Mary Cole, a Gurnee Republican, announced this week she is running for Lake County state's attorney in the November 2024 election.

Cole, 39, owns a Gurnee-based law firm and has worked at the Williamson County state's attorney's and the DeKalb County public defender's offices. From 2019 to 2021, she was a Lake County assistant state's attorney.

Cole said she left the office because of incumbent State's Attorney Eric Rinehart.

"The current office holder has turned this once proud office into his own political playground for his extreme ideas that do not focus on the safety of Lake County residents," Cole said Tuesday.

Rinehart, a Highwood Democrat, said Cole is receiving support from the same people who were in office during wrongful prosecutions.

"My opponent would revive a culture that jailed innocent men and allowed the guilty to go free," Rinehart said. "Lake County will never go back to a time when rogue prosecutors ruled our legal system."

Cole's campaign spokesman Lee Filas said Cole is not affiliated with any of the wrongful convictions that previously occurred in that office. "In fact, bringing it up clearly shows Mr. Rinehart is trying to divert attention away from simple truths he can't argue: Lake County is not safer than it was 2.5 years ago," Filas said.... [Read the full article here]

 

Lake Bluff lawyer announces run for Lake County state’s attorney

Lake County News-Sun
Last Updated: Aug 17, 2023 at 6:32 pm

A Lake Bluff attorney announced her candidacy for Lake County State’s attorney this week, saying incumbent Eric Rinehart has turned the office into a “political playground,” a charge that brought a prompt rebuttal.

Mary Cole, 39, a former Lake assistant state’s attorney and DeKalb assistant public defender, announced she will seek the Republican nomination for chief prosecutor in the November 2024 race.

She left the state’s attorney’s office in 2021 for private practice, she said, because Rinehart, a Democrat who was elected in 2020, had injected politics into the office.

“The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office should never be political, but (Rinehart) immediately rewarded special interest groups, political donors and people who assisted in his campaign,” Cole said in a statement released to the media. “He moved out numerous supervisors with years of prosecutorial experience in exchange for friends or political allies.”

Cole, a Deerfield High School and Southern Illinois University graduate, also criticized Rinehart for what Cole said was excessive turnover under his administration and a failure to stand up for crime victims...[Read the full article here]