Fritz Kaegi

Assessor, Cook County

The “reformer” label Fritz Kaegi has sported in his countywide post has worn thin for Chicago’s real estate establishment, which has now gone all-in on ousting the two-term incumbent. Heading into the March 17 primary election, Kaegi finds himself in the precarious position of being an elected Democrat snubbed by his own party, which endorsed challenger Patrick Hynes in a notable rebuke of a sitting official.

The commercial real estate industry’s revolt is more than rhetorical — it’s a financial fight, too, with Hynes’ war chest swelling with contributions from heavyweights like David Carlins of Magellan and John O’Donnell of the firm Riverside, alongside checks from the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and major construction and hotel unions. For these players, backing Hynes — a Lyons Township assessor with deep political lineage — is a calculated bet to restore predictability to a system they claim Kaegi broke with aggressive, often erratic valuation spikes.

Kaegi, however, isn’t going quietly. He points to recent data from the North Shore, where mansion sales prices have largely tracked with his higher valuations, as proof his methodology works, even as commercial players claim he’s hitting them harder than necessary while going softer than he should on residential values.

Kaegi’s campaign rhetoric has sharpened, framing the industry’s attacks as a desire to return to pay-to-play politics and arguing that cuts to assessed values granted by the Board of Review for large commercial assets unfairly shift the tax burden onto minority homeowners.

— Sam Lounsberry