Saying he “is trying to be strategic,” Forest Park Commissioner Rory Hoskins told Forest Park Review that he is mulling a run for 1st District Cook County Commissioner.
Two other candidates have declared their candidacy to unseat incumbent Earlean Collins — 23-year-old Austin lawyer and Fenwick High School graduate Blake Sercye, and attorney Richard Boykin, the formerly chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Danny Davis.
Hoskins said he’s tossed the idea around with local politicians. He’s broached the idea with such officials as Cook County Recorder of Deeds Karen Yarbrough and State Rep. Camille Lilly (78th). State Senators Don Harmon and Kimberly Lightford were also consulted but Hoskins stressed he’s taken no official action yet.
“I am not circulating petitions right now or anything,” he said. “I’d have to make sure my wife is OK with it, and I wouldn’t ask her if I couldn’t put together something strong.”
Hoskins said he’d have to corral enough support, as well as fundraising commitments, before making a final decision. Collins was re-elected in 2010 in a landslide versus Green Party candidate Ron Lawless — she won 86 percent of the vote. But Collins has been called a “no-show commissioner” by her critics. According to press reports, she failed to show up at her own victory party in 2010.
But Hoskins said he thinks change has to come at some point.
“There’s a changing of the guard in Illinois politics with a new generation coming up,” he said. “I want to be part of that.”
