accused of making a false report to police, Smollett was indicted last year on 16 counts of disorderly conduct, but later that month the state’s attorney’s office abruptly dropped the charges, sparking outrage and confusion.
Foxx recused herself from the case about a month after Smollett initially alleged he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack in late January last year. At the time, a spokesman for Foxx cited conversations she’d had with one of Smollett’s family members about the incident as the reason for her recusal.
Judge Michael Toomin lambasted Foxx’s decision to recuse herself, comparing her to a captain abandoning the ship and appointed Special Prosecutor Dan Webb to look into the handling of the case and whether Smollett should be charged again.
Webb announced a new, six-count indictment last month, vaulting the case back into the headlines a month before the primary.
Foxx’s campaign criticized the former federal prosecutor’s “James Comey-like” timing, invoking the former FBI director’s decision to announce an investigation of then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
On the campaign trail, Foxx argued her work in the office was about more than just the Smollett case and said at one point the yearlong “obsession” with the case was “bulls—.”
“When I ran for this office in 2016 I ran on a platform that would be fundamentally different than how this office was run,” Foxx said at a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board. “That’s what I’ve done, the efforts that we’ve led on criminal justice reform are fundamental, I believe, to public safety.”
The race for the county position was an expensive one, likely the most expensive race for the county prosecutor spot.
Since the beginning of last year, Bill Conway raised $11,918,059.98 — $10,500,000 of it from his father William Conway Jr., the billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group.
Foxx’s personal campaign fund raised $3,867,656.31 since the beginning of last year, according to numbers from the Illinois State Board of Elections — that doesn’t include the millions Democratic mega donor George Soros dumped into a political action committee set up to support Foxx.
More and Fioretti made issue of the money in the race, particularly from Conway’s dad. With just a hair over 15% of the vote, More said Tuesday night “if I had Bill Conway’s money, this election would have looked a lot different.”
In the Republican primary for the seat, former Cook County Circuit Court Judge Pat O’Brien took an early lead over former prosecutor Christopher Pfannkuche, who ran against Foxx in 2016. O’Brien had roughly 73% of the vote to Pfannkuche’s 27% with 56% of precincts reporting.
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