Republicans lose their only seat on Cook County Board – Chicago Tribune

Republicans lose their only seat on Cook County Board  Chicago Tribune

Republicans appeared to lose their sole seat on the Cook County Board Tuesday as a former District 17 commissioner apparently failed in her bid to succeed the retiring incumbent. The outcome seemed to complete the gradual elimination of Republican commissioners on the board during the 16-year tenure of President Toni Preckwinkle, the head of the county’s Democratic Party, which spent more than $700,000 in this campaign on three races with some risk of Republican victory. Unofficial results indicated Democratic Lyons Township Clerk Elyse Hoffenberg of La Grange had defeated Republican Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman of Orland Park in their race to replace Republican Sean Morrison of Palos Park. District 17 stretches along the county’s western border from the O’Hare and Schaumburg area to more conservative-leaning areas to the south such as Palos Park, Palos Hills and Orland Park.

Jacob Kaplan, executive director of the Cook County Democratic Party, said the party’s apparent sweep of County Board commissioner races Tuesday night was “incredibly important because we’ll be a bulwark against the cuts that happened at the federal level with the Trump administration.” Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, called the outcome a victory for “good government.” “In short, this race wasn’t about D’s vs R’s. In my opinion, it was about the good guys vs the bad guys,