Despite concerns that Democratic Party lawyers would prevent him from running, Forrest Claypool will appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for Cook County assessor in the November general election.
Operatives for Joseph Berrios, the county Democratic chairman and the party’s nominee for the open assessor’s job, spent the past week studying the 90,000 nominating signatures that Claypool’s campaign submitted to elections officials. In the end, however, Berrios decided not to challenge Claypool’s signature petitions.
At stake in the election is leadership of a relatively low-profile but highly important office that sets the assessed values of every property in the county.