CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Crime is among the top issues for voters heading to the polls Tuesday in Illinois’ primary elections, as voters in the Chicago area will pick candidates to lead the nation’s second-largest prosecutor’s office.
The fight to replace Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who is not running for reelection, is fierce.
Four candidates are on the ballot, but eyes are on the race between Democratic candidates Eileen O’Neill Burke and Clayton Harris. Whoever wins Tuesday’s primary election will face Republican Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski in November.
All candidates have been critical of how Foxx’s office has handled crime in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs.
O’Neill Burke has worked as a judge, prosecutor and defense attorney in her career and has also been openly critical of Foxx.
“People are afraid to go out at night. They’re afraid to come downtown. They’re afraid to ride the CTA,” O’Neill Burke said. “Everybody has a game plan in their head on what to do during a carjacking. People are afraid and it’s impacting Chicago. When people are afraid they leave.”
For example, O’Neil Burke promises to end Foxx’s policy on retail theft, returning to the state’s standard of felony charges for anything over $300.
Harris, meanwhile, believes the current $1,000 threshold put in place by Foxx should remain.
“People, rightly so, are worried about their safety. So we talk about that. We talk about the smash-and-grabs, we talk about the crash-and-grabs and we are going to talk about how we approach organized crime,” Harris said.
Both candidates say they will continue efforts on restorative justice for young people and for the conviction review unit, which has overturned past wrongful convictions.
Chicago has seen a surge in crime over the past many years, including carjackings, shootings and smash-and-grab robberies.
While there were fewer shooting incidents year over year in 2023, the city has seen many more robberies, WGN reported.
The preliminary data indicates there were 617 homicides last year, down from 709 in 2022. There were also fewer shooting victims, with 2,883 reported in the last year compared to 3,484 in 2022.
But the Chicago Police Department said robberies were up 23% and motor vehicle thefts up 35%.
Both of the Democratic candidates likely to replace Foxx have offered solutions on cracking down on gun violence, with O’Neill Burke and Harris agreeing to “cut off the source” of illegal gun sales.
Early voting began in Chicago two weeks ago, and voting is down so far when compared to previous primary elections, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.
The city of Chicago alone has 1.7 million registered voters, but turnout was sitting around just 7.7% through the early election period Monday. The Board of Elections is hoping to reach at least 30% turnout by the time the polls close Tuesday night.
NewsNation affiliate WGN contributed to this report.
