* Tribune last month…

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced Sunday she would return $116,000 raised at a campaign fundraiser that embattled Ald. Edward Burke hosted at his home last January, an about-face after a week of potentially damaging revelations about her history with him. […]

A copy of the invitation for the fundraiser at Burke’s home reads, “Chairman Edward M. Burke would like to invite you to a fundraiser in support of Hon. Toni Preckwinkle.” But Preckwinkle on Friday said it was Burke’s wife, Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, who arranged the fundraiser.

Asked why the justice’s name wasn’t on the invite instead of the alderman’s, Preckwinkle replied, “She was a candidate at the time, so the invitation came from Ed.” Anne Burke was seeking retention to a second 10-year term as a justice, and such high-level jurists often try to maintain an appearance of being above the political fray.

* Sun-Times today…

[Mayoral candidate Lori Lightfoot] argued that Preckwinkle has “made herself a fact witness in the Ed Burke case” because of the fundraiser and would be “questioned by the FBI” if she hasn’t been already.

“They’re gonna want to know what was said. How did this fundraiser come to be? And they’re gonna look, of course, at every dollar that was raised during that fundraiser to make a determination if Ed Burke put the arm improperly on anybody else,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot scoffed at Preckwinkle’s claim that Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke —not the alderman— was responsible for throwing the January, 2018 fundraiser at the Burke home.

“She threw Anne Burke under the bus. Of course, Anne Burke had nothing to do with that fundraiser…She’s a good and able judge. She knows what the rules are. That had nothing to do with Anne Burke. It had everything to do with Toni Preckwinkle’s relationship with Ed Burke,” Lightfoot said.

* And now, this…

…Adding… WBEZ…

Jeff Orr told WBEZ he does not support any candidate in Tuesday’s mayoral election, but his father has endorsed Preckwinkle rival Lori Lightfoot.

And Preckwinkle’s campaign accused Jeff Orr of being a Lightfoot supporter, too.
“This is pure politics from a supporter of one of Toni’s political opponents the weekend before the election,” the campaign said in a statement Friday. “The details of the event have been known for several months. But now, a couple of days before the election, this supporter of millionaire corporate attorney Lori Lightfoot files a claim. Why?”