Cook County Assessor Explained

Post:Cook County Clerk
Insigniasize:150px
Incumbent:Fritz Kaegi
Incumbentsince:December 2018
Termlength:4 years
Formation:1932
Inaugural:J.L. Jacobs

The Cook County Assessor is the 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 completed assessments in Cook County.[1] The Board of Assessors had been created after a law passed by the Illinois General Assembly on February 25, 1898 created a Board of Assessors in counties with 125,000 or more inhabitants.[1] The board had five members, with a rule that no more than four could reside in the same city.[1]

After an apparent fourteen-month delay in determining the 1931 assessment, it was decided that the structure of assessment in Cook County, with a five-member board of assessors and three-member Cook County Board of Review, needed to be restructured.[1]

On February 13, 1932, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law that in counties of 250,000 or more, the governor and the presidents of those counties' board of commissioners would appoint an Assessor to hold office until either the first Monday in December 1932, or until a successor could otherwise be elected.[1]

The first election for the office of Cook County Assessor took place in November 1934 for a four-year term.[1] The Board of Assessors was disestablished once the new assessor took office.[1]

Officeholders

AsessorTerm in officePartyNotesCite
J.L. Jacobs1932–1934Appointed in 1932
John S. Clark1934–1954Elected in 1934, 1938, 1942, 1946, 1950
Frank Keenan1954–1958Elected in 1954
John McGuane1958–1958
P.J. Cullerton1958–1974Democratic
Thomas M. Tully1974–1978
Thomas C. Hynes1978–1997DemocraticElected in 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994; resigned in 1997[2]
James Houlihan1997–2010DemocraticAppointed in 1997; elected in 1998, 2002, 2006
Joseph BerriosDecember 6, 2010–December 3, 2018DemocraticElected in 2010 and 2014; lost reelection in 2018
Fritz KaegiDecember 3, 2018–presentDemocraticElected in 2018 and 2022

Recent election results

|-| colspan=16 style="text-align:center;" |Cook County Assessor general elections|-!Year!Winning candidate!Party!Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)!Opponent!Party! Vote (pct)|-|1986[3] | | Thomas C. Hynes| | Democratic| | 969,500 (357,758%)| | Le Roy M. Graham| | Republican| | 357,758 (26.95%)| | | | | | |-|1990[4] | | Thomas C. Hynes| | Democratic| | 775,493 (62.05%)| | Ronald Bean| | Republican| | 333,325 (26.67%)|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Donald Pamon|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Harold Washington Party|Text style="background:#D2B48C | 141,015 (11.28%)| | | |-|1994| | Thomas C. Hynes| | Democratic| | | | Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel| | Republican| | |Text style="background:#D2B48C | Donald Pamon|Text style="background:#D2B48C | Harold Washington Party|Text style="background:#D2B48C | | Loretha Weisinger| Populist| |-|1998[5] | | James Houlihan| | Democratic| | 926,646 (75.58%)| | Jose Carlos Gomez| | Republican| | 260,245 (21.23%)| Philip Morris| Justice Party| 39,111 (3.19%)|| | |-|2002[6] [7] | | James Houlihan| | Democratic| | 954,774 (75.78%)| | James P. Pieczonka| | Republican| | 305,176 (24.22%)| | | | | | |-|2006[8] | | James Houlihan| | Democratic| | 1,010,400 (80.41%)| | Ralph Conner| | Republican| | 246,186 (19.59%) | | | | | | |-|2010[9] | | Joseph Berrios| | Democratic| | 648,053 (48.03%)| | Forrest Claypool| | Independent| | 427,842 (31.71%)| | Sharon Strobeck-Eckersall| | Republican| | 237,955 (17.64%) | | | |-|2014[10] | | Joseph Berrios| | Democratic| | 960,435 (100%)| | | | | | | | | |-|2018[11] | | Fritz Kaegi| | Democratic| | 1,272,651 (76.19%)| | Joseph Paglia| | Republican| | 397,741 (23.81%)| | | | | | |-|2022[12] | |Fritz Kaegi| | Democratic| |1,063,188 (82.31%)| | Nico Tsatsoulis| | Libertarian| |228,425 (17.69%)| | || | |

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Office History Cook County Assessor's Office . www.cookcountyassessor.com . 5 November 2020.
  2. Web site: Kass . John . SOME FEEL SLIGHTED IN HYNES' RESIGNATION . chicagotribune.com . Chicago Tribune . 13 October 2020 . 10 March 1997.
  3. Web site: OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1986 . voterinfo.net . https://web.archive.org/web/20081003205005/http://www.voterinfonet.com/results/archive/1986NovCombinedSummary.pdf . 3 October 2008.
  4. Web site: OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1990 . voterinfo.net . https://web.archive.org/web/20081003205145/http://www.voterinfonet.com/results/archive/1990NovCombinedSummary.pdf . 3 October 2008.
  5. Web site: OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1998 . results.cookcountyclerkil.gov .
  6. Web site: TABULATED STATEMENT OF THE RETURNS AND PROCLAMATION OF THE RESULTS OF THE CANVASS OF THE ELECTION RETURNS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION HELD IN EACH OF THE PRECINCTS IN ALL THE WARDS IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2002 A.D. . Chicago Board of Election Commissioners . 18 June 2020.
  7. Web site: SUBURBAN COOK COUNTY RESULTS . voterinfonet.com . Cook County Clerk . https://web.archive.org/web/20050209124209/http://www.voterinfonet.com/results/11502results/ . 9 February 2005 . dead.
  8. Web site: Cook County and the City of Chicago Combined Summary Report November 2006 General Election Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 . Cook County Clerk's Office . 16 March 2020 . September 22, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210922154748/https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/sites/default/files/2006NovemberCombinedSUMMARY.pdf . dead .
  9. Web site: Cook County General Election November 2, 2010 Combined Summary Report . Cook County Clerk's Office . 16 March 2020.
  10. Web site: General Election Cook County and The City of Chicago Tuesday, November 4, 2014 Combined Summary . Cook County Clerk's Office . 16 March 2020 . January 28, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220128082518/https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/sites/default/files/CombinedSummaryReport110414%20(1).pdf . dead .
  11. Web site: Cook County and The City of Chicago General Election November 6, 2018 Combined Summary . March 9, 2020 . Cook County Clerk's Office . July 8, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210708233020/https://www.cookcountyclerkil.gov/sites/default/files/CombinedSummary.pdf . dead .
  12. Web site: Tabulated Statement of the Returns and Proclamation of the Results of the Canvass of the Election Returns for the November 8, 2022 Gubernatorial General Election Held in Each of the Precincts in Cook County, Illinois Including the City of Chicago . www.cookcountyclerkil.gov . Cook County Clerk . 6 December 2022 . 2022.