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  "path": "/elections/2026/03/17/cook-county-assessor-illinois-primary-results",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-17T10:30:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://chicago.suntimes.com",
  "tags": [
    "_determine the head of the office_",
    "_Cook County treasurer’s office report_",
    "_analysis of five years of tax bills_",
    "_rising fastest in predominantly Black neighborhoods_",
    "_Kaegi’s proposed solution_",
    "_new code of ethics_",
    "_cutting nearly $2 million_",
    "_recent reductions of more than $3 million_",
    "_earning more than 76% of the vote_",
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    "2nd District",
    "7th District >](https://chicago.suntimes.com /elections/2026/03/17/us-house-illinois-7th-congressional-district-primary-results) | [8th District >",
    "8th District > | [9th District >",
    "Governor (GOP) >",
    "Illinois Comptroller >",
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    "Cook County President >",
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    "Cook County Assessor >"
  ],
  "textContent": "Incumbent Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi finds himself in an interesting position as he tries for a third term.\n\nHis opponent in the Democratic primary is Pat Hynes, the first-term Lyons Township Assessor. Hynes also spent 23 years as a field inspector at the Cook County assessors office, including three years under Kaegi and eight under embattled former assessor Joe Berrios.\n\nHynes carries the endorsement of the Cook County Democratic Party, which endorsed Kaegi in 2022.\n\nBut Kaegi has been here before — he wasn’t slated by the party in 2018, either.\n\nThe outcome most likely will _determine the head of the office_ that’s in charge of appraising the county’s land parcels and handling tax incentives, exemptions and some appeals — in other words, it has a hefty influence in the property tax process.\n\nThe race comes at a tumultuous time for many Cook County property taxpayers.\n\nDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaegi modified assessments for all homeowners, based on expected unemployment and predicting market values dropping. But they instead went up while the county’s tax burden shifted away from the city’s economic center.\n\nCommercial value has dropped as large businesses and wealthy land owners appeal assessments at higher rates — and more successfully — shifting more of the burden onto low-income home owners, according to a November _Cook County treasurer’s office report_ and a Chicago Sun-Times _analysis of five years of tax bills_.\n\nThe result: property tax bills are _rising fastest in predominantly Black neighborhoods_ on the South and West sides.\n\nHynes called the pandemic reassessment an “unforced error,” and contended _Kaegi’s proposed solution_, so-called “circuit breaker” laws — versions of which have stalled in the statehouse — would be expensive and could have been avoided had the assessment stayed on track with market value in the first place.\n\nKaegi warned Hynes’ ascent could be a return to form for an office still marred by past corruption.\n\nBerrios’ assessment methods often favored wealthier property owners and allowed them to pay less of a percentage of their value in property taxes than those in low-income and minority communities.\n\nKaegi ran as a reformer and defeated Berrios in 2018. One of his first moves after winning the fall general election was adopting a _new code of ethics_ for the assessor’s office.\n\nCritics on the campaign trail pointed to campaign finance records showing Hynes had taken nearly $106,500 from at least 60 different lawyers employed by firms providing property tax services, or the firms themselves, between Sept. 30 and March 11, according to campaign contribution data.\n\nIt includes $10,500 from attorney Thomas Flanagan and lawyers at his namesake Flanagan Bilton, which took over the appeals for multiple properties from crooked former Ald. Ed Burke’s law firm in 2018. Berrios later slashed proposed increases to those properties’ valuations after Flanagan’s appeal, _cutting nearly $2 million_ from just two properties’ bills.\n\nThat’s in addition to nearly $13,000 in donations to Hynes from lawyers at Worsek and Vihon, a property tax law firm that boasts it led to _recent reductions of more than $3 million_ for several Cook County properties.\n\nThe winner of Tuesday’s primary will head to the general election to face Libertarian Nico Tsatsoulis. In November 2022, Kaegi handily defeated Tsatsoulis with more than 82% of the vote.\n\nKaegi has run away with both general elections in the past, still _earning more than 76% of the vote_ against the last Republican to run in the race, Joseph Paglia.\n\nThe 2022 primary election saw less than 20% of registered voters in the county cast ballots, and only about 60% of those who did vote that year made a decision in the assessor’s race.\n\nThis means Kaegi was re-nominated to run for a second term with only about 5% of the county’s voting-age population weighing in, and about 2.8% voting in favor of him, according to county election and Census data. And in heavily-Democratic Cook County, the primary almost always has determined the eventual winner.\n\n**Voter resources**\nVoter Guide > \nBallot look-up tool >\nCandidate profiles > \nPolling place look-up > \n\n**Races we’re watching**\nU.S. Senate >\nU.S. House > | 2nd District > | 7th District >](https://chicago.suntimes.com /elections/2026/03/17/us-house-illinois-7th-congressional-district-primary-results) | 8th District > | [9th District > \nGovernor (GOP) > | Illinois Comptroller > | Illinois General Assembly >\nCook County President > | Cook County Board of Review > | Cook County Assessor >\n",
  "title": "Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi faces suburban opponent for influential position over property taxes",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-17T10:30:18.271Z"
}