Even if Cook County Board President Todd Stroger weren’t getting criticized from all sides for just about everything he does (mostly it is because some political people are s
till bitter about the circumstances under which he got the post), he’d be facing some serious challenges for his office.
The perception is that the son of the late Chicago politico John Stroger is young and inexperienced, AND he’s only finishing his first term as county board president. He doesn't have the benefits of incumbency now the way he will have in future years.
IF EVER THERE is a time to knock him out, it is now.
So that is why we’re seeing the people coming out of the woodwork saying they will challenge him.
Just on Wednesday I had a press release sent to this site’s e-mail, promoting the campaign of circuit court Clerk Dorothy Brown saying she’d like to run for the top post in county government.
And in the Chicago Sun-Times, we get an item telling us that Mayor Richard M. Daley is planning to back the candidacy of Toni Preckwinkle, the alderman from the Hyde Park neighborhood whose campaign rhetoric and literature almost tries to bill her as a female version of Barack Obama.
ADMITTEDLY, THAT ITEM from the newspaper was merely a “Sneed scoop.” So who knows what Daley is really thinking (he’d probably deny it, if publicly asked who he’s endorsing for county board president).
But the thing these two officials have in common (aside from gender) is that they are African-American.
Both of them are political people who have had some experience in the ways that things work in and around City Hall. And there’s no way that Stroger will be able to criticize them for trying to take an elective office away from an African-American official the way he likely would if some white official were to run for the post.
Things may be a tad more subtle in Chicago politics compared to the days of the mid-1980s and “Council Wars,” but there still remains a racial undertone to our city’s politics – primarily because there still remains the racial undertone to our society.
DO I THINK the sole reason that someone like Forrest Claypool decided not to challenge Stroger in next year’s Democratic primary for county board president is because he’s white?
Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a factor that he didn’t want to get branded as some sort of “racist” the same way that many people now think of the memory of Bernard Epton.
Remember the one-time state legislator from Hyde Park who challenged Harold Washington for Chicago mayor with those “before it’s too late” commercials who in reality was that now-extinct breed of politician – a liberal Republican?
The only thing I wonder now is if the final lineup of candidates for the Democratic primary (which I honestly believe will be the real election, I just don’t see the Cook County Republican Party coming up with a legitimate candidate) will wind up consisting of Stroger, Brown, Preckwinkle, perhaps another African-American official like Danny Davis (who has hinted he might give up his seat in Congress to run for the post) and one lone white official.
COULD WE WIND up with a situation where all those African-American officials split the black vote in the primary, allowing that white official who has the gumption to run to take a slim victory?
The reason I wonder about this is because of the impact it could have on that overall Democratic party ticket for the November general elections.
This is the election cycle where a lot of political people who consider themselves to be completely responsible are behaving in ways that make it clear they want to dump Roland Burris as U.S. senator and Stroger as county board president.
There is the fear that if a final Democratic ticket winds up having Jesse White for another term as Illinois secretary of state as its lone African-American official, that the black vote for November could wind up being repulsed and staying at home.
ARE WE STUCK with Stroger in some sense that his presence is needed to maintain political harmony? I’d hate to think so, and the fact that other legitimate African-American officials are willing to come forth reduce the chance that such rhetoric can be spouted come next year.
Like I wrote earlier, Stroger is vulnerable because he’s still early in a political career, although his circumstance is unique in that his actions during his first term as county board president have angered enough people to want to ensure that the career dies prematurely.
When the county board meets again Thursday and is expected to vote on a plan to repeal part of last year’s sales tax increase (which is part of Stroger’s legacy since he pushed for it so hard and has used his power to ensure it remains in place), we hopefully will be putting aside this particular moment.
After all, the understanding is that Stroger will not continue to veto these repeals, and he will be able to get to keep part of the increase in place.
IN SHORT, BOTH sides won something.
Now, we can move on to the campaign rhetoric, as political people attempt to use the activity of recent months to attack each other in ways that help bolster their own chances of political success.
It will be curious to see what becomes of Todd Stroger during the course of the upcoming 16 months. He’s going to get hit with a political avalanche unlike anything we’ve seen in recent years.
If he’s able to survive it and get re-elected, then perhaps his detractors will have to start piping down.
-30-
till bitter about the circumstances under which he got the post), he’d be facing some serious challenges for his office.The perception is that the son of the late Chicago politico John Stroger is young and inexperienced, AND he’s only finishing his first term as county board president. He doesn't have the benefits of incumbency now the way he will have in future years.
IF EVER THERE is a time to knock him out, it is now.
So that is why we’re seeing the people coming out of the woodwork saying they will challenge him.
Just on Wednesday I had a press release sent to this site’s e-mail, promoting the campaign of circuit court Clerk Dorothy Brown saying she’d like to run for the top post in county government.
And in the Chicago Sun-Times, we get an item telling us that Mayor Richard M. Daley is planning to back the candidacy of Toni Preckwinkle, the alderman from the Hyde Park neighborhood whose campaign rhetoric and literature almost tries to bill her as a female version of Barack Obama.
ADMITTEDLY, THAT ITEM from the newspaper was merely a “Sneed scoop.” So who knows what Daley is really thinking (he’d probably deny it, if publicly asked who he’s endorsing for county board president).
But the thing these two officials have in common (aside from gender) is that they are African-American.
Both of them are political people who have had some experience in the ways that things work in and around City Hall. And there’s no way that Stroger will be able to criticize them for trying to take an elective office away from an African-American official the way he likely would if some white official were to run for the post.
Things may be a tad more subtle in Chicago politics compared to the days of the mid-1980s and “Council Wars,” but there still remains a racial undertone to our city’s politics – primarily because there still remains the racial undertone to our society.
DO I THINK the sole reason that someone like Forrest Claypool decided not to challenge Stroger in next year’s Democratic primary for county board president is because he’s white?
Probably not. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a factor that he didn’t want to get branded as some sort of “racist” the same way that many people now think of the memory of Bernard Epton.
Remember the one-time state legislator from Hyde Park who challenged Harold Washington for Chicago mayor with those “before it’s too late” commercials who in reality was that now-extinct breed of politician – a liberal Republican?
The only thing I wonder now is if the final lineup of candidates for the Democratic primary (which I honestly believe will be the real election, I just don’t see the Cook County Republican Party coming up with a legitimate candidate) will wind up consisting of Stroger, Brown, Preckwinkle, perhaps another African-American official like Danny Davis (who has hinted he might give up his seat in Congress to run for the post) and one lone white official.
COULD WE WIND up with a situation where all those African-American officials split the black vote in the primary, allowing that white official who has the gumption to run to take a slim victory?
The reason I wonder about this is because of the impact it could have on that overall Democratic party ticket for the November general elections.
This is the election cycle where a lot of political people who consider themselves to be completely responsible are behaving in ways that make it clear they want to dump Roland Burris as U.S. senator and Stroger as county board president.
There is the fear that if a final Democratic ticket winds up having Jesse White for another term as Illinois secretary of state as its lone African-American official, that the black vote for November could wind up being repulsed and staying at home.
ARE WE STUCK with Stroger in some sense that his presence is needed to maintain political harmony? I’d hate to think so, and the fact that other legitimate African-American officials are willing to come forth reduce the chance that such rhetoric can be spouted come next year.
Like I wrote earlier, Stroger is vulnerable because he’s still early in a political career, although his circumstance is unique in that his actions during his first term as county board president have angered enough people to want to ensure that the career dies prematurely.
When the county board meets again Thursday and is expected to vote on a plan to repeal part of last year’s sales tax increase (which is part of Stroger’s legacy since he pushed for it so hard and has used his power to ensure it remains in place), we hopefully will be putting aside this particular moment.
After all, the understanding is that Stroger will not continue to veto these repeals, and he will be able to get to keep part of the increase in place.
IN SHORT, BOTH sides won something.
Now, we can move on to the campaign rhetoric, as political people attempt to use the activity of recent months to attack each other in ways that help bolster their own chances of political success.
It will be curious to see what becomes of Todd Stroger during the course of the upcoming 16 months. He’s going to get hit with a political avalanche unlike anything we’ve seen in recent years.
If he’s able to survive it and get re-elected, then perhaps his detractors will have to start piping down.
-30-
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