Portal:Chicago/Selected biography/167

Joseph "Joe" Berrios (born 1952) is a Democratic politician who is the Assessor of Cook County, Illinois and an Illinois state government lobbyist. One of seven children of Puerto Rican native parents, and raised in the Cabrini-Green public housing project, he became the first Hispanic American to serve in the Illinois General Assembly and the first and only Hispanic American to chair the Cook County Democratic Party. He was a Commissioner on the Cook County Board of Review, a property tax assessment appeal panel. Throughout his career, Berrios combined government sector jobs, elected office, unpaid political party leadership positions, and private sector proprietorships in lobbying, consulting and insurance sales. His political campaign strategies included ballot access challenges to potential opponents. He has been the focus of investigations into allegations of ethics violations and political corruption with respect to campaign fund-raising and nepotism. In the press and in the courts, Berrios has repeatedly defended his right as an elected official to hire relatives and to accept campaign contributions from those with business before his office.