Smollett case engulfs election in Illinois
CHICAGO — Chicago mom Rya Smith has no doubts about backing the top prosecutor in the nation’s second-biggest county for another term, even while acknowledging the office fumbled a criminal case against “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s involvement in the Smollett case has dominated much of the attention in her reelection campaign, but Smith contends the focus instead should be on her record exonerating the innocent, tossing minor marijuana convictions and as the first black woman in the job.
“She’s done a great many things, especially for minorities,” Smith said. “The Jussie Smollett case was a pebble in the giant boulder of her career. That shouldn’t discredit her for one little mistake. She isn’t getting a fair shake.”
Foxx is counting on more voters like Smith as she seeks a second term against three Democratic primary challengers who’ve seized on the Smollett case and a fractured relationship with police. In what’s likely the most expensive race of its kind, they’ve called it a bungled prosecution that benefited a politically-connected person and undermined public trust.
The controversial decision to dismiss charges against Smollett, who’s accused of fabricating a racist, anti-gay attack, has haunted Foxx, something that’s increasingly frustrated her. She declined an Associated Press interview but recently called the Smollett focus, “B.S.”
Defeating Foxx will be tough with her establishment backing, union support and super PACs targeting her opponents. But challengers — including Navy veteran Bill Conway, whose first run for office is being fueled by his billionaire father — believe they’ve found an opening for Tuesday.
“She just kept not telling the truth to the public,” said Conway, 41, a former assistant state’s attorney.
He’s aired television ads since November, with far more money combined than all candidates — including two Republicans. About $10.5 million of the roughly $11.5 million he’s raised, comes from William Conway, co-founder of Carlyle Group, a Washington D.C.-based investment firm. Foxx, 47, has raised nearly $3.5 million.
Foxx acknowledged missteps. She recused herself from the Smollett case, but questions linger about whether she acted improperly for speaking to a Smollett relative and aide to former first lady Michelle Obama before the charges were dismissed. A special prosecutor reinstated the charges last month, which Foxx blasted as political.
“That we are continuing to talk about this in a city that continues to deal with gun violence, in a city that is continuing to reckon with police accountability,” Foxx told the Chicago Sun-Times. “That somehow this case has been elevated to one of the greatest criminal injustices in our time feels disingenuous.”
There’s wide agreement she’s made reforms.
Foxx’s office was the first to dismiss low-level marijuana convictions as part of Illinois’ law legalizing recreational marijuana. She personally handed over roughly 1,000 petitions to a judge.
She ramped up a Conviction Integrity Unit with prosecutors vacating convictions of roughly 100 people linked to a former Chicago police sergeant’s scheme to shake down poor and black public housing residents.
Josh Tepfer of the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School called Foxx’s office “the most transparent” he’s worked with, noting she apologized to victims even though they were convicted before her tenure.
“She speaks to the unfair treatment of people of color in ways that are very unique,” he said.