The Democratic Party of Oak Park reinforced its November endorsement of Kim Foxx in the Democratic primary for Cook County State’s Attorney by hosting a phone bank on Dec. 18. Residents from Oak Park and other areas gathered in the North Avenue storefront that serves as DPOP’s base to place calls to potential voters, volunteers and donors.
Foxx, a former state’s attorney staffer who until recently was Cook County Board President Tony Preckwinkle’s chief of staff, is expected to be a major threat to sitting State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. Donna More, a former state and federal prosecutor, is also seriously in the running to challenge River Forester Alvarez in the March 15 Democratic primary.
First elected in 2008, Alvarez has come under pressure for her handling of the officer-involved shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was shot 16 times in October 2014 by Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke. Despite the dash-cam video evidence, Alvarez announced that she would prosecute Van Dyke a day before the video was publicly released on Nov. 24.
Since then, calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s and Anita Alvarez’s resignation have grown to a deafening pitch in Chicago and reverberated nationally. But most of the handful of Foxx campaign volunteers who showed up within the phone bank’s first hour expressed criticisms of Alvarez that predated the Nov. 24 release of the McDonald dash-cam footage.Â
Ken Snyder, 43, a Foxx campaign volunteer who lives in Forest Park, conducts short training sessions for volunteers who want to field phone calls.
“I have seen a lot of wrong decisions by the current state’s attorney. We need to have someone in there who will apply justice evenly,” he said.
“The time I really decided we needed a change was a couple years ago when Alvarez was defending these wrongful convictions that her office had made. It just struck me that she wasn’t interested in justice. She was just interested in putting as many people behind bars as possible.”
Adam Sammarco, 24, a DePaul University law school student, traveled from his home in Western Springs to make phone calls for Foxx in Oak Park. It was the first phone bank he’d participated in.Â
“I think there are some necessary changes that need to happen in the State’s Attorney’s office and Kim is an amazing person with an amazing story and everything she wants to do needs to be done. She’s capable of doing it,” he said, although he didn’t go into details.
Oak Park resident Van Smith, 52, was a state’s attorney under former Cook County State’s Attorney Richard “Dick” Devine. Smith said he knows Foxx personally and described her as the antithesis of Alvarez.
“I think Kim is professional, she’s honest in what she says and fair. She’s very, very smart,” he said. “[Alvarez] hasn’t been honest. I don’t think she’s been forthcoming or fair. She’s pretty much the opposite of Kim.”
Karen Fischer, DPOP’s executive director, said her organization’s members voted overwhelmingly in favor of Foxx, who she said is “the only candidate who is referring to restorative justice.”
“I know that was a big factor,” she said. “That’s an issue around here and it’s important to our membership.”
Sheretta Patterson, 51, is seeking her master’s degree at Governor’s State University. The Austin resident said she’s working on a thesis that explores the correlation between policy changes and recidivism rates.
“I’ve never been a fan of Alvarez. I didn’t vote for her the first time, because I didn’t think she’d be just to the black community. She’s never really been favorable to blacks — her attitude, her demeanor, the way she runs her office and prosecutes,” she said.Â
“I heard Kim Foxx on the radio back in August and she was talking about running so she could change policy,” Patterson said. “I knew when she talked about changing policy, she would be dealing with the root of policy, because you can’t change anything in politics if you’re not talking about changing policy, because that is what drive politics.”
CONTACT: michael@oakpark.comÂ