Don't Quit, Kim! Let Voters Express Facebook Outrage Election Day

CHICAGO — Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx primary election opponents were quick to call for her to step down after special prosecutor Dan Webb filed new charges against the disgraced Hollywood actor her office let off the hook for allegedly faking a hate crime.

“The reasons Kim Foxx should resign are many,” Foxx challenger and former Chicago Ald. Bob Fioretti said. “It is a race between corruption, incompetence and personal dishonesty to decide which is worse in her office.”

Lawyer Donna More also says she thinks Foxx should quit before the Democratic primary on St. Patrick's Day.

Foxx's opponents weren’t alone. On Wednesday, the results of a very unscientific social media poll showed about 93 percent of Patch readers, when answering whether they thought Foxx should resign, clicked the "Yes" button.

Some readers even posted colorful write-in votes on Patch Facebook pages. (Their votes weren't tallied in the results.)

“She gets Uglier and more Corrupt every day. Bye, bye low life,” Joe Johnstone posted on Orland Park Patch.

“Banishment. Nothing less,” Evan Smith chimed in on Beverly/Mount Greenwood Patch.

“I might — just might — regain respect for her if she resigned,” Jeanne Nixon wrote on Oak Lawn Patch.

You get the idea.

Folks posted their “yes” votes on Patch Facebook pages from Palos to Palatine and Crestwood to Lakeview. While I greatly appreciate that they took time out of their day to share their opinion, I respectfully disagree with the 93 percenters.

If Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s landslide victory last year taught me anything, it’s that there’s nothing better than watching a politically wounded member of the Cook County Democratic Machine get pummeled at the polls on election day. I'm excited to see if it will happen again.

Foxx and her supporters criticized Webb’s decision to indict Jussie Smollett and announce his investigation into whether the state’s attorney or anyone in her office acted inappropriately by letting the former “Empire” actor off the hook five weeks before election day. They floated a conspiracy theory that the county prosecutor was the victim of political dirty tricks. The timing of Smollett’s new indictment, Foxx's camp said, seems a lot like the time former FBI director James Comey’s decision to announce his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 presidential race.

The argument landed flat, a weak attempt to deflect attention from the message Webb’s Smollett indictment sent — something wasn’t right about the deal Foxx’s office made to drop the charges for $10,000 and a couple days of community service.

What’s closer to the truth is the timing of Webb’s indictment seems a lot like leaked details from the FBI corruption probe of now-indicted Ald. Ed Burke that linked a tainted $10,000 campaign donation to Foxx’s former boss and political mentor, Cook County Democratic Party chairwoman Toni Preckwinkle.

Back then, Preckwinkle infamously whined that she wouldn’t have her “name dragged through the mud” when the powerful alderman’s shakedown of a Burger King owner had already stained her pastel campaign-trail blazer.

Preckwinkle got trounced in the mayoral run-off so badly she didn’t even win her home ward — a clear message from Chicago voters that they’re tired of the corrupt political system that has been rigged in favor rich, powerful folks with clout for generations.

Foxx seems to be facing a similar backlash. Even Lightfoot, who endorsed Foxx, told reporters she wasn’t getting involved in messy politics related to Foxx’s handling of the Smollett case.

To a lot of folks, it seems, Webb’s indictment of Smollett validates what they've been barking about on social media — a celebrity with connections to a Chicago Machine politician got special treatment that a hardworking Cook County taxpayer dumb enough to claim he was the victim of a hate crime perpetrated by guys wearing MAGA hats in downtown Chicago never would.

So, when Foxx dismissed calls for her resignation as politics, and told CBS 2 she has no plans to step down, it was the most exciting news I heard all day.

We'll get to see if so much social media outrage sparks a St. Patrick's Day parade to the polls.

Or if Facebook smack talk is cheap.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN. He was a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

More Chicago Stories from Mark Konkol:

• Chicago Police Don't Arrest As Many Murderers As You Might Think
• Mancow Hosts On-Air Debate On State's Attorney Race Conspiracy
• Fired Top Cop Deserves Jussie Smollett Treatment, Send Him A Bill
• Could Raging Political Feud Derail Economic Revival In Pullman?
• Could Pullman Become America's Next 'Tourna-cation' Destination?