The Chairmen of Shields and Vernon Township Republican Organizations welcome Mary Cole to the race for Lake County State's Attorney race.

"We are delighted that Mary Cole is focusing on bringing integrity to the State's Attorney's office," said Dan Rogers, Chairman of the Shields Township Republican Organization. "The incumbent has turned the office into a social experiment that is leading to more crime in our communities," he continued.  

"Mary is off to a great start on her campaign," said Marko Sukovic, Chairman of the Vernon Township Republican Party. "She is an experienced attorney who is hard-working, dedicated and with a clear vision for how to reform the State's Attorney's Office. We are excited that she is running." 

During her announcement in front of supporters in Waukegan mid-August, Cole said change is needed in the Lake County State’s Attorney because she will be focused on the primary responsibility of the office to pursue equal justice under the law and to make people safe.  

“It’s time to bring honor and trust back to the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office,” Cole said. “The current office holder has turned this once proud office into his own political playground for his extremely far-reaching ideas that just do not focus on the safety of Lake County residents.”

Cole, 39, has spent 16 years extensively working in all aspects of the criminal court system. She has served as a Domestic Violence Victim’s Advocate at the Williamson County State’s Attorney’s Office, an Assistant Public Defender in DeKalb County, and an Assistant State’s Attorney in Lake County. Cole currently is the principal owner of the Brady Cole Law Group in Gurnee. Cole, a Deerfield High School and Southern Illinois University graduate, left the state’s attorney’s office in 2021 due to the current state’s attorney “immediately
began to bring politics into that office.”

“The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office should never be political, but he (the incumbent) immediately rewarded special interest groups, political donors and people who assisted in his campaign,” Cole said. “He moved out numerous supervisors with years of prosecutorial experience in exchange for friends or political allies despite never prosecuting a single case. All of this was taking place while he ignored the main role of this office; to prosecute crimes and keep Lake County residents safe.”

Cole said the state’s attorney’s office has been a revolving door over the last three years as 83 state’s attorney employees have left under the incumbent’s leadership. Thirty of these departures were hired by Rinehart himself since taking office in Dec. 2020.

Among the leadership championed by the incumbent when he took office was a supervisor who told prosecutors to not cross examine defendant who take the stand and that “there are no such thing as victims.” Cole, a survivor of domestic abuse in her early 20s, said the statement from Rinehart’s handpicked supervisor was the final straw on why she had to leave

“As a former victim of domestic abuse, I tell you loudly there ARE such things as victims,” Cole said. “And I will instruct my prosecutors to once again engage a defendant at trial because it is their job to be that shield victims need them to be.”

The General Election will be in November, 2024.