Sean Morrison finds himself in a precarious position. He’s the lone incumbent Republican on the Cook County Board of Commissioners fighting to keep his seat in the November general election.
This board might be under the radar for many taxpayers unless they wind up in the County Jail, before a judge in the vast Circuit Court system or use its large public health system. But commissioners oversee one of the biggest counties in the nation with a roughly $8 billion budget.
Democrats dominate. There are just two Republicans on the 17-member board: Morrison and Peter Silvestri, the former president of Elmwood Park who is not running for re-election after 28 years as a commissioner.
Morrison knows the board is vulnerable to losing a conservative voice, which he argues serves as a check on power.
“I’m very worried,” Morrison, 55, of southwest suburban Palos Park said recently from his commissioner’s office in nearby Orland Park. “There are at any given time, two and a half registered Democrats to a Republican. That’s just the reality of the math in our state and our county here.”
Losing a voice like Morrison’s could mean issues residents like him care about may not get as much attention. Morrison said he thinks the county’s policies have gotten soft on crime, for example, and he is outspoken about how the county spends taxpayer money.
Morrison’s 17th District stretches from Elk Grove Village near O’Hare International Airport south to the Will County border. It’s long been a Republican stronghold in a county that’s become increasingly blue.
In the last general election in 2018, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is also chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party, targeted three out of four incumbent Republicans on the board — and defeated two of them, including the head of the Illinois Republican Party.
Now Preckwinkle says she plans to topple Morrison, go after Silvestri’s seat and defend the two seats the Democrats flipped to blue four years ago. Buoyed by a new district map that gives Democrats the advantage, Preckwinkle thinks her party has the opportunity to run the entire Cook County Board of Commissioners.
“How robust a campaign we can put together in the two seats that are presently held by Republicans I’m not sure,” Preckwinkle said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
How Chicago’s suburbs have shifted Democratic
The increasingly blue political makeup of the Cook County Board can be traced to a shift in politics in the suburbs.
Four commissioners’ suburban districts have become purple. These include the 14th and 15th Districts in the northwest and north suburbs, from Barrington Hills to Winnetka along Lake Michigan.
In 2018, both longstanding Republicans who held those seats were ousted in a blue wave by Democratic commissioners Kevin Morrison and Scott Britton. These are the seats Preckwinkle is looking to protect.
Democratic candidates seized on anti-Donald Trump sentiment to win the election, and they’re continuing that same strategy this year. Meanwhile, demographic shifts have made the suburbs more diverse.
“It’s not necessarily people are waking up one day and saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a Democrat,’” said Melissa Mouritsen, a political science professor at the College of DuPage. “There’s a strong sort of progressive shift in a lot of these communities, and that’s what’s driving the increase in suburban Democratic turnout.”
Some Democrats on the board are more progressive than their peers. Some have even switched political parties.
Commissioner Frank Aguilar is a Democrat but was a Republican state representative a couple of decades ago. Aguilar said he made the move because he disagrees with Republican views on immigration.
Silvestri describes himself as a centrist.
Last Republican standing?
Sean Morrison himself doesn’t always push back against Preckwinkle’s proposed policies or budgets. For instance, he joined the rest of commissioners in passing the new district boundaries.
But he has publicly criticized Preckwinkle’s former chief of staff Kim Foxx, who is now the Cook County state’s attorney.
And while his district remained largely intact through the remapping process, he said he burned through resources to win the primary election.
“She’s able to muster a tremendous amount of resources to run against us,” Sean Morrison said of Preckwinkle. “The same tactics, the same pressure she utilized in 2018, she’s utilizing again.”
He said he’s hearing unions are trying to drum up support for his Democratic opponent, a former Cook County prosecutor Daniel Calandriello.
Sean Morrison is also doing double duty as head of the Cook County GOP, which has slated several people to run against Democratic incumbents on the county board.
His Democratic opponent, Calandriello, 37, spends most afternoons knocking on doors. The former Orland Park trustee is a well-known face in the town where he’s raising his young family.
“I think this is what politics are all about, talking to people and going to them,” Calandriello said during a recent afternoon. “You get a real feel for what’s going on. I meet voters, I’m hearing what they’re saying, and I’m telling them my message.”
Kristen Schorsch covers public health and Cook County on WBEZ’s government and politics desk. Follow her @kschorsch.
