Real estate royals back O’Neill Burke in Cook County State’s Attorney race

Some of Chicago’s biggest real estate players are lining up behind Cook County State’s Attorney candidate Eileen O’Neill Burke, who has pulled in high-dollar donations from some prominent developers ahead of Tuesday’s election.

They think her tough-on-crime mentality will bring workers back to the Loop and draw investment to areas of the city that need it most.

Meanwhile, other, predominately Black real estate professionals and labor unions have supported Burke’s primary opponent, fellow Democrat Clayton Harris III, whose campaign priorities include prosecuting violent crime and supporting reforms intended to address underlying causes of crime and violence.

Among Burke’s most well-known real estate industry supporters are:

• Developer Steve Fifield ($6,900), founder of his eponymous firm
• Developer and property management company Core Spaces ($13,700) and its CEO Marc Lifshin ($6,900)
• Bob and Shawn Clark, respective heads of construction conglomerate Clayco and its development arm CRG ($6,900 each)
• High-end Lincoln Park residential broker Emily Sachs Wong with @properties Christie’s International Real Estate ($2,500)
• Luxury condos and apartments developer and founder of JDL Development Jim Letchinger ($2,500)
• Callahan Capital Partners executives Timothy Callahan ($6,900) and Ryan Krueger ($1,000)

“We need immediate change, but in a practical, informed manner,” Krueger said in a statement. “I am impressed by [Burke’s] plans to prosecute violent activity immediately, but also provide programs to address the root causes of crime with support mechanisms, especially for the neighborhoods in most need.”

None of Harris’ donors contacted by The Real Deal responded to requests for comment. Prominent real estate players that supported the Harris campaign include:

• Elzie Higginbottom ($6,900), known for affordable housing and founding East Lake Management
• Holsten Real Estate Development Corp. President Peter Holsten ($2,500)
• A group associated with Riteway-Huggins Construction Services Owner Larry Huggins ($4,000)
• Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi ($4,000)
• Ascend Real Estate Group President William Wolk ($1,500)
• Engineer with CKL engineers Mae Whiteside ($1,000)

Frank Campise, principal of multifamily landlord JAB Real Estate, said he lost a close friend to gun violence when he was a teenager growing up in Chicago, which influenced his decision to donate $1,500 to Burke’s campaign.

“Our mayor talks about reinvestment in the South and West sides, which I 100 percent agree with, but who’s going to put money in those neighborhoods if they don’t feel that there’s adequate responsibility being taken by our State’s Attorney’s Office?” Campise said. “You wouldn’t invest in a risky investment, right?”

If elected, Harris said in a statement Tuesday that he would support the implementation of the SAFE-T Act — which eliminated cash bail and ended pretrial detention for most defendants — as a “step toward ending the criminalization of poverty.” He supports reforms to address root causes of heightened violent crime rates in low-income, Black neighborhoods on the South and West sides relative to other parts of the city, Harris said in a statement Tuesday.

“Too many people don’t feel safe in Cook County and too many others worry that justice won’t serve them. Our criminal justice system is at a crossroads today,” Harris said in the statement. “We can address that by delivering both safety and justice.”

The Burke campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Harris has worked as a prosecutor, including in the narcotics division under former State’s Attorney Richard Devine. He also served as Chief of Staff to the Governor’s Office in 2008 and 2009. 

“Safety is the biggest concern that we all have in the real estate community right now,” said Clayco’s Bob Clark, who supported Burke, a retired Illinois Appellate Court justice. Before being elected to the appellate court, she was a Cook County Circuit Court judge and served as assistant state’s attorney.

Clark said many people in the real estate industry want an experienced candidate in Burke who they think will be more forceful prosecuting crimes like carjackings, armed robberies and gun violence, compared to current State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s approach — Foxx isn’t running for re-election.

“While we recognize the inequity in the community, and that sort of thing, that doesn’t mean that we should throw safety out the window,” Clark said. “There has to be a deterrent to crime.”

Clark said he thinks Burke is the right candidate to make workers feel safer commuting to the Loop again and hopes that this might help the commercial real estate market recover from the blows delivered since the pandemic.

Both he and Campise expressed concerns about what Harris’ approach to prosecuting theft crimes will be, with Campise saying Harris is “soft on petty crime.”

Under Foxx, retail thefts are not considered felony offenses for first-time offenders unless they are accused of stealing goods over $1,000 in value. Burke has pledged to go back to the $300 threshold for felonies set by state law, while Harris said he would maintain the $1,000 threshold.

“I want to assure the business community that I will stand with them, and their employees, and will help them seek justice for any crimes committed against them,” Harris said in the statement. “Let’s be clear – we are going to prosecute retail theft.”

Robert W. Fioretti, a Republican, and Andrew Charles Kopinski, a Libertarian, have also thrown their hats in the ring for State’s Attorney.

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