As presidential campaigns descend on Illinois for Tuesday’s primary, a closely watched local race could yield the first electoral impact of the Black Lives Matter movement and the nationwide conversation on police killings.
Incumbent Anita Alvarez is vying for her third term as Cook County’s top prosecutor, but is facing significant opposition in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald. Alvarez has been excoriated over her office’s handling of the 2014 case. She charged Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke with murder less than a day before graphic video footage of the shooting was to be made public, and 400 days after the black teenager was shot 16 times. Police accountability has emerged as the defining issue in the race for the Chicago area’s top prosecutor.
Alvarez faces two challengers for the primary nomination, most notably Kim Foxx, a former assistant state’s attorney. Alvarez defended herself against repeated attacks about the case from her opponents on Thursday evening in Chicago, when the three women campaigning for the nomination met during a debate. Foxx maintained that Alvarez charged Van Dyke solely because video of the shooting was to be made public.
“She did it because she thought there was going to be a political fallout,” Foxx said Thursday. “[She] has caused our criminal justice system to be the laughingstock of the nation.”
Should Alvarez lose the primary spot next week, it will be the clearest evidence yet of the Black Lives Matter movement’s effect on electoral politics, and the singular impact that one fatal police shooting can have on a candidate’s viability. Timothy McGinty, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor who announced in December that no charges would be filed against the officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, is also facing a primary election on Tuesday. Prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson has launched a mayoral bid in Baltimore, and Hillary Clinton is campaigning with women who have lost their children to police violence.
Jamie Kalven, the veteran Chicago journalist who worked to get the Laquan McDonald video released, described the state’s attorney’s race as a bellwether for changes to come in Chicago’s political landscape.
“I think the assumption was that the office was hers,” he said “There wasn’t likely to be a plausible challenge. The game changer was clearly the Laquan McDonald revelations.”
Alvarez’s opponent Foxx has made improving faith in the criminal justice system the dominant issue of her campaign, hitting Alvarez on the Laquan McDonald case at every opportunity and even using footage from the now-infamous video in a campaign spot.
In January, a Chicago Tribune poll showed Foxx with the support of 27% of polled local Democrats, trailing Alvarez by seven percentage points. Since then, Foxx has raked in endorsement after endorsement, garnering the support of four Chicago newspapers, dozens of local politicians and organizations, five US representatives and US senator Dick Durbin. Foxx’s supporters have cited her compelling personal story – Foxx grew up in one of Chicago’s most notorious public housing projects before her career as an attorney – and her commitment to reform. Democratic politicians have maintained their support of Foxx despite a recent decision by state officials to fine her campaign more than $19,000 for alleged election law violations. Foxx is appealing against the decision.
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, who is endorsing Foxx this year after supporting Alvarez in 2012, said the current state’s attorney had failed to address multiple problems that have plagued Cook County’s criminal justice system, police misconduct among them.
“This was such a blatant example of a failure to act on the part of the state’s attorney,” she said of the Laquan McDonald case.
Alvarez has repeatedly defended the lengthy investigation into Laquan McDonald’s death in the months since she announced charges and the video was released. She again defended herself on Thursday night, saying the timeline of the case was appropriate and necessary.
Activists in Chicago have been critical of Alvarez since long before the Laquan McDonald video was released. Oft-cited by her critics is Alvarez’s failed prosecution of Dante Servin, the off-duty Chicago detective who shot and killed Rekia Boyd, an unarmed black woman, in 2012. Alvarez charged Servin with involuntary manslaughter. Servin was acquitted last year by a judge who questioned the charges brought by Alvarez, saying the shooting was “intentional and the crime, if any there be, is first-degree murder”.
The nominee is almost certain to beat the sole Republican candidate, Christopher Pfannkuche, in the general election.
