The Associated Press has declared incumbent Fritz Kaegi the winner in the Cook County Assessor’s race with 81% of the vote.
Kaegi, who took over the office four years ago on a platform that he’d reform the office following eight years of Joe Berrios’ leadership, was seeking his second term against Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis.
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His would-be Republican challenger, a former staffer at the Board of Review, was tossed off the ballot. Objectors successfully argued he was disqualified because he’d recently voted in the Democratic primary.
Kaegi, a former mutual fund asset manager, survived a primary challenge in June from a candidate backed by commercial real estate interests, in part by spending millions of his own money on his campaign. Tsatsoulis did not form a committee to raise money.
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Two weeks before Election Day, Kaegi announced that oversight by federal courts to ensure hiring was above-board in the office was ending, fulfilling a key campaign promise. Among the assessor’s biggest challenges in the next term: getting bills out on time.
