Is Kim Foxx The Face Of Cook County Reform In the Aftermath Of The Laquan McDonald Murder And Coverup?

The Cook County State’s Attorney election is coming up this March 15th, and it has caught my eye in light of recent revelations in Chicago around the murder of Laquan McDonald. Kim Foxx is the candidate we're following. It's not often that a local State’s Attorney’s election makes the national news, but Cook County is the second largest county in the United States. And, this vote couldn’t be happening at a more critical time in the series of conversations that are happening all around the United States on how to fix the broken criminal justice system.

Kim Foxx’s opponent, embattled incumbent State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, and Chicago despised mayor, Rahm Emanuel, have been facing the constant protests of Cook County residents to resign from their positions because of the release of Laquan McDonald video and the other cases of the State’s Attorney’s Offices egregiously bad decision-making and stunning mismanagement.

In recent weeks, a number of endorsements have come in for Foxx's campaign from elected leaders and organizations, like Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Democracy for America and MoveOn. In fact, MoveOn members voted-- for the first time ever on a State’s Attorney race, and it's not surprising that the she won by a landslide. With 150,000 MoveOn members in Cook County on Kim’s side the numbers are starting to add up.

Right now, the Foxx campaign is gaining momentum. But that’s is not the way it has always been for Kim Foxx, who grew up in the infamous Cabrini-Green housing projects, and was homeless for a time in high school when she and her mother were evicted. Her life experience will inform her work in the prosecutor’s office-- because she knows what it’s like to reside in the Cook County communities impacted the most by crime and violence.

The current State’s Attorney’s office has a pattern of failure that cannot be denied, and Alvarez is personally responsible for this pattern. She had numerous opportunities to make sure that justice was provided to the residents of Cook County-- that their constitutional rights were protected. Instead she has consistently taken the side of the corrupt establishment.

Foxx has the experience and track record to prove that she will be able to point the Cook County State’s Attorney office in the right direction and towards actual justice. She has overseen and prosecuted thousands of cases as an Assistant State’s Attorney, and was the Chief of Staff for Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. A somewhat less known fact: Foxx served as president of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

Can Kim Foxx gain the support she will need to win? Will her passion and drive for stopping the school-to-prison pipeline triumph over the maintainance of a system that is failing the people who it was supposedly designed to serve? Now that the spending caps have been lifted in the election-- thanks to a third candidate on the ballot, wealthy corporate lawyer and gaming industry lobbyist, Donna More, will Foxx be able to raise enough money to guarantee that all 2.9 million Cook County voters will receive the message of why she is dedicated to working for justice for every county resident as their next State’s Attorney?

Polls show more than half of Cook County residents are still undecided about who they will vote for in the election on March 15th. Foxx’s campaign video, "Numbers" (above), is where any undecided voter in Cook County should start if they are trying to make up their mind about who to vote for. To be fair, Kim Foxx should be the next Cook County State’s Attorney and the only things standing in her way are resources and volunteers. Please check out her website.