Toni Lynn Preckwinkle (née Reed; born March 17, 1947) is an American politician and the incumbent County Board president in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was elected to her first term as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the executive branch of Cook County government, in November 2010, becoming the first woman elected to that position.
Preckwinkle previously served as a five-term alderman in the Chicago City Council, representing Chicago's 4th ward centered in Hyde Park. During her tenure, she emerged as the council's prominent defender of affordable housing. She was also the runner-up in the 2019 election for mayor of Chicago.
Among other issues, she is known for championing the county's controversial sweetened beverage tax, sponsorship of living wage ordinances, concerns about the costs and benefits of the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and her strong stance against police brutality and the use of excessive force.
Early life, education, and career Toni Lynn Reed was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended local schools there. She graduated from Washington High School in St. Paul in 1965. During high school, she worked on the campaign of Katie McWatt, who was the first African American person to run for St. Paul City Council. She moved to Chicago to study at the University of Chicago in the Hyde Park community area, where she earned her bachelor's in 1969, and later a master's degree in 1977.
After college, Preckwinkle taught history for ten years in several high schools in the Chicago metropolitan area, including Calumet High School, the Visitation School, and Aquinas.
In 1985 and 1986, Preckwinkle served as President of the Disabled Adult Residential Enterprises (DARE). She was active in community organizations, serving as a member of the board of directors of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, and Political Action Director of the Near South Chapter of the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI-IPO).
During and after her 1987 aldermanic election campaign, she worked as a planner for the Chicago Department of Economic Development. By 1990, she was working as executive director of the Chicago Jobs Council and become allied with civil rights attorney R. Eugene Pincham.
Unsuccessful 1983 and 1987 Chicago City Council campaigns Chicago's fourth ward is on the South Side of Chicago, adjacent to the Lake Michigan lakefront. It includes all of the Kenwood and Oakland community areas, and portions of Hyde Park, Washington Park, Grand Boulevard, Douglas and the South Loop community areas. The northern part of the ward (North of 45th Street) is predominantly African American, while the more racially diverse southern half is predominantly middle and upper middle-class.
In her first two aldermanic campaigns for the 4th ward, in 1983 and 1987, Preckwinkle lost to the incumbent, Timothy C. Evans, who had been in office since 1973. Evans was Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's City Council floor leader and lieutenant. In 1983, Preckwinkle, supported by many independent voters, received enough support in the preliminary election to force a runoff election (Chicago Aldermen are elected without regard to political party affiliation, but must earn a majority of votes or the top two candidates have a runoff election). In the runoff, Preckwinkle carried traditionally "independent" precincts in Hyde-Park, but Evans carried the precincts in the north of the Ward.
In the 1987 elections, Evans defeated Preckwinkle by a 77% to 21% margin. In 1987, although both the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times endorsed Evans, they praised Preckwinkle for qualities including her intelligence and independence, and expressed hopes she would continue in politics. Preckwinkle was endorsed by then state Rep. Carol Moseley Braun and also by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization. Mayor Harold Washington endorsed Evans.
Chicago City Council (1991–2010)
1991 election In 1991, Preckwinkle and four others challenged Evans for the 4th ward alderman's position. In the first round of voting on February 26, 1991, she won nearly one-third popular vote in the ward by winning 20 of 58 precincts (all in the Hyde Park-Kenwood community). Evans and Preckwinkle again advanced to a runoff election, as they had in 1983. This time the majority of the eliminated candidates endorsed Preckwinkle. On April 2, 1991, Preckwinkle performed better in the northern part of the ward and was elected by a 109-vote margin, defeating the 17-year incumbent alderman Evans.
Overview of tenure Preckwinkle was initially sworn into office in 1991, and was reelected to four-year terms in 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007.
In City Council, Preckwinkle developed a reputation for progressiveness. She was known as being independent of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, with whom she dissented more often than any other alderman. In addition, Preckwinkle was one of the few aldermen on the City Council occasionally critical of the policies of former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.
In 2004, she and Dorothy Tillman were the only aldermen to vote against the mayor's city budget, and in 2005, Preckwinkle was the lone dissenter on the mayor's budget. Preckwinkle has supported the majority of legislation advanced by the mayor and his allies, including most of Daley's annual budget proposals; his controversial use of tax increment financing, an economic development program in which tax revenues are funneled into accounts controlled almost exclusively by the mayor; and, ultimately, his quest to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Affordable housing Preckwinkle championed set-asides for affordable housing as her signature issue. The municipal ordinances she sponsored in 1993 and 1999 for affordable housing increased city expenditures on low and moderate income housing by 50 percent. In 2007, she pushed for increases in the existing Affordable Requirements Ordinance. This mandates that housing developers using land bought at a discount from the city, must reserve at least 10 percent of their housing units as "affordable", or to contribute money to an affordable-housing fund that would be equivalent to increasing the percentage to 15 percent. Affordable housing is considered a key element in the debate about ending homelessness in Chicago.
Preckwinkle's depth of knowledge of public housing has been recognised in the national press, which cited her defense of the maligned Vince Lane when the federal government took over Chicago's public housing projects.
Police accountability Preckwinkle was outspoken in support of the city settling the Jon Burge police torture case, rather than continuing to spend money in the litigation process. She was also proactive in the effort to pursue compensation for victims of police brutality in the related Burge cases, and sought hearings on the initial special prosecutor's report. She has been a critic of the decades-long delay in settling the case, and supported the settlement.
In 2007, Preckwinkle pursued disclosure of Chicago Police Department officers who were accused of using excessive force. The United States District Court had ruled that the records be unsealed and made available to the public. However, on July 13, 2007, the city filed an emergency motion to stay the judge's order. When the city argued in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals against disclosure, it said that aldermen would have access to the information, but Preckwinkle's August 23, 2007, request for the data was denied.
Economic policy Preckwinkle was a co-sponsor of the living wage ordinances that passed the city council in 1998 and 2002. On July 26, 2006, Preckwinkle was one of 35 aldermen who voted to approve the 2006 Chicago Big Box Ordinance sponsored by Alderman Joe Moore (49th). For 7 weeks, until the law was overturned, Chicago was the largest United States city to require big-box retailers to pay a "living wage."
Ward-level issues In October 2007, Preckwinkle opposed naming a landmark in the 4th ward for Saul Bellow, the 1976 Nobel literature laureate, reportedly because Bellow had made remarks that Preckwinkle considered racist. She also opposed the renaming of a stretch of street near the original Playboy Club as "Hugh Hefner Way."
In 2006, Preckwinkle decided to paint over two 36-year-old, neglected and severely damaged public murals in the 47th Street Metra underpass. The murals had been created by graffiti artists, working with permission from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and had represented themes that included Latin-American, African, Mayan, Indian, and Native American spiritual practices. The walls were later covered with murals that were newly commissioned by the city: one is made up of a series of ceramic tiles and the other is a traditional painted mural, featuring the city and important historical South Side figures, including former Alderman Dorothy Tillman.
Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid would have placed the main site of the $1.1 billion residential complex in the 4th Ward, to accommodate athletes in an Olympic Village. Chicago was not chosen. Preckwinkle expressed her reservations about the initial plan, and was involved in plan revisions.
Since the construction was planned almost entirely in her ward, she expressed concern that her constituents had not been offered a chance to voice their concerns with the plan. She was an early advocate of moving what would have been the Olympic Village from the McCormick Place truck yard to the Michael Reese Hospital site.
She also had concerns about how the proposed project would be financed. On March 14, 2007, Preckwinkle joined four other South Side aldermen in voting against a $500 million public-funded guarantee to back up Chicago's Olympics bid. But on September 9, 2009, Preckwinkle voted to authorize Mayor Richard Daley to sign the International Olympic Committee's host city contract, which included financial guarantees putting full responsibility for the Olympics and its proposed $4.8 billion operating budget on taxpayers.
Cook County Board president (2010–present) Since December 2010, Preckwinkle has served as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Her tenure has seen her wield a great amount of top-down control on what has been a rather unified legislative body. This is in contrast to the discord that the Board saw in its four years under her immediate predecessor, Todd Stroger. John Byrne and Alice Yin of the Chicago Tribune have characterized Preckwinkle as pursuing and implementing a "progressive agenda" as Board president.
2010 election
Preckwinkle announced in January 2009, that she would run for president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. She launched her campaign website on June 18, 2009. On February 2, 2010, she won a strong victory in the Democratic Party primary election, defeating the incumbent Board President Todd Stroger and fellow challengers Dorothy Brown (the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court) and Terrence J. O'Brien, as well as Green Party nominee Thomas Dresser. Preckwinkle received 48.99% in the primary despite there being a four-way race. Preckwinkle received 69.54% of the vote in the general election. Preckwinkle faced Republican nominee Roger A. Keats in the November general election.
The four years prior to the 2010 election had seen the county government endure some of the greatest tumult that it had experienced in decades. As a candidate, Preckwinkle pledged that she would reform the Cook County government stability and repair the county's finances.
Winning the general election, Preckwinkle became the first woman elected as president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. She won over two-thirds of the vote. After her Republican opponent received 26% of the vote, he moved out of the state.
First term