Retired judge Eileen O'Neill Burke vying to replace outgoing Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The position of Cook County State's Attorney is up for grabs in the November election. After narrowly defeating her opponent in the primary, retired judge Eileen O'Neill Burke is the Democrat vying to replace incumbent Kim Foxx.
O'Neill Burke, who is running against Republican Bob Fioretti and Libertarian Andrew Charles Kopinski, said a vote for her is a vote for a safer Chicago.
"On Monday mornings, we wake up to 25, 30, 40 people shot, and we're becoming immune to that. We're not shocked by that anymore," O'Neill Burke said.
After defeating Clayton Harris III by fewer than 1,600 votes in the Democratic primary in March, O'Neill Burke has pulled in the endorsements of many labor groups, elected officials, lawyers, and retired judges' committee co-chairs.
She said her agenda focuses on getting guns off the street and addressing the root causes of crime.
"We have a tool, and the tool is the assault weapons ban. It bans the use of switches. It bans the use of extended magazines. In addition to banning the AK-47s and AR-15s, we need to enforce the assault weapons ban," she said. "We are at a seismic change in our society right now."
O'Neill Burke said she stepped down from the Illinois Appellate Court to run for Cook County State's Attorney — where she previously worked as an assistant prosecutor for a decade.
"It was a highly coveted job, and now we have a woeful understaffing," she said. "What you went there for was the training and the mission. And the mission is to represent victims, and to uphold the law. So we are going to offer training that's unparalleled."
O'Neill Burke served more than seven years as an appellate judge before stepping down last year to run for state's attorney. Before that, she was a Cook County Circuit Court judge for eight years. She was also a criminal defense attorney between her time as a prosecutor and a judge.
When it comes to the controversial end to cash bail in Illinois that went into effect a year ago, she said there's "dueling data" on its effectiveness, and she vowed her office would be more transparent on the impact of the end to cash bail.
"I want to drill down on the State's Attorney's Office data, and when I get in office, that's what we were going to do, and if I come to the conclusion that we're not safer or we are safer, we're going to figure out what's working and what's not working," she said.
O'Neill Burke pledged to publish a list of cases weekly where prosecutors sought to have defendants held in jail, but their request was denied.
When it comes to the controversial decision to end the city's contract with the gunshot detection system ShotSpotter, she said she defers to the "expert" judgment of Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who believes it's a useful tool.
She also accused Fioretti of being "disingenuous" when he's accused her of ignoring multiple invitations to debate him.
"We've had several public forums scheduled where we were both supposed to be there, and he's never shown up," she said.
