Challenger Bill Conway’s campaign portrays the candidate as beholden to no one but taxpayers. Incumbent Kim Foxx’s campaign suggests Conway thinks the office is ‘up for sale.’
By Rachel Hinton Jan 10, 2020, 6:19pm CST
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Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, left, in December; Challenger Bill Conway, right, in November. File Photos.Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-TimesCook County state’s attorney hopeful Bill Conway’s father kicked another $2.35 million into his son’s campaign, bringing the total Conway’s father has donated to more than $4.85 million — or more than 88% of the candidate’s total warchest.
The father of the Democratic hopeful is William E. Conway Jr., one of the founders of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group. The senior Conway has a net worth of $3.5 billion, according to Forbes.
His son, Bill Conway is challenging incumbent Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. A former prosecutor and Navy veteran, Bill Conway has raised at least $5,480,233, including the family money.
Bill Conway’s campaign portrays the candidate as beholden to no one except taxpayers.
“In addition to dedicating his family’s resources to helping bring the change Cook County needs from our State’s Attorney’s Office, Bill is proud to have the support of individuals and communities across Chicago,” campaign spokesman Eliza Glezer said.
“While Kim Foxx clings to money raised for her by indicted Alderman Ed Burke — to whom Foxx gave the largest property tax settlement of her first 11 months in office — Bill will not owe anything to anyone except the people of Cook County,” the statement continued.
Shortly after Foxx took office, her staff struck a deal with Burke’s law firm, settling three lawsuits, agreeing that various local governments Foxx’s office was representing would refund nearly $2 million in property taxes that Burke client AT&T had paid.
Conway launched his latest TV ad earlier this week. Foxx took to the airwaves with her first TV ad on Thursday, focusing on her personal experience growing up in Cabrini Green and differentiating herself from those who live in “ivory” towers, an obvious dig at Bill Conway.
“It is unfortunate that some people think public office is up for sale, said Claudia Tristan, a spokeswoman for Foxx’s campaign. “Even worse, they’re using money from an arms dealing company to do that.”
Combined Systems International, a company owned by the Carlyle Group, has been tied to the manufacture of tear gas canisters Egyptian police fired at protesters in 2011, according to a Politico story.
“In reality, it takes passion, experience, and a profound understanding of the issues our communities are facing. That’s how Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx energized voters in 2016 and that’s what she’s doing now,” Tristán said. “Our fourth quarter fundraising is a testament to when you show your investment in people they invest in you.”
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Challengers to Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx include (top, left-right) Republicans Pat O’Brien and Christopher Pfannkuche and (bottom, left-right) Democrats Bill Conway and Donna More. File photos. Campaign photos and Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times and Rich Hein/Chicago Sun-Times.While not the norm, multi-million dollar political contributions are not unprecedented in Illinois.
Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, the state’s richest man, has given 7-figure donations to a handful of Republicans, including former Gov. Bruce Rauner, former Comptroller Leslie Munger and state House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, as well as unsuccessful Democratic mayoral hopeful Bill Daley.
Griffin gave Rauner $20 million in a single contribution in 2017, bringing the total the CEO of Citadel Investments gave Rauner to $36,089,295.18.
And Democrat J.B. Pritzker shattered a national campaign finance record for self-funding, when he spent $171.5 million from his personal fortune to bankroll his successful 2018 run for governor.
Besides Foxx and Bill Conway, Democrats running for state’s attorney include former Ald. Bob Fioretti and former prosecutor Donna More. Two Republicans are also running: Pat O’Brien, a former Cook County circuit judge, and Christopher Pfannkuche, who ran against Foxx in 2016.
As Blagojevich sits in a Colorado prison, for selling a senate seat or trying to hustle campaign cash before campaign finance laws went into effect, we see political campaigns bought or funded by George Soros's Open Society foundation. The foundation's mission is to upend our country of laws by having prosecuting attorneys across this country decline to prosecute criminals, and put them back on the street under the premise of TOO many people of color being incarcerated. Remember in grammar school, when they taught us how to diagram sentences with subject-verb-direct object. It was logical. And the sequence in 90% of incidence with law enforcement follows a similar pattern. Police are called when a citizen is a victim of a crime, the criminal is apprehended and the offender is prosecuted. State statutes define what each crime is and categorized the severity of the crime. Statutes also define the punishment for these offenses and how long an apprehended/prosecuted criminal will remain in prison. Simple right? Not in today's world. The discretion allowed state's attorney's offices across the country to refuse to approve and prosecute apprehended criminals have turned communities into war zones. Since when did this country allow foreigners do dictate the operations of government law enforcement agencies? Why doesn't the media focus on this disregard for the laws and guidelines enacted by representatives we elect to protect taxpayers and provide communities with the safety they promised to provide. Why do organizations like Soros' get to dictate which violent criminals get to walk our streets to victimize us time and again? What ever happened to mandatory sentencing? The discretionary authority granted the state's attorney's office here in Cook County and in cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York are being used out of context.
ReplyDeleteCompounding the disgust average citizens have with the State's attorney are the willingness of other elected officials to comply with the errant actions of the States Attorney and the County Board President. All of the above swore an oath to uphold the law. We as tax payers do our part to fund these offices with the understanding that these officials will act in a manner consistent with their oaths. If prosecuting violators of these criminal statutes goes against the beliefs of these officials, they should lobby to have the statutes removed, or acknowledge their unwillingness to enforce them, while campaigning for office, not after they receive phone calls from former officials they perceive are further up the totem pole.
As for Soros, the real collusion artist in this nationwide scheme, his "campaign" donations ought to be rejected, because they aren't donations, they're purchases and what he's bought are law enforcement officials who are supposed to be working for us, not him.
Vote for any Republican. You won't go wrong.
ReplyDeleteIm all in for Bill, but would have been happier if it were Jerry
ReplyDeleteJerry should have run, but bald billy Daley stuck Conway in to exact revenge. Unfortunately, Conway is our only hope, even though he’s now referring to himself as a “progressive.”
ReplyDeleteBilly Daley, if you’re reading this, realize that you’re a giant c-nt. If you hadn’t run, and put your friends behind Jerry, we may have had a different result. Don’t faint.
The Daleys' are going to be very obstructive to any office Jerry may run for in the future. Bill will always be the C-NT that he is.
Deletethere is no hope when someone admits that they are a "progressive". The only choice is to vote for the Republican. The worst Republican is better than the "best" DemocRAT.
ReplyDeleteHindsight is great isn't it. After Bill Daley's over financed campaign featuring solid progressive ideas like renaming the Dan Ryan for Obama, re-doing the state pension laws after remaining silent on his nephew's fleecing of it and then taking a 25K campaign donation from him and all the other Daley shenanigans, none of them could get elected dog catcher. And if the blimp alderman from the 11th ward gets any fatter, they're gonna have to slap license plates on his ass along with a Wide Load warning. Oh yeah, lets not forget Billy's campaign slogan "No Excuses"!
ReplyDelete