County clerk of Cook County, Illinois
Cook County Clerk Term length 4 years Inaugural holder J.L. Jacobs Formation 1932
The Cook County Assessor is the assessor and county government officer of Cook County , Illinois .
Before the creation of the position of Cook County Assessor in 1932, the Cook County Board of Assessors completed assessments in Cook County.[ 1] The Board of Assessors had been created after a law passed by the Illinois General Assembly on February 25, 1898 created a Board of Assessors in counties with 125,000 or more inhabitants.[ 1] The board had five members, with a rule that no more than four could reside in the same city.[ 1]
After an apparent fourteen-month delay in determining the 1931 assessment, it was decided that the structure of assessment in Cook County, with a five-member board of assessors and three-member Cook County Board of Review , needed to be restructured.[ 1]
On February 13, 1932, the Illinois General Assembly passed a law that in counties of 250,000 or more, the governor and the presidents of those counties' board of commissioners would appoint an Assessor to hold office until either the first Monday in December 1932, or until a successor could otherwise be elected.[ 1]
The first election for the office of Cook County Assessor took place in November 1934 for a four-year term.[ 1] The Board of Assessors was disestablished once the new assessor took office.[ 1]
Asessor
Term in office
Party
Notes
Cite
J.L. Jacobs
1932–1934
Appointed in 1932
[ 1]
John S. Clark
1934–1954
Elected in 1934, 1938, 1942, 1946, 1950
[ 1]
Frank Keenan
1954–1958
Elected in 1954
[ 1]
John McGuane
1958–1958
[ 1]
P.J. Cullerton
1958–1974
Democratic
[ 1]
Thomas M. Tully
1974–1978
[ 1]
Thomas C. Hynes
1978–1997
Democratic
Elected in 1978, 1982, 1986 , 1990 , 1994 ; resigned in 1997
[ 1] [ 2]
James Houlihan
1997–2010
Democratic
Appointed in 1997; elected in 1998 , 2002 , 2006
[ 1] [ 2]
Joseph Berrios
December 6, 2010–December 3, 2018
Democratic
Elected in 2010 and 2014 ; lost reelection in 2018
[ 1]
Fritz Kaegi
December 3, 2018–present
Democratic
Elected in 2018 and 2022
[ 1]
Recent election results [ edit ]
Cook County Assessor general elections
Year
Winning candidate
Party
Vote (pct)
Opponent
Party
Vote (pct)
Opponent
Party
Vote (pct)
Opponent
Party
Vote (pct)
1986 [ 3]
Thomas C. Hynes
Democratic
969,500 (357,758%)
Le Roy M. Graham
Republican
357,758 (26.95%)
1990 [ 4]
Thomas C. Hynes
Democratic
775,493 (62.05%)
Ronald Bean
Republican
333,325 (26.67%)
Donald Pamon
Harold Washington Party
141,015 (11.28%)
1994
Thomas C. Hynes
Democratic
Sandra C. Wilson-Muriel
Republican
Donald Pamon
Harold Washington Party
Loretha Weisinger
Populist
1998 [ 5]
James Houlihan
Democratic
926,646 (75.58%)
Jose Carlos Gomez
Republican
260,245 (21.23%)
Philip Morris
Justice Party
39,111 (3.19%)
2002 [ 6] [ 7]
James Houlihan
Democratic
954,774 (75.78%)
James P. Pieczonka
Republican
305,176 (24.22%)
2006 [ 8]
James Houlihan
Democratic
1,010,400 (80.41%)
Ralph Conner
Republican
246,186 (19.59%)
2010 [ 9]
Joseph Berrios
Democratic
648,053 (48.03%)
Forrest Claypool
Independent
427,842 (31.71%)
Sharon Strobeck-Eckersall
Republican
237,955 (17.64%)
2014 [ 10]
Joseph Berrios
Democratic
960,435 (100%)
2018 [ 11]
Fritz Kaegi
Democratic
1,272,651 (76.19%)
Joseph Paglia
Republican
397,741 (23.81%)
2022 [ 12]
Fritz Kaegi
Democratic
1,063,188 (82.31%)
Nico Tsatsoulis
Libertarian
228,425 (17.69%)
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Office History | Cook County Assessor's Office" . www.cookcountyassessor.com . Retrieved November 5, 2020 .
^ a b Kass, John (March 10, 1997). "SOME FEEL SLIGHTED IN HYNES' RESIGNATION" . chicagotribune.com . Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 13, 2020 .
^ "OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1986" (PDF) . voterinfo.net . Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2008.
^ "OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1990" (PDF) . voterinfo.net . Archived from the original (PDF) on October 3, 2008.
^ "OFFICIAL FINAL RESULTS GENERAL ELECTION COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1998" (PDF) . results.cookcountyclerkil.gov .
^ "TABULATED STATEMENT OF THE RETURNS AND PROCLAMATION OF THE RESULTS OF THE CANVASS OF THE ELECTION RETURNS FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION HELD IN EACH OF THE PRECINCTS IN ALL THE WARDS IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2002 A.D." (PDF) . Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. Retrieved June 18, 2020 .
^ "SUBURBAN COOK COUNTY RESULTS" . voterinfonet.com . Cook County Clerk. Archived from the original on February 9, 2005.
^ "Cook County and the City of Chicago Combined Summary Report November 2006 General Election Tuesday, November 7th, 2006" (PDF) . Cook County Clerk's Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 22, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2020 .
^ "Cook County General Election November 2, 2010 Combined Summary Report" (PDF) . Cook County Clerk's Office. Retrieved March 16, 2020 .
^ "General Election Cook County and The City of Chicago Tuesday, November 4, 2014 Combined Summary" (PDF) . Cook County Clerk's Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 28, 2022. Retrieved March 16, 2020 .
^ "Cook County and The City of Chicago General Election November 6, 2018 Combined Summary" (PDF) . Cook County Clerk's Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2021. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
^ "Tabulated Statement of the Returns and Proclamation of the Results of the Canvass of the Election Returns for the November 8, 2022 Gubernatorial General Election Held in Each of the Precincts in Cook County, Illinois Including the City of Chicago" (PDF) . www.cookcountyclerkil.gov . Cook County Clerk. 2022. Retrieved December 6, 2022 .