Eight Republican candidates for Cook County office booted or withdraw from November ballot

After the Cook County GOP put up one of its biggest slates in years for positions in the November election, eight candidates have either been knocked off the ballot or withdrew on their own.

These candidates didn’t run in the June primary, but were submitted by the party to fill ballot vacancies. The failure of those hopefuls to make the ballot — including for Assessor, Cook County Board and the Board of Review — mean the Democratic nominees will largely go unchallenged. Higher-profile candidates like former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti and former county commissioner Tony Peraica are still in the running.

Among those kicked off by the county’s electoral board: Todd Thielmann, who until recently worked for Tammy Wendt, a Democratic commissioner on the Board of Review. Wendt and Thielmann are cousins — she eventually fired him after the county’s board of ethics sued and fined her for violating the county’s ban on nepotism. Wendt herself lost her Democratic primary bid for re-election to Chicago 12th Ward Ald. George Cardenas.

Thielmann did not want to stay out of the property tax world, however. He submitted petitions to run as a Republican for Assessor, but faced multiple objections to his candidacy, in part, because he chose a Democratic ballot when he voted in the primary in June.

While most candidates are removed from the ballot for having improperly filed petitions, or not enough signatures, some are disqualified for switching parties: State law bars a person who voted on the ballot of an established political party on primary day from running as a candidate of a different established political party for the election immediately following.

A Cook County Clerk voting history report for Thielmann submitted as an exhibit in the challenges to his candidacy shows he voted as a Republican in every primary election between 2012 and 2018, but pulled Democratic ballots in 2020 and 2022. Thielmann also “failed to appear in person or by counsel to contest the objection,” and was removed by the electoral board in a ruling Thursday.

That leaves incumbent Democratic Assessor Fritz Kaegi and Libertarian candidate Nico Tsatsoulis on the November ballot, unless Thielmann appeals.

Four GOP candidates for the Cook County Board were either booted or opted out, according to electoral board filings: Jennifer Wallace (5th District) and Ramona Bonilla-Anaiel (8th District) were both removed, and Evan Kasal (2nd District) and Natalian Bolton (7th District) withdrew.

Democratic primary candidate Samantha Steele is running uncontested for a seat on the Board of Review after a potential Republican challenger, Mary Herrold, withdrew her candidacy, according to electoral board records. Herrold had faced an objection alleging she didn’t have a sufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the decision was considered “moot” because Herrold had already withdrawn.

Other Republican hopefuls for Board of Review seats, Robert Cruz and Tim De Young, also withdrew their candidacies. That means all three Democrats — Steele, Cardenas and incumbent commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. — are running unopposed.

Steele has another potential complication off her plate: a pay dispute with her campaign strategist has been resolved. The two sides reached an “amicable” and “confidential” settlement late last month where neither were held at fault, according to a Steele spokeswoman and Rebecca Williams, the strategist who filed suit. In a statement, Steele said, “After earning the privilege to serve as the Democratic nominee in this race, I am excited to move forward and put my energy towards engaging voters around creating a fair, transparent and accessible Board of Review for everyone.”

“Voters have consistently elected folks based on their commitment to reform the property tax assessment and appeals system and there is a tremendous amount of work to do,” Williams said.

Fioretti, a former Democrat, and Libertarian Thea Tsatsos will challenge incumbent Toni Preckwinkle for board president in the Nov. 8 election. Peraica is running for county clerk against incumbent Karen Yarbrough and Libertarian Joseph Schreiner. No Republicans currently hold countywide office in Cook County and only two party members sit on the county board.