It was easy to see it coming, the Illinois Republican Party said recently regarding the Cook County Democratic Party's endorsement of Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker.
The endorsement came from party Chairman Joseph Berrios as well as 23 other Democratic chairs from counties across the state, according to a Pritzker press release.
"No group in Illinois politics reeks of crooked insider dealing more than the Cook County Democratic Party," GOP spokesman Steven Yaffe said, according to the group's press release. "It’s no surprise that Joe Berrios would endorse J.B. Pritzker – they’re two crooked Chicago insiders cut from the same cloth. After all, billionaire J.B. Pritzker has proven he’s willing to play along with Berrios’ property tax schemes and profit from Cook County’s unjust property tax system."
J.B. Pritzker
Berrios is the Cook County assessor, and his office gave Pritzker a huge tax break on his "uninhabitable" mansion this year. Yaffe pointed to a Chicago Sun-Times article that explained how Pritzker saved $230,000 in taxes by appealing the property taxes levied on the mansion, which he had left vacant.
Berrios spokesman Tom Shaer told the Sun-Times that the assessor didn't know that the properties belonged to Pritzker. Both mansions belong to a limited liability company managed by Pritzker's wife's brother, Thomas Muenster.
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