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]
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. HynesDemocratic
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
Populist1998[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 ClaypoolIndependent
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%)