In a new digital ad, Bill Conway, a candidate for Cook County state’s attorney, criticizes Kim Foxx on her handling of unlawful use of a weapon offenses, asking how the top prosecutor can solve a problem that she can’t admit is present.
The ad attacks Foxx by using recent footage of a WGN-TV interview where Foxx is asked if she shares Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson’s frustration about “gun offenders getting out the very next day.”
Foxx is shown asking if “can go back to” and then trails off, pausing for several seconds. At that point, the ad cuts to a screen that reads, “If Kim Foxx doesn’t think releasing gun criminals is a problem, how can she solve it?”
The ad, which will appear on social media, then ends. The rest of Foxx’s comments in the interview are not shown.
“It’s really this simple: If you commit a crime with a gun, you need to go to jail,” a spokeswoman for Conway’s campaign said in a statement. “But if Kim Foxx can’t even admit that releasing gun offenders is a problem, how can Chicagoans expect her to fix it?”
For Foxx, the issue requires a more nuanced approach.
Foxx had taken a pause in the news report because she “doesn’t want to speak in sound bites.”
She said her office has to consider the full picture, which includes questioning whether the person is a threat and if there are mitigating factors for why they would have a gun in the first place since the unlawful use of a weapon offense means someone just has a gun — not that it’s been used.
A spokesman for Foxx’s campaign said Conway should do his “homework.”
Under former State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez — who Foxx ousted and Conway worked under — retail theft was the top prosecuted crime. But now under Foxx’s direction, the top prosecuted crimes are gun offenses, Foxx’s spokesman said in a statement.
“If Bill Conway were an honest man who did his homework, he would know Kim Foxx’s office beat the NRA in court to preserve Cook County’s assault weapon and high capacity magazine bans,” the statement continued. “If Bill Conway were an honest man and did his homework, he would not try to manipulate facts, hide the full context and try to manipulate the public. The people of Cook County deserve better.”
Others challenging Foxx include former Cook County Circuit Judge Pat O’Brien, who is running as a Republican; Christopher Pfannkuche, a prosecutor who ran against Foxx in 2016; and Donna More, a Democrat who also ran for the seat in 2016.