North Cook News

Cook County Assessor candidate Nico Tsatsoulis (Libertarian) is calling out traditional media for not defending LGIS in the wake of pressure put on independent media by Gov. J.B. Pritzker. 

Tsatsoulis’ remarks come two weeks after the Pritzker campaign pressured Paddock Publications - the parent company of the Daly Herald - to cease printing LGIS-produced newspapers critical of his administration. Paddock Publications complied with the demand.

“I am one of the two candidates on the ballot running for Cook County Assessor. I read your letter to Mr. Ray of Paddock Publications Inc., where you threatened that governor Pritzker would not participate in the Daily Herald's Candidate Forum unless Paddock stopped publishing Local Government Information Services (LGIS) publications,” Tsatsoulis said in a letter to Pritzker campaign manager Michael Ollen, and shared with Chicago City Wire. “At the end of your letter, you mention that ‘we have to demand more from those responsible for disseminating the news.” 

Tsatsoulis argued that LGIS provides fair opportunities to candidates and delivers news in accordance with journalistic standards.

“The Cook County Assessor's race has only two people running. Incumbent Fritz Kaegi (D) and myself. Up to date no reporter from the media including the Tribune, the Sun-Times, the Daily Herald, Crain's or any other local publication or TV station (with the exception of a two-minute message on wttw.com) has ever asked me to say one word or mentioned any of my proposals or ideas concerning the election and the assessor's office, except for a reporter from the Chicago City Wire, an LGIS publication," Tsatsoulis said in his letter. “Given your sensitivity to fair and true journalism, as evidenced by your immediate and decisive action to silence ‘a partisan political entity dedicated to slandering, I am sure you are equally alarmed by the absence of any sense of equity or fairness in the coverage of the assessor's race. I would like to join you in your effort to, as you write, ‘demand more from those responsible for disseminating the news.’ I am wondering if there is something positive you have to propose or are willing to do to address this situation and the parties involved, which I would characterize as ‘entities dedicated to silence’ as far as the assessor's race is concerned, to open up access to candidates who are media-underrepresented."

Pritzker requested that the Daily Herald discontinue doing business with LGIS through a campaign spokesman and announced his departure from a candidate forum hosted by the Daily Herald because its publications were too critical of his government and “represent an existential threat to quality, independent journalism.”

Since Paddock Publications terminated the contract, LGIS' newspaper run has increased by twofold. 

Pritzker opponents said Pritzker was behind the removal of TV ad for Dan Proft's People Who Play By The Rules PAC that featured a woman sobbing in agony following a strong-arm robbery that took place in broad daylight in a Chicago suburb.  In addition, Pritzker utilized legal threats to get the local NBC affiliate and WGN to take down a campaign ad featuring Beverly Miles that charged him  – without evidence – of terminating her for political purposes.

Tsatsoulis has been vocal against his opponent, incumbent Cook County Assessor Kaegi, after a delay in this year's Cook County property tax bills because of technological issues. According to Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn LLP, the problem is delaying the funding of regional organizations that depend on property taxes, such as schools. 

“Fritz Kaegi came into power with a pandering agenda, purposely deceiving (and continuing to do so) the electorate that their property tax liability is going to be shifted over to 'rich downtown developers,’ and ending up hurting all of us and mostly the poor and the people he claims to help,”  Tsatsoulis said, Chicago City Wire reported.