1994 Cook County, Illinois, elections explained

Flag Image:File:Flag of Cook County, Illinois (1961–2022).svg
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1992 Cook County, Illinois, elections
Previous Year:1992
Next Election:1996 Cook County, Illinois, elections
Next Year:1996
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Turnout:48.16%

The Cook County, Illinois, general election was held on November 8, 1994.

Primaries were held March 15, 1994.[1]

Elections were held for Assessor, Clerk, Sheriff, Treasurer, President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, all 17 seats of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, 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 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.[2] This came despite 1994 having been a strong Republican election cycle nationally, including in Illinois’ statewide elections (with the national election cycle being dubbed the “Republican Revolution”).

Election information

1994 was a midterm election 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.[1] [3] Chicago saw 555,937 ballots cast and suburban Cook County saw 23.95% turnout (with 355,620 ballots cast).[1] [4]

Vote totals of primaries
Primary Chicago vote totals Suburban Cook County vote totals Total Cook County vote totals
525,752 213,002 738,754
24,391 132,478 156,869
564 110 674
Harold Washington Party/Democratic 3,826 1,669 5,495
Harold Washington Party/Republican 244 171 415
Nonpartisan 1,160 8,190 9,350
Total 555,937 355,620 911,557

General election

The general election saw turnout of 48.16%, with 1,267,152 ballots cast.[5] Chicago saw 586,235 ballots cast, while suburban Cook County saw 50.54% turnout (with 680,917 ballots cast).[4] [5]

Assessor

Election Name:1994 Cook County Assessor election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#Assessor
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Assessor
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Candidate1:Thomas Hynes
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:725,866
Candidate2:Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:340,151
Assessor
Before Election:Thomas Hynes
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Thomas Hynes
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

In the 1994 Cook County Assessor election, incumbent assessor Thomas Hynes, a Democrat, was elected to a fifth full-term.[2]

Primaries

Harold Washington Party

General election

Democrat Hynes won by a roughly 35-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Donald Pamon and Populist Party nominee Loretha Weisinger.[6]

Clerk

Election Name:1994 Cook County Clerk election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#Clerk
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Clerk
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Candidate1:David Orr
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:720,132
Candidate2:Edward Howlett
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:381,445
Clerk
Before Election:David Orr
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:David Orr
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

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

Primaries

Harold Washington Party

General election

David Orr was reelected by a roughly 30-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee Edward Howlett, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee Herman W. Baker, Jr. and Populist Party nominee Curtis Jones.[6]

Sheriff

Election Name:1994 Cook County Sheriff election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#Sheriff
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Sheriff
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Candidate1:Michael F. Sheahan
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Candidate2:John D. Tourtelot
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Sheriff
Before Election:Michael F. Sheahan
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Michael F. Sheahan
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

In the 1994 Cook County Sheriff election, incumbent first-term sheriff Michael F. Sheahan, a Democrat, was reelected.

Primaries

Republican

No candidate ran in the Republican primary for Sheriff.[1] The party ultimately nominated John D. Tourtelot.[6]

Harold Washington Party

General election

Michael F. Sheahan was reelected by a roughly 40-point margin.[6] He defeated Republican nominee John D. Tourtelot, as well as Harold Washington Party nominee William A. Brown and Populist Party nominee William J. Benson.[6]

Treasurer

Election Name:1994 Cook County Treasurer election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#Treasurer
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Treasurer
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Candidate1:Edward J. Rosewell
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:643,313
Candidate2:Jean Reyes Pechette
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:389,131
Treasurer
Before Election:Edward J. Rosewell
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Edward J. Rosewell
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

In the 1994 Cook County Treasurer election, incumbent fifth-term treasurer Edward J. Rosewell, a Democrat, was reelected.[6] [7]

Primaries

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.[6]

President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners

Election Name:1994 President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners election
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Candidate1:John Stroger
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:681,078
Candidate2:Joe Morris
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:397,241
President
Before Election:Richard Phelan
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:John Stroger
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

In the 1994 President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners election, incumbent first-term president Richard Phelan, a Democrat, did not seek reelection. Democrat, John Stroger, was elected to succeed him in office. Stroger was the first African-American to be elected to the office.[2]

Primaries

Republican

Joe Morris received the Republican nomination, running unopposed on the ballot in the Republican primary.

Originally, Palatine village president Rita Mullins was running for the nomination, but she withdrew her candidacy.[8]

Harold Washington Party

General election

Morris' candidacy was considered a long shot. It struggled with a lack of funds.[2] During the general election, Stroger did not campaign heavily.[2]

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.[2]

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.[6]

Cook County Board of Commissioners

See also: 1994 Cook County Board of Commissioners election.

Election Name:1994 Cook County Board of Commissioners election
Ongoing:no
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1990 Cook County Board of Commissioners election
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County Board of Commissioners election
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Seats For Election:All 17 seats on the Cook County Board of Commissioners
Majority Seats:9
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Seats Before1:11
Seats1:11
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Seats Before2:6
Seats2:6
Party3:Harold Washington Party
Seats Before3:0
Seats3:0
Map Size:300px

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 elections (one for ten seats from the city of Chicago and another for seven seats from suburban Cook County).[9]

Six of those elected were new to the Cook County Board of Commissioners.[10]

The number of commissioners each party held remained unchanged.[11]

Cook County Board of Appeals

Election Name:1994 Cook County Board of Appeals election
Ongoing:no
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1990 Cook County, Illinois elections#Cook County Board of Appeals
Previous Year:1990
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Cook County Board of Review
Next Year:1998 (Board of Review)
Election Date:November 8, 1990
Seats For Election:2 of 2 seats on the Cook County Board of Appeals
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Seats Before1:2
Seats After1:2
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Seats Before2:0
Seats After2:0
Map Size:300px

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 and Wilson Frost 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

Election Name:1994 Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago election
Ongoing:no
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1992 Cook County, Illinois elections#Water Reclamation District Board
Previous Year:1992
Next Election:1998 Cook County, Illinois elections#Water Reclamation District Board
Next Year:1998
Election Date:November 8, 1994
Map Size:300px

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 elections.

Ballot questions

Property tax cap advisory referendum

An advisory referendum was held on whether the voters of Cook County wanted the Illinois General Assembly to pass a cap on property taxes. 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 for the suburban townships.[1]

Suburban Cook County elected a superintendent for the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, with Republican Lloyd Lehman running unopposed in the general election.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS PRIMARY ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 1994 DEMOCRATIC PARTY . Cook County Clerk . 13 October 2020.
  2. Web site: Fegelman . Andrew . Baniak . Peter . Stroger's patience is rewarded . Newspapers.com . Chicago Tribune . 14 May 2021 . en . subscription . 9 November 1994.
  3. Web site: STATE OF ILLINOIS OFFICIAL VOTE Cast at the PRIMARY ELECTION GENERAL PRIMARY, MARCH 15, 1994 . Illinois Secretary of State . 16 October 2020.
  4. Web site: Voter Registration and Turnout 1990 - 2019 Cook County Clerk's Office . www.cookcountyclerk.com . Cook County Clerk . 16 October 2020.
  5. Web site: STATE OF ILLINOIS OFFICIAL VOTE Cast at the GENERAL ELECTION NOVEMBER 8, 1994 . Illinois Secretary of State . 16 October 2020 .
  6. Chicago Tribune, 11/10/1994
  7. Web site: O'Connor . Matt . ROSEWELL MAKES DEAL IN GHOST-JOBS PROBE . chicagotribune.com . Chicago Tribune . 13 October 2020 . 26 November 1998.
  8. Web site: ENDORSEMENTS FOR COOK COUNTY BOARD . chicagotribune.com . 26 October 2020.
  9. Web site: CHOICES FOR COOK COUNTY BOARD . chicagotribune.com . Chicago Tribune . 16 October 2020 . 22 October 1998.
  10. Web site: Geroulis . Dean . NEW COMMISSIONER TO REMAIN ELMWOOD PARK MAYOR . chicagotribune.com . Chicago Tribune . 26 October 2020 . 25 November 1994.
  11. Web site: Fegelman . Andrew . STROGER'S WIN BUILT ON VOTER, PARTY UNITY . chicagotribune.com . 26 October 2020 . 10 November 1994.