Following a hotly contested Democratic primary campaign for Cook County state’s attorney that took 10 days to resolve because it was so close, the general election race this fall to replace Kim Foxx as county prosecutor has been relatively sleepy.

But it still has intrigue and ironies.

The Democratic nominee, Eileen O’Neill Burke, prevailed in the primary while pushing back against claims she’s a de facto Republican, while the Republican nominee, Bob Fioretti, was until recently a longtime Democrat who is being backed in the general election by progressive icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson. And after running a robust campaign to defeat the Cook County Democratic Party’s favored candidate in March, O’Neill Burke has made a concerted effort since to largely lay low while Fioretti is trying — and mostly failing — to raise enough money to make the race competitive.

With less than a week to go before the Nov. 5 election, the top Cook County race that voters will see on their ballots has not generated mass mailings, broadcast commercials or even a public debate.

For O’Neill Burke, a former appellate court judge, that’s by design. Playing defense is the smart move for a Democratic nominee in a county that hasn’t elected a Republican as state’s attorney since 1992. After her defeat of Clayton Harris III in which she amassed and spent about $3.6 million, the retired judge slowed down fundraising efforts and she raised only about $620,000 since April, not counting a fundraiser she held Monday.

Yet O’Neill Burke’s tamped-down fundraising is still better than Fioretti’s. The personal attorney and former South Loop alderman who has already waged and lost several countywide and citywide campaigns has raised less than $300,000 since the start of this run, making him unable to take his message to a broader audience.

During the primary, O’Neill Burke criticized Foxx for not being tougher on crime and took campaign cash from wealthy business donors, including Wheels Inc. founder Jim Frank, DRW trading firm founder Donald Wilson Jr., and Craig Duchossois, whose family once owned Arlington International Racecourse. The three men have backed Democrats but also are supporting pro-charter school candidates running for the Chicago Board of Education and have contributed to Republicans in the past, including former Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The result for O’Neill Burke was twofold: Progressive Democrats — most notably Cook County Board President, head of the county Democratic Party and Foxx mentor Toni Preckwinkle — criticized O’Neill Burke for leaning too far to the right, while Republican leaders said some GOP voters pulled Democratic ballots in March, casting votes for O’Neill Burke to defeat Harris.

“It’s been a weird cycle,” said Sean Morrison, the sole Republican on the Cook County Board and head of the Cook County GOP. O’Neill Burke “came in, she was nobody nobody sent” and prevailed over the Democratic Party’s pick, he said. Morrison said he was unsure, however, whether GOP voters will stick with O’Neill Burke on Tuesday. Libertarian candidate Andrew Kopinski, a Norridge real estate attorney and accountant, is also on the ballot.

Supporters of O’Neill Burke said her message encompasses a split within the Democratic Party, supporting elements of Foxx’s reform policies while embracing a tough-on-crime posture. Among the Foxx positions O’Neill Burke supports: restorative justice programs and the state’s much-debated SAFE-T Act eliminating the use of cash bonds to secure pretrial release. Where they diverge: O’Neill Burke would unwind Foxx’s policy to not pursue felony charges for retail thefts worth less than $1,000 and would impose a more rigid standard for when to ask judges to hold arrestees in jail. That includes all cases where someone is accused of possession of assault weapons, threatening someone with a gun or committing a violent crime on the CTA.

While O’Neil Burke’s backers say her approach is a balance between more progressive and moderate positions, Fioretti has tried to paint her as an equivocator.

“She has flip-flopped on the basic philosophical questions,” he said at a news conference earlier this month, namely “whether she is a law and order candidate or not.”

“In the primary to attract Republican crossovers, she pretended to be tough on law and order,” Fioretti said recently. After the primary, she said, “never mind,” and “now, two weeks before the general election, she’s become a lock-up-and-throw-away-the-key candidate. … Where are you? Who are you? Tell the voters what you stand for,” he said.

Morrison also said Democrats are demonstrating “an unprecedented lack of effort” in Cook County during the general election campaign by spending more money and time trying to get Wisconsin and Michigan voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris for president than taking care of races they are expected to win in their own backyard. That could mean “a lightning strike” of success for Fioretti, who has also tried to capitalize on his past work representing alleged victims of police misconduct, the recent endorsement from Jackson, a longtime friend, and re-upping O’Neill Burke’s prosecution of an 11-year-old boy early in her career.

Still, Fioretti and Morrison know they have an uphill battle. Despite being a polarizing figure who Republicans tried to blame for all manner of criminal justice issues in Cook County, Foxx easily won her general election campaigns in 2016 and in 2020, though that year by a smaller margin.

But with safety top of mind following a rise in crime during the pandemic and its aftermath, O’Neill Burke distanced herself from Foxx for more than a year and ultimately was harshly critical of Foxx’s tenure. At the same time, she built up her name recognition helped in large part by she and her husband, John Burke, a partner at the law firm Ice Miller, ramping up a primary fundraising blitz. She raked in $2.34 million in contributions in the final three weeks of that race alone while busting campaign caps. Through the entire primary, she spent about $2.3 million on TV ads and $400,000 more on mailers.

Duchossois contributed nearly $157,000 to her campaign, Frank $112,500 and Wilson gave another $107,000, state campaign finance records show. Others from the corporate world who backed her, records show, included investor Daniel O’Keefe of Artisan Partners, a relative newcomer to the city’s major donor class who contributed more than $340,000; and Richard Melman, chairman of the restaurant group Lettuce Entertain You, Tony Davis, an investor with Linden Capital Partners, and Gerald Beeson, chief operating officer of Citadel, each of whom contributed $107,000 to her campaign fund.

Additional contributions came from more moderate trade unions as well as current and former attorneys and judges. Attorneys who served on her campaign’s committees for lawyers and retired judges also gave, including Hinshaw & Culbertson attorney Matthew Walsh, attorney Tim Tomasik and his firm, Tomasik Kotin & Kasserman, as well as retired Judges Stuart Palmer, Sheila Devane and Maureen Connors.

Foxx critics from the criminal justice system donated as well. That included former Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy, who issued an unusually public rebuke of Foxx’s leadership on his way out of the office; retired Judge Sheila O’Brien, who called for a special prosecutor to investigate Foxx’s handling of the Jussie Smollett case; attorney Dan Webb, who described the office’s early handling of the Smollett scandal a “disgrace;” and Nancy Aducci, who previously headed the state’s attorney’s office unit investigating wrongful convictions but was replaced by Foxx amid controversy. O’Neill Burke’s campaign returned that donation after Aducci sued Foxx, alleging discrimination.

Fioretti, meanwhile, has raised just shy of $270,000 in total. Of that, nearly half, $125,000, came from Vince Kolber, former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party’s Finance Committee, founder of air and rail investment company Residco and a GOP candidate for Congress in 2014 and 2016 who lost both times to Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley. Fioretti also got $18,000 from former Republican Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica’s law firm and $13,700 from the Disparti Law Group, where Fioretti also practices.

O’Neill Burke’s fundraising advantage has meant she hasn’t needed much help from the Preckwinkle-run county Democratic Party. Not that Preckwinkle has warmly embraced their nominee. Preckwinkle called O’Neill Burke a “de facto Republican” in the closing days of the primary and suggested if O’Neill Burke won she would would undermine Foxx’s efforts to make the system more fair.

“I’ve worked hard over the last 13 years on criminal justice reform. It’s quite clear to me that his opponent wants to move us backward,” Preckwinkle said during a March 4 news conference with Harris, mentioning wrongful convictions specifically.

After the primary, Preckwinkle congratulated O’Neill Burke and said the two “share the goals of reimagining our criminal justice system into one that is truly just, equitable, enhances public safety and represents the best interests of all Cook County residents.”

O’Neill Burke transferred $20,000 to the Cook County Democratic Party in September, a typical fee paid by countywide candidates to appear on party mailers. But she and Preckwinkle did not meet until earlier this month, both said.

Asked how the meeting went, Preckwinkle said the party “will be supporting” O’Neill Burke but little else.

Chicago Tribune’s Megan Crepeau contributed.