Friday, August 16, 2013

Cook County Democratic Party Slates Candidates for 2014

The Cook County Democratic Party endorsed Gov. Patrick Quinn for re-election and a full slate of candidates for the March Primary. In addition to Gov. Quinn, the County Democratic Party endorsed U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, Secretary of State Jesse White and Attorney General Lisa Madigan for re-election. The Party also endorsed Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon for Comptroller and State Sen. Mike Frerichs for Treasurer. For county-wide offices the party endorsed President of the Cook County Board Toni Preckwinkle, Sheriff Thomas Dart, Assessor Joseph Berrios, Treasurer Maria Pappas and Clerk David Orr for re-election.

“This is an open process we’ve set up,” said Berrios, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. “The committeemen have done a great job choosing who they’ll support. The party will continue to be strong and we’ll stick together with the endorsed Democratic ticket.”

For commissioner to the Metropolitan Water and Reclamation District the party endorsed Frank Avila, Tim Bradford and Josina Morita, the first Asian-American ever slated County-wide. Board of Review 3 District Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr. was endorsed for re-election. 

For the Appellate Court, the party slated David Ellis, Freddrenna Lyle and John Simon.  Alternates were John Kirby, Sheldon Harris, Raul Vega and William Boyd.

At the Circuit Court level the party slated Andrea Buford, Cynthia Cobbs, Dan Kubasiak, Maritza Martinez, Kate Moreland, Bill Raines, Kristal Rivers, Diana Rosario, Patricia O’Brien Sheahan and Al Swanson. The alternates were Thomas Carroll, Alfred Maldonado, Travis Richardson and Sean Chaudhuri.

Cook County committeemen also endorsed the Freedom to Marry plank from the DNC and Illinois Party Platform which supports “the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities and protections under the law.” 

In short, we have the most regionally and ethnically diverse slate of judges we have ever run. For the first time ever we adopted a policy position. The party now officially stands for marriage equality. This was an historic day. The progress we saw at today's slating of the Cook County Democratic Party is directly attributable to the leadership of our Chairman, Joe Berrios. As Toni Preckwinkle said, "When Joe came in, for the first time, African-Americans, Latinos, women had a real opportunity for leadership in the party and had a real opportunity to be slated by the party." Every year our slate looks more like our great county. I am a proud Democrat.