Cook Co. board president race: Incumbent Preckwinkle gets endorsements, Ald. Reilly launches new ad

COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- Cook County is the second largest county in the country, with a massive budget.

For the past 16 years, Toni Preckwinkle has been in charge. As she seeks her fifth term as Cook County board president, Chicago Alderman Brenden Reilly may be her toughest opponent yet.

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Supporters chanted "four more years" Wednesday for Cook County Board President Preckwinkle, as they have for all her campaigns. Dozens of South and West Side clergy members are backing Preckwinkle for one more term.

"We've had balanced budgets for 15 years. We haven't raised property taxes," Preckwinkle said. "I think that's a great record."

Preckwinkle's opponent for the Democrat primary says the candidate he supported for several years has stayed in office too long. Ald. Reilly is centering his campaign around what he calls a failed county contract with Tyler Technologies to update the county computer systems.

"11 years and millions of dollars later, it still doesn't work," Reilly said.

With a new campaign advertisement out Wednesday, Reilly says the flawed technology caused late property tax bills which resulted in late revenue for school districts, including Chicago Public Schools.

"They had to go out and take payday loans to cover their operating costs to the tune of $120 million in interest, and that's basically a new property tax increase on homeowners next year, paying for the interest, because county couldn't do it, basic job of getting bills out on time," Reilly said.

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Preckwinkle's says at the time of signing the contract, Tyler Technologies was the only company to do the job. She says the situation has been fixed.

"Bills will be out and due on April 1, there will be no further delays," Preckwinkle said.

While admitting there were problems, Preckwinkle is more focused on how she brought Cook County into the 21st century.

"When I came to this job we were documenting court cases with carbon paper," Preckwinkle said.

Despite the improvements she has made in 16 years, Reilly accuses Preckwinkle of bloated budgets.

The race is expected to be a competitive one, with political experts giving Preckwinkle the edge.

"She's going to be able to rely on not only her stability, not only her record, but being very well known and being very powerful in the county for very, very long time. And I think that's going to be an asset," ABC7 Political Analyst Laura Washington said.

While Reilly may be giving Preckwinkle a run for her money, as the chair of the Cook County Democratic Party, Preckwinkle likely has a leg up in fundraising and the ability to get her base out to vote.