Despite her past record and opposition from Black leaders, Eileen O’Neill Burke won over 80 percent of the vote in Black wards as she was elected Cook County State’s Attorney over Republican opponent Robert “Bob” Fioretti in the November 5 General Election, according to data from the Chicago Board of Elections.
Burke, a Democrat, who before she became an appellate judge once prosecuted a 10-year Black boy, will succeed outgoing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who did not seek a third term.
Burke defeated Fioretti, who was endorsed by Reverend Jesse Jackson, several Black pastors and the Chicago Crusader. She won, taking 59.91 percent of 953,556 votes cast in the Cook County State’s Attorney race.
Burke, running as an anti-crime Democratic candidate, won the Democratic Primary by just under 1,600 votes against Black candidate Clayton Harris III.
In her victory speech Tuesday night, O’Neill Burke pledged to work “tirelessly” as State’s Attorney to represent victims, uphold the laws and make justice accessible for everyone.
“That is a mission I will undertake with humility and dedication,” she said. “The way to predict the future is to create it. And today, I am telling you, together, we are going to create something extraordinary.”
A Crusader analysis of Burke’s victory shows she swept all 17 Black wards. In 12 of those wards, about 80.75 percent of registered voters supported Burke at the polls on November 5.
Burke had the highest winning percentage in the 8th Ward, where she received nearly 84 percent of the vote.
Burke’s lowest showing was in the 27th ward, where she received over 73 percent of the vote.
In the 17 Black wards, Burke received a total of 193,924 votes. That’s nearly 40 percent of the total 571,244 votes Burke received in the race.
As Cook County State’s Attorney-elect, O’Neill Burke has promised to create a new education and training curriculum for incoming attorneys. Burke said she will not continue Foxx’s felony prosecution policy for shoplifting cases, which requires that stolen goods must be worth at least $1,000 rather than the $300 limit set forth under state law.
During her speech, she highlighted this week’s murder of Chicago police Officer Enrique Martinez, killed during a traffic stop in East Chatham on Monday night, saying her “heart was broken, but my spirit is not broken.”
“We will get assault weapons off the street,” she said, “and we will make this community safer for everyone.”
In a statement late Tuesday, Foxx’s office congratulated Burke and said the office is committed to a “smooth transition for our residents and toward achieving Justice Burke’s vision of expanded restorative justice that serves all communities.”
Though a Republican, Fioretti ran as a Democrat in unsuccessful campaigns, seeking in various elections to become State’s Attorney, Chicago mayor, Cook County Board president and State Senator in Illinois’ 5th District.
Like Burke, Fioretti ran as an anti-crime candidate and along with his opponent, accused Foxx of being soft on crime. But many Blacks voted for Fioretti believing he was a Republican in name only and that he would be a Cook County State’s Attorney they could trust.
Black leaders did not like Burke’s past record as an assistant state’s attorney.
In the mid-1990s, Burke once prosecuted A.M., a 10-year-old Black boy convicted of murdering an elderly white woman in the Marquette Park neighborhood. Her throat was slashed, and she was tied up with a phone cord. There were also stolen items, including a gold watch and a diamond ring.
The boy gave a false confession that was coerced after an interrogation took place without a parent or police youth officer present. It also took place without an attorney for A.M. and without video recording — steps now required by state law.
A federal court later ruled that the police used illegal tactics and that the confession was coerced. Today, Burke maintains that she wasn’t aware that CPD Detective James Cassidy had a history of committing similar violations like those in A.M.’s case. The boy was interrogated for multiple hours with no adult representing him present for the questioning.
Despite the negative publicity from news outlets in Chicago, Burke won the Democratic Primary in March in a tight race against Harris. That race was called nearly two weeks after the election. She received a total of 264,428 votes or 50.15 percent of the vote.
A Crusader analysis of election data revealed that Burke took 27.60 percent of the Black vote from Chicago’s 17 predominately Black wards in her win over Harris, a Black candidate and former prosecutor who teaches at the University of Chicago.
