Chicago Federation of Labor bucks Cook County Democrats, backs Kari Steele for assessor over incumbent Fritz Kaegi
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The Chicago Federation of Labor, a powerful ally of Democrats, bucked the Cook County party’s endorsed candidate for the June 28 primary and backed challenger Kari Steele over first-term incumbent county Assessor Fritz Kaegi.
The CFL’s political committee, meeting on Tuesday night, also made no endorsement in the race for county sheriff, where Tom Dart is backed by the Cook County Democratic organization for the post he has held since 2006.
In a statement, the CFL said its endorsements, which included Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s bid for reelection, were based on “candidates who demonstrate a strong understanding and respect for the issues that are important to working families.” Preckwinkle also chairs the Cook County Democratic organization.
Labor officials did not elaborate on their decision to back Steele, the president of the board of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, over Kaegi, who defeated controversial longtime Assessor Joseph Berrios in 2018.
Kaegi has sought to institute changes in what he calls a modernization of the assessment system to ensure “the very wealthy and big corporations are paying their fair share, in turn reducing the homeowners’ share of the burden” of property taxes.
But his system has several critics and its implementation and subsequent revisions have made it likely that the August property-tax bill payment will be delayed into next year.
Larry Rogers Jr., who chairs the county’s Board of Review, last month accused the assessor of blaming others for his “disastrous implementation of new technology” and inability to get property assessments certified on time.
Dart faces four primary challengers in his bid for reelection as sheriff, though objections to candidacy petitions have been filed against two of them and questions have been raised about whether the insurgent candidates meet new qualifications for the post created by a recently enacted state law.
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