With slating starting for Democratic Party nominations in next year’s elections, the top of the ticket remains uncertain, but the contests to run Cook County’s vital property tax offices are shaping up to be barn burners.

Gov. JB Pritzker and U.S. Sen Dick Durbin have yet to announce whether they will run for reelection in the 2026 primaries, so many ambitious Illinois Dems are keeping their powder dry for the moment.

Down-ticket, hopefuls were already staking their claims at the Cook County Democratic Party’s pre-slating meeting Wednesday to vie for three major property tax offices on the ballot in 2026: county assessor and two seats on the county’s Board of Review.

This year’s pre-slating, a gathering of city and suburban Democratic committeemen at the headquarters for IBEW Local 134, is a largely ceremonial opportunity for candidates to tout their credentials. But it also presents the first chance for hopefuls to lay out their lines of attack.

Assessor Fritz Kaegi so far faces a four-candidate field in his third bid: a former employee-turned adversary, the nephew of a former assessor, and two candidates connected to one of his fiercest critics.

Samantha Steele, who worked for Kaegi in his first term, now seeks to replace him. So does Patrick Hynes, another former employee and the nephew of former county assessor Tom Hynes. Two other people who worked for Larry Rogers, one of Kaegi’s loudest detractors, also presented their credentials Wednesday.

The party’s endorsement, which won’t land until later this summer, comes with campaign help — passing petitions, fundraising and a mass-mailing to prospective voters ahead of the primary in March. Democrats have typically sailed to relatively easy victories in the general election.

Kaegi largely self-funded his previous bids for the Democratic nomination. In 2018 he defeated incumbent Assessor Joe Berrios. And in 2022 he beat water reclamation Commissioner Kari Steele, who lost despite the backing of many powerful real estate interests. Kaegi loaned himself $500,000 last month.

Party Chair and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Wednesday asked Kaegi’s potential challengers how they would chart a path to victory that could overcome Kaegi’s personal wealth. Some said they would seek campaign contributions from property tax attorneys, labor unions or business interests to compete.

Assessor candidates sought to flex their property tax expertise while blasting Kaegi’s tenure. Several highlighted last summer’s Tribune and Illinois Answers investigation into hundreds of properties Kaegi missed, while others criticized his controversial COVID adjustment and general “unpredictability” in assessments for home and business owners in recent years.

Hynes, a longtime employee of the assessor’s office who is now the assessor for Lyons Township, has been a consistent Kaegi critic since leaving the office in late 2021.

During a five-minute introduction, Hynes noted he provided information to reporters about many of the problematic properties that undergirded the Tribune and Illinois Answers investigation. He has also helped run a social media account, FritzedAgain, that continues to point out potential assessment errors.

“The current volatility and unpredictability” in the assessment system stresses business and homeowners alike, Hynes said. “Our commercial investors cannot confidently estimate future property tax costs, which depresses investment, and our residential taxpayers have been subjected to wild swings in assessed values and property tax burdens divorced from the actions of the market.”

It was a criticism most Kaegi challengers would repeat.

Hynes said he “has not made a decision” about whether he would accept donations from property tax interests, but “campaigns cost money … it may be an impossible situation.”

Kaegi did not attack any potential challengers at the pre-slating event, and faced only a few questions from fellow Democrats. He ticked off several victories during his tenure, including passage of a bill in Springfield designed to help spur affordable housing, current efforts to allow more seniors to qualify for the county’s “freeze” program, and continued efforts to reduce assessment disparities “which fall too heavily on our average homeowner.”

Kaegi described himself as “an advocate for the homeowner” and has been pushing for statewide approval of a so-called circuit breaker program to help people pay for large spikes in their property tax bills.

Steele faced some more critical, though veiled, questioning, including about a lingering DUI charge dating back to November. Officers arrived at the scene of a crash, where Steele admitted to hitting two cars while driving a Honda that belonged to a friend.

According to body camera footage and the police report, officers found an open but corked bottle of wine in the footwell of the front passenger seat. They reported her eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and that her breath smelled of alcohol.

She repeatedly declined officers’ requests, including to take a breathalyzer test, and told them she was an elected official. She eventually went to Weiss Memorial Hospital after telling officers she hit her head during the crash. Steele kept her driver’s license after the arrest because a judge agreed officers improperly filled out some of her arrest paperwork. Her next court date is May 1.

Steele acknowledged “personal challenges” on Wednesday and said she wished “that no one in this room has to face the public scrutiny” she had, without referring directly to the incident. Still, she argued it “has nothing to do with the job that I am running for, and nothing to do with the job that I currently hold.”

“I would promise to ensure that industry standards are adhered to,” Steele said, pointing to her 20-year career in the assessment industry. “I can do this work in my sleep.”

In addition to her work in Cook County, Steele separately served as an appointee on the Lake County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals in Indiana from 2020 until stepping down in January. Her exit, the Post-Tribune reported, came at the same time Indiana legislators were moving to require state residency to serve on such boards across the state. She runs a property tax consulting firm called Leonor Group, which she says does not have local clients.

Steele did not face direct questions about the case, but was asked by 50th Ward Committeeman Bruce Leon to provide “more transparency about the situation that occurred … from my perspective, character does matter.”

Steele told Leon she didn’t know “how much more transparent” she could be and pivoted to discuss increased assessments in Rogers Park.

She told the Tribune in a separate Tuesday interview that a pituitary tumor, which has since been removed, impaired her peripheral vision and “contributed to” the crash. She acknowledged she had a drink at around 3 p.m. that day, but noted it was more than five hours before the crash.

Two of Steele’s colleagues on the board — Dana Pointer and Timnetra Burruss — also introduced themselves to the party on Wednesday. Both have ties to the Board of Review’s longest serving commissioner, Larry Rogers, who has been in a protracted political tussle with Kaegi and last year pledged to either run for assessor himself or help fund someone who could beat Kaegi.

Pointer has worked as Rogers’ outreach director and a senior condominium analyst that has defended property tax cases at the state’s Property Tax Appeal Board on the board’s behalf. Burruss worked for Rogers for more than 15 years, according to her LinkedIn, before becoming the chief deputy commissioner — essentially the administrator for the board’s 170-person staff.

Rogers did not say Tuesday which candidate he planned to support. He and Steele have also frequently butted heads. Steele said she would not run for assessor if the party did not endorse her, and that she would instead run to keep her seat on the Board of Review.

Two people are running for Steele’s seat: Stephanie Mendoza and Liz Nicholson. Mendoza is Evanston’s city clerk. Nicholson is a longtime political consultant and fundraiser. George Cardenas, another Board of Review commissioner, is also running for reelection.

Others that presented at pre-slating were uncontested and well-known to their fellow Democrats. That list includes County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Sheriff Tom Dart, Treasurer Maria Pappas and Clerk Monica Gordon, who first won her appointment to the seat from the same group about a year ago. Democrats also heard from candidates for spots on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and judicial seats.