With fewer than 20 days to go until her swearing in, Democratic State’s Attorney-elect Eileen O’Neill Burke has started tapping outsiders for her transition team.
For now, O’Neill Burke announced in a Thursday morning release, it has just three members: former U.S. Secretary of Education and former CPS CEO Arne Duncan, 3rd Ward Ald. Pat Dowell and SEIU Illinois State Council Executive Director Anthony Driver.
That team will “review current operations, engage with the community and stakeholders, and provide recommendations to increase public safety, ensure fairness, and strengthen operations within our criminal justice system,” the release said.
Duncan is the managing director of Chicago CRED, a gun violence reduction organization. Driver is also the president of the city’s Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability, which helps oversee and develop policy for the Chicago Police Department.
Dowell, whose ward covers much of the Bronzeville neighborhood, is also the City Council Finance Committee chair. She endorsed O’Neill Burke early in the campaign, one of several local officials who broke with the Cook County Democratic Party, which backed O’Neill Burke’s primary opponent, Clayton Harris III.
O’Neill Burke would go on to win the primary with a scant majority of votes, then handily defeat Republican Bob Fioretti in the general election with about 67% of the vote, according to unofficial totals. Her swearing-in — and outgoing State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s last day — is scheduled for Dec. 2.
“As I said on Election Night, the best way to predict the future is to create it,” O’Neill Burke said in the release. “Under the leadership of Alderman Pat Dowell, Anthony Driver, and Arne Duncan, we will begin to implement our commitment to victims and the law, a forward-thinking vision for criminal justice, and a promise to work together with all stakeholders for a stronger, safer future in every single community across Cook County.”
The transition team will eventually include subcommittees on gun violence reduction, public corruption and conviction integrity.