On the one hand, it was a good day for Cook County Board President Todd Stroger.
One of the guys whom many political pundits would have figured to be a significant challenger to the son of John Stroger (which, in all honestly, is how most people will always perceive Todd) made it known publicly Thursday that he’s not even going to run in the Democratic primary next year.
IN FACT, THE Chicago Tribune reported that Forrest Claypool, a county commissioner who once was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chiefs of staff, may not run for any office in 2010.
Claypool was the guy who back in 2006 challenged John Stroger, but wound up getting defeated by Todd when the elder Stroger became too ill to complete his term – let alone run for continued political office.
Many of the people who now make up Stroger’s political opposition are those who seriously wanted Claypool to win three years ago, and would have loved for a Stroger/Claypool rematch to try to rewrite political history of 2006.
Coming just a few days after one-time Chicago Schools chief Paul Vallas made it known that he’s n
ot coming back to Cook County to seek the presidency as a Republican, it would appear on one level that Stroger’s potential challengers are refusing to want to get involved.
IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE, since a fight against Stroger will be brutal.
Racial overtones will become entangled, and Stroger will drag out claims among African-American voters that this amounts to nothing more than a white guy trying to depose a black elected official (particularly since Stroger could wind up being the most prominent black pol on the Democratic ballot in next year’s elections).
Claypool may not have wanted to get involved in such a racial mish-mash. There’s also that past tie to Daley, which while it shouldn’t be reason for opposition will be used against him if he ever decides to run for political office.
Basically, Daley critics who don’t have the political strength to dump on Hizzoner himself will take it out on his former staffer.
IT IS BECAUSE of this that I think the real news Thursday of the Cook County Board presidency campaign thus far came in another statement – one that on the surface seems like self-righteous political propaganda.
Toni Preckwinkle put out a statement letting the world know that her campaign now has its own website.
Basically, it means that as of now, we have to include Preckwinkle among the list of political people who are named whenever anyone speculates about who will have the nerve to challenge Stroger.
For those not in the know, Preckwinkle is that lowest of political creatures. She’s an alderman on the Chicago City Council – that government body that has created so many future federal prison inmates.
NOT TO IMPLY that I have knowledge of Preckwinkle doing anything illegal. In fact, her reputation is fairly clean.
She is the alderman from the Hyde Park neighborhood – that overly academic area that produced our president.
Do we really want Barack Obama’s alderman being put in charge of the Cook County Board?
The reason I bring up Obama’s name in conjunction with Preckwinkle is that her statement on Thursday read so much like she’s trying to capture the same aura that Obama himself used to motivate the youth of America to give his presidential candidacy a base.
SHE GOES SO far to tell us that the lesson of the Obama campaign is that online organizing is key, and she plans to engage in plenty of it.
“Technology is not only an important organizing tool, but it also enables great transparency in government, a major component of my administration as Cook County Board president,” Preckwinkle said, in a prepared statement.
Preckwinkle is an African-American woman, but with the kind of resume that could also appeal to white voters (or those who want to claim they’d rather not get involved in racial identity politics).
She’s got that similar University of Chicago background that appealed to a portion of Chicagoans, while also being able to take away from Stroger what could become the most significant reason he tries to give to the African-American population on the South and West Sides to vote for him for another term.
NOW I’M NOT sure whether Preckwinkle has the strength to run for an elective office that takes her outside of her home neighborhood and the 4th Ward (just like there are those who are convinced that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is lucky he has never had to appeal for votes to people who live outside his 13th Ward on the Southwest Side).
But with the Claypools and Vallases of the Chicago political world deciding they’d rather not take the time to run against Todd Stroger, it clears the path just a little bit more for someone like Preckwinkle.
So will this go down as the day that Claypool dropped out, or the day that Preckwinkle stepped it up? We’ll have to wait and see.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Toni Preckwinkle claims her website (at http://www.tonipreckwinkle.com/) will offer more of substance in coming months, while Forest Claypool (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/06/claypool-wont-challenge-stroger-for-county-board-president.html) left his supporters strugging to find a new Stroger challenger to support.
One of the guys whom many political pundits would have figured to be a significant challenger to the son of John Stroger (which, in all honestly, is how most people will always perceive Todd) made it known publicly Thursday that he’s not even going to run in the Democratic primary next year.
IN FACT, THE Chicago Tribune reported that Forrest Claypool, a county commissioner who once was Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chiefs of staff, may not run for any office in 2010.
Claypool was the guy who back in 2006 challenged John Stroger, but wound up getting defeated by Todd when the elder Stroger became too ill to complete his term – let alone run for continued political office.
Many of the people who now make up Stroger’s political opposition are those who seriously wanted Claypool to win three years ago, and would have loved for a Stroger/Claypool rematch to try to rewrite political history of 2006.
Coming just a few days after one-time Chicago Schools chief Paul Vallas made it known that he’s n
ot coming back to Cook County to seek the presidency as a Republican, it would appear on one level that Stroger’s potential challengers are refusing to want to get involved.IT IS UNDERSTANDABLE, since a fight against Stroger will be brutal.
Racial overtones will become entangled, and Stroger will drag out claims among African-American voters that this amounts to nothing more than a white guy trying to depose a black elected official (particularly since Stroger could wind up being the most prominent black pol on the Democratic ballot in next year’s elections).
Claypool may not have wanted to get involved in such a racial mish-mash. There’s also that past tie to Daley, which while it shouldn’t be reason for opposition will be used against him if he ever decides to run for political office.
Basically, Daley critics who don’t have the political strength to dump on Hizzoner himself will take it out on his former staffer.
IT IS BECAUSE of this that I think the real news Thursday of the Cook County Board presidency campaign thus far came in another statement – one that on the surface seems like self-righteous political propaganda.
Toni Preckwinkle put out a statement letting the world know that her campaign now has its own website.
Basically, it means that as of now, we have to include Preckwinkle among the list of political people who are named whenever anyone speculates about who will have the nerve to challenge Stroger.
For those not in the know, Preckwinkle is that lowest of political creatures. She’s an alderman on the Chicago City Council – that government body that has created so many future federal prison inmates.
NOT TO IMPLY that I have knowledge of Preckwinkle doing anything illegal. In fact, her reputation is fairly clean.
She is the alderman from the Hyde Park neighborhood – that overly academic area that produced our president.
Do we really want Barack Obama’s alderman being put in charge of the Cook County Board?
The reason I bring up Obama’s name in conjunction with Preckwinkle is that her statement on Thursday read so much like she’s trying to capture the same aura that Obama himself used to motivate the youth of America to give his presidential candidacy a base.
SHE GOES SO far to tell us that the lesson of the Obama campaign is that online organizing is key, and she plans to engage in plenty of it.
“Technology is not only an important organizing tool, but it also enables great transparency in government, a major component of my administration as Cook County Board president,” Preckwinkle said, in a prepared statement.
Preckwinkle is an African-American woman, but with the kind of resume that could also appeal to white voters (or those who want to claim they’d rather not get involved in racial identity politics).
She’s got that similar University of Chicago background that appealed to a portion of Chicagoans, while also being able to take away from Stroger what could become the most significant reason he tries to give to the African-American population on the South and West Sides to vote for him for another term.
NOW I’M NOT sure whether Preckwinkle has the strength to run for an elective office that takes her outside of her home neighborhood and the 4th Ward (just like there are those who are convinced that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is lucky he has never had to appeal for votes to people who live outside his 13th Ward on the Southwest Side).
But with the Claypools and Vallases of the Chicago political world deciding they’d rather not take the time to run against Todd Stroger, it clears the path just a little bit more for someone like Preckwinkle.
So will this go down as the day that Claypool dropped out, or the day that Preckwinkle stepped it up? We’ll have to wait and see.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Toni Preckwinkle claims her website (at http://www.tonipreckwinkle.com/) will offer more of substance in coming months, while Forest Claypool (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/06/claypool-wont-challenge-stroger-for-county-board-president.html) left his supporters strugging to find a new Stroger challenger to support.
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