Civil rights figure, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., has stepped into the race for Cook County State's Attorney, throwing his support behind former Chicago Alderman Robert "Bob" Fioretti, a former Democrat turned Republican.
In a statement explaining his endorsement Oct. 5, Jackson both praised Fioretti and blasted his Democratic opponent, retired Illinois Appellate Court judge Eileen O'Neill Burke.
"Bob Fioretti has championed our community for many years as an advocate, a civil rights lawyer, an alderman, and a friend," Jackson said in the statement.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
| United States Mission Geneva, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
"... This is not about party labels. This is about electing our community’s best State’s Attorney, who will temper justice with mercy. It is not the first time have endorsed a Republican. It may not be the last. When the Republican candidate is extraordinary and the choice is crystal clear, we back the Republican, especially if his name is Bob Fioretti."
In the statement, Jackson did not take issue with how the Cook County State's Attorney's office has been handled under the county's outgoing chief prosecutor, controversy-plagued Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.
Rather, Jackson praised Fioretti for being a "friend" who "has been a voice for the voiceless, defending the innocent, exonerating the wrongfully convicted, and fighting for what’s right."
In the statement, Jackson contrasted what he characterized as Fioretti's record on civil rights to that of O'Neill Burke.
In doing so, Jackson took a line of attack used in the Democratic primary contest earlier this year by allies of Foxx against O'Neill Burke, who based her campaign on addressing the perceived mismanagement of the State's Attorney's office under Foxx.
Specifically, Jackson criticized O'Neill Burke for the way she handled the prosecution of an 11-year-old black boy charged with the murder of an elderly white woman in 1994. The charges were ultimately tossed out by a federal judge, who found the boy's confession had been coerced by Chicago police.
Just as Burke's opponents in the Democratic primary who supported Foxx ally Clayton Harris III, Jackson zeroed in on Burke's statement in court that the boy was "a whole new breed of criminal."
In his statement endorsing Fioretti, Jackson said: "To our community, this racist statement is disqualifying."
Jackson urged Cook County voters to "split" their vote.
In late 2023, when the incident was first reported amid the contentious Democratic primary race between O'Neill Burke and Harris III, O'Neill Burke released a statement defending her handling of that case.
She said the confession secured by police was "compelling evidence" at the time.
“As a prosecutor, you are responsible for presenting the best case possible based upon the law and evidence provided by police in order to seek justice," O'Neill Burke said in a written statement reported by The Chicago Tribune and others.
“And that was the case presented to the State’s Attorney’s Office for prosecution thirty years ago. No case is iron-clad. As a prosecutor, you are responsible for presenting the facts at hand before the court or a jury, and seeking justice on behalf of the victim.”
Following Jackson's decision to back Fioretti, the Republican candidate said he "couldn't be more honored to be endorsed by civil rights icon, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr."
"Operation PUSH and the Rev. have done so much good for so many over the decades it truly is an honor. Let's come together and deliver a State's Attorney's Office rooted in law and order, but respects the civil rights of the accused," Fioretti said in a statement posted to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
In a later X post, Fioretti also sought to call attention to endorsements from "conservative Republican" Illinois congressional representatives Dan LaHood and Mike Bost.
Fioretti said he was building a "centrist movement to ensure safe streets, strong communities, and thriving businesses return to Cook County and Chicago."
O'Neill Burke, who retired from her former position as a justice on the Illinois First District Appellate Court in Chicago, has also pledged to take a stronger position against crime in Cook County than had Foxx.
The current state's attorney's prosecutorial decisions and policies have come under often intense criticism, helping to fuel her national and local reputation for being soft on crime and often promoting the interests of those accused of crime over those of the community the state's attorney is tasked with helping to protect.
O'Neill Burke sought to distinguish herself from Foxx and Harris III by pledging to get tougher on violent crime, gun crime and retail theft. She also has pledged to use the State's Attorney's office to protect "abortion rights" and to support a host of "social justice" issues, including advocating for government policies, programs and social services to address "root causes" of crime and establish "restorative justice" programs.