Category: Laws and Justice

In preparation for the March 20, 2018 Illinois Primary we are running a series on voting and elections in Chicago. Last week we featured the Chicago Newcomers' Guide to Elections. This week we will be reviewing the job descriptions for every position on the ballot, from the smallest to the largest. Of course, as is the RentConfident way, we will be explaining these roles from the viewpoint of how they affect the lives of renters and landlords. This means we won't be talking much about highways, hospitals and steel mills here but we will be talking a lot about evictions and property taxes.

We should note that this the March election is a primary. The people you choose this month will not take office. In a primary, multiple candidates from the same party run against each other. The winners from each party in the primary will go up against the winners from the opposing parties in the November election.

However, there are two sections of the ballot that are not simply nominations. On the ballot for the Democratic Party is a spot for the Democratic State Central Committee members. This is an actual election. Additionally the five referenda appearing on the ballot are binding and will not appear again on the November ballot.

We'll start with the Chicago-specific offices, then move on to the Cook County, the State, and finally the Federal offices.

Before we launch into the full list, we want to emphasize that there are three positions on the ballot that are of critical importance to landlords and tenants.

• The Cook County Sheriff is responsible for enforcing evictions.
• The Cook County Assessor is responsible for setting property tax rates, which in turn have a huge effect on rent rates.
• The Judicial 1st Sub-Circuit seat of Orville Hambright requires the close attention of every landlord and tenant on the voter rolls. Hambright retired in late 2017 after hearing the lion's share of eviction cases at the 1st District courthouse in the Loop for a very, very long time. While many judges in the circuit court hear eviction cases, few have measured up to the enormous eviction caseload that went through Hambright's courtroom. Whoever takes his seat will have enormous shoes to fill. Continue reading Job Descriptions for Elected Officials in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois

It's March! In Chicago this means it's election season. We've previously discussed the low level of civic activity among renters, and how the input of renters at the polls can affect the caliber of a neighborhood. We've also provided a list of all the laws that went into effect this year as evidence of what the incumbents have accomplished while in office. We also talked about how renters are under-represented in Chicago public office. Now it's time to put all of that together, get your butts off the couch, and go vote.

While the standard November election day is still important, a lot of the Illinois official business actually occurs at our statewide Primary voting in March. This year (2018) the Primary election will occur on March 20, just a few weeks away. Since we have a lot of newcomers and folks who have recently moved reading this blog, we figured we'd spend this week reviewing the basics of voting in Chicago. Continue reading The Chicago Newcomers’ Guide to Elections