Illinois’ Version of Tom Carper Survives – Progressive Dems Trounce Dem Machine Candidates in Other Races

The movement is building. Sanders Democrats cleaned house in Chicago. While the horrible House version of Tom Carper won with a 1% margin, but it was good news for all other reform minded Dems.

The four upsets include the office of the County Assessor (who determines property taxes — traditionally an office that was able to trade favors for large Democratic Machine cash “contributions”), which went to Fritz Kaegi, who campaigned on a promise to eliminate the racial bias in assessments that overtaxed black and Latino neighborhoods to subsidize affluent white neighborhoods. Kaegi’s opponent raked in millions in campaign contributions from property tax-appeal lawyers, and won the endorsement of the Dem establishment, including state house speaker Mike Madigan and Congressman Luis Gutierrez.

Other upsets: Aaron Ortiz beat Daniel J. Burke in a state-house nomination bid; Ortiz campaigned for legal marijuana, free college tuition, single payer healthcare, and an end to cash bail.

Another house race was upset by teacher’s union organizer Brandon Johnson, beating Richard Boykin, and Delia Ramirez easily took the 4th House District nomination.

United Working Families is elated at the wins; the campaigns were financed by small-money donations that delivered the nominations to four young people of color who’d never held office before — it’s a major upset for the Democratic machine.

IN A STUNNING UPSET, Chicago’s Democratic machine suffered a big defeat on Tuesday night, as Cook County’s Assessor Joseph Berrios was defeated in a Democratic primary by insurgent Fritz Kaegi. As of this writing, Kaegi had 45 percent of the vote to Berrios’s 34 percent. A third candidate, Andrea Raila, had 21 percent. Berrios has conceded.

The Chicago Tribune marked the victory as a watershed moment for the activists who had backed Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid in 2016. “The race for assessor, typically a quiet, down-ballot affair, had a much higher profile this year because it became a test of the ability of progressives in the wake of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign to take on establishment Democrats and win,” it noted.

Several other downballot races also featured strong performance by upstart candidates. Daniel J. Burke, who has been in the state house since 1990, was defeated in his Democratic primary by Aaron Ortiz. Ortiz is an educator and high school counselor at a public school in the Chicago area, and ran on establishing tuition-free undergraduate college, legalizing marijuana, single payer health care, and ending cash bail. In the 4th House District, Delia Ramirez won her primary by a large margin. Brandon Johnson, a Chicago teachers-union organizer, edged out machine-aligned Richard Boykin in a startling upset.