Veteran Cook County tax appeals board commissioner Rogers holds off challenger

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The longest-serving member of Cook County’s property tax appeal agency overcame a big-money effort to unseat him in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Personal-injury lawyer Larry Rogers Jr. — who has represented much of the South Side and the south suburbs for 20 years — sought the party nomination for a sixth term as one of three commissioners on the county’s Board of Review.

With 92% of the precincts counted Rogers had 62% of the vote to 38% for challenger Larecia Tucker.

Rogers’ victory marks a massive setback for Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defeat Rogers.

“He spent a lot of money for a loss,” Rogers said of Kaegi. “He should have kept his money.”

Kaegi and Tucker had painted Rogers as an obstacle to efforts to reform the allegedly unfair property-tax system in the county.

But Rogers accused Kaegi of acting unethically, noting that the Board of Review has the power to overrule Kaegi’s office and lower assessments for property owners who appeal the initial valuation of their real estate. Rogers argued that it was a conflict of interest for Kaegi to almost entirely fund his challenger and try to replace him with an ally at the agency that checks the assessor’s work.

“Fritz Kaegi, despite his millionaire status, was unsuccessful in his attempt to take over and attempt to buy the Board of Review,” Rogers said. “The Board, fortunately for the citizens of Cook County, remains an independent agency available to reduce [Kaegi’s] over-assessments.”

Kaegi is in his second term as assessor, having unseated the former county Democratic boss Joseph Berrios in the 2018 election. In a statement Tuesday, Kaegi said he was proud to have backed Tucker and remained “committed to continuing” his efforts to reform “a broken property tax system that was stacked against middle-class residents.”

Kaegi contributed $680,000 to his new political-action committee, Stop Tax Corruption Cook County, which was focused on beating Rogers. Tucker’s campaign got more than $50,000 from Kaegi, records show.

Tucker did not return messages Tuesday.

Rogers countered by loaning his campaign $850,000 of his own money in the last month of the race to try to defeat Tucker’s challenge. He also has received heavy support from lawyers representing property owners who appealed their taxes.

In the latest disagreement between Rogers and Kaegi, the Board of Review lowered the assessor’s valuation of the Arlington Park property where the Chicago Bears have proposed building a new football stadium.

Tucker works for Rich Township government and is a real estate agent. She had promised to be independent of Kaegi if elected.

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