Ego brought down to Earth – Stroger to seek water district, not county president

Todd Stroger, the one-time state legislator and alderman who will forevermore be remembered for his stint as Cook County Board president and his effort to raise the county portion of the sales tax, will go about thinking to himself that he could have been re-elected to that post – IF ONLY.

STROGER: Water dist., sted of president

Stroger on Facebook this weekend was boasting of the Sunday night campaign event where his nominating petition circulators would gather together the results of their work.

THAT WOULD ALLOW Stroger himself (or more likely some flunk on his behalf) to file the petitions Monday to get him a place on the ballot for county board president come the March 20 Democratic primary.

But instead, Stroger on Monday decided to instead file the nominating petitions he had originally collected to get himself on the ballot for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

Which under typical circumstances could be considered a government post of some significance – one that would allow Stroger to go around thinking of himself as a government official. Rather than a political has-been – which is what he’s been in recent years.

Stroger aides were honest in admitting he was unable to get enough signatures of support to get himself a place on the ballot with just over 8,200 valid signatures of support. There wasn’t enough time, since he only began his county board president talk just over a week ago.

WHEREAS HE HAD been using the past several months to gather signatures for the ballot slot for the water district.

If Stroger had gone ahead and sought the county board president post, there’s a very good chance that his petitions would have had the appearance of a rush job; as in sloppy and flawed.

It happens, particularly since the rules governing the process are so vague that who’s to say what will ultimately be determined to be a flawed signature.

PRECKWINKLE: One less primary challenger

Meaning it would have been likely that some supporter of incumbent Toni Preckwinkle would have filed a challenge to Stroger – and he likely would have suffered the ignominious embarrassment of being kicked off the ballot!

IT’S MORE LIKELY that his water district petitions are more legally sound and less likely to be challenged.

Although it’s always possible that someone motivated by spite will go ahead and challenge Stroger’s water district candidacy on the grounds that he had a hell of a lot of nerve to think he could run against Preckwinkle.

If that line of logic sounds incredibly petty and absurd, keep in mind we’re talking about electoral politics. It’s all about the egos for these people.

Including for Stroger, who probably has some resentment that voters dumped on him for his sales tax initiative that was meant to stabilize the county government finances – but instead caused resentment because the increase in the county portion of the sales tax caused the overall tax in Chicago to exceed 10 percent.

THEN AGAIN, THERE are others for whom Stroger’s real offense was being picked by his father, the late John Stroger, to succeed him as county board president.

Todd may have been a one-time state legislator and alderman, but the people who were somehow willing to accept all the generations of Daleys, Madigans, Cullertons, Lipinskis, etc., who have been a part of the local government scene were somehow unable to accept it when the Stroger family tried to follow suit.

John Stroger must settle for county hospital named in his honor, rather than being a political family like the Daleys

I don’t doubt that a Stroger candidacy for Cook County Board president would have drawn a certain amount of negative energy. He would have been a long-shot to win, regardless of what he thinks about Preckwinkle and her ‘pop tax’ effort to balance the county budget.

Although I wonder if his couple of weeks as a Preckwinkle challenger will merely elevate Todd’s profile to the point where the people who eight years ago chanted “Don’t Vote for the Son” as their mantra will suddenly take an interest in the water district race to ensure he doesn’t win that seat either.

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Make up your mind, Todd

I’m sure some political watchers choked on their own phlegm when Todd Stroger, the one-time Cook County Board president who has become the ultimate example of someone who got into politics due to family connections, said he plans to seek re-election to the post that he lost some seven years ago.

STROGER: Changing his mind

Stroger, who also served as a state legislator before becoming the county’s chief executive, told WFLD-TV he will challenge incumbent Toni Preckwinkle come the March 20 primary.

IF STROGER REALLY does take such actions, he will be one of three people in the Democratic primary next year. Since one-time Alderman Robert Fioretti also has said he wants to run for the post.

And like Fioretti, Stroger indicates he plans to beat up on Preckwinkle over her effort to impose a “pop tax” that caused a massive public stink. The tax that will cease to exist at the end of next week was capable of boosting the price of a can of Coca-Cola by a notable amount.

Yet Stroger is the guy whose own political unpopularity rose to ridiculously high levels when he tried balancing the Cook County budget many years ago with a sales tax increase – the one that when piled on with all the sales taxes that local governments charge rose the overall tax to over 10 percent in Chicago.

It will be interesting to see just how capable either Fioretti or Stroger will be in terms of challenging Preckwinkle.

BOTH OF THEM are convinced that she is so unpopular because of the pop tax that anybody can beat up on her.

I don’t doubt that Toni could be defeated by the right challenger. But I’m skeptical that either of these guys is capable of filling that role.

In the case of Stroger, his unpopularity is so intense even now. The thought of Stroger running for any government post is usually enough to outrage political watchers – particularly if they have their hang-ups over the way that Todd got into office to begin with.

PRECKWINKLE: Seeking a third term

His father, John Stroger (the namesake of the Cook County Hospital) was the county board president when his own health took a turn and he had to step down. He orchestrated his son being chosen to replace him in a way that made many feel Todd was forced down their throat.

OF COURSE, IT should be noted that the Chicago political scene has had so many multi-generation families holding elective office so that it shouldn’t have been strange that John would turn to Todd to replace him.

I don’t doubt that for some people, the fact that John Stroger was a black public official somehow aroused their ire. As though white pols can get away with semi-sleazy behavior while we expect our black pols to be on the straight-and-narrow.

But that’s the situation we’re going to be in – that is, if Stroger really winds up getting himself on the ballot to run for Cook County Board president. I’ll be curious to see if he can get the necessary nominating petitions filed by the Dec. 4 deadline.

And let’s not forget that Stroger for a while was the guy talking about a political comeback by running for a seat on the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. Not the most public of posts, but it would put Stroger on a public payroll and give him a title that would allow him to think of himself as a government official again.

WE’LL SEE WHICH post Stroger winds up running for. Will we really get a three-way fight for the Cook County Board’s boss?

FIORETTI: Seeking a political comeback

And if so, will it be truly competitive? Because a part of me wonders if Fioretti and Stroger will be the long-shot guys who take votes from the Anybody But Toni voters, while a plurality of more sensible people will wind up picking Preckwinkle – who until the pop tax came along was regarded rather highly by the electorate.

Largely, of course, because she wasn’t Todd Stroger. Does anybody seriously think that voters would return to Todd to replace Toni?

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EXTRA: Cook County may resume its spot back on top (of the sales tax heap)

A part of me is wondering right about now who’s laughing the loudest – Todd Stroger or William Beavers.

PRECKWINKLE: Now, she wants the tax hike

Both of them surely are saying “told you so” at the thought that Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle let it be known Monday that she’s now pushing for an increase in the county’s share of the sales tax.

CURRENTLY, THE COUNTY charges 0.75 percent of the purchase price as a sales tax. Which when combined with all the other government entities in Cook County and Illinois makes the total sales tax some 9.25 percent.

Preckwinkle says she wants to add another 1 percent to the county’s share, which would bring the total sales tax to 10.25 percent – which would be one of the highest rates anywhere in the nation.

It’s ironic that the county board president is now pushing this issue, because she was the one who during her last term in office went out of her way to repeal a 1 percent sales tax hike that former county board President Stroger imposed.

And which was the primary reason why so many people ganged up on his campaign for re-election in 2010 that he came in fourth in a four-candidate field during the Democratic primary that year.

OF COURSE, SOME people were really upset that Stroger was the son of John Stroger, and they didn’t like the way the elder Stroger orchestrated his succession for his son to the top county board post when his health became so inclement that he had to step down.

Talk of the tax hike was really just their cover.

BEAVERS: How snarky would he be?

Preckwinkle made a priority of gradually knocking down the sales tax hike that Stroger enacted because the tax revenue was needed by county government to fulfill its financial obligations.

Now, she wants that money back. The real question is, Will the bulk of the Cook County Board be just as hard-headed in their opposition to the issue as they were back in the days of Stroger?

OR WILL THE fact that Preckwinkle has much more professional respect in her post than Stroger ever had when he served result in them being willing to accept the need for a revenue increase?

It won’t be just Stroger who thinks “told you so.” Because I can remember so many occasions in which the outspoken Bill Beavers denounced his critics for their tax opposition – always seeing it as a personal slight against Stroger rather than a serious critique about government revenues.

STROGER: Will his tax hike become real?

So many that I honestly lost count, and eventually quit noting them back in the days when I wrote about Cook County government. It got to the point where Stroger NOT criticizing his colleagues was more rare and newsworthy than when he did.

Why would Preckwinkle be willing to move now to repeal something that she previously fought against? Perhaps it is because that with all the different units of government facing financial problems, Preckwinkle wants to stake her claim to an increased share of the sales tax before anybody else can.

OR MAYBE SHE’S just more willing to accept such an increase if she winds up getting the credit for fixing the county’s financial problems.

Although I’m sure the people who are eager to back Gov. Bruce Rauner in his efforts to alter the state’s financial situation will be amongst the most outspoken critics of Preckwinkle for what she is talking about doing now.

I’m also sure it will further bolster the arguments of those people who live near the county’s borders – because they’re going to argue it further makes it cheaper to shop elsewhere. Will County, or perhaps across the state line in Hammond?

Then again, I think anybody who’s willing to go out of their way to waste gasoline so they can save a few cents when they buy gas isn’t going to care about any line of logic that tries to justify the need for additional sales tax revenue.

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Battle of the political siblings – will we soon ‘begat’ another Stroger or Sawyer?

John Stroger and Eugene Sawyer have both moved along to the Great Beyond, so to speak. Yet their names don’t seem to wither away from our political scene.

We’re talking about a couple of South Side officials who rose to top-level posts – Cook County Board president and mayor, respectively – whose sons now are seeking a vacancy in the city’s political universe to try to advance their own careers.

FOR IT SEEMS that Todd Stroger – the former legislator and alderman who served a term as county board President himself – wants a political comeback.

He doesn’t like being a political nobody – which he became following his loss in 2010 to Toni Preckwinkle. Now, he’s talking about wanting to be the replacement for William Beavers, who likely is going to have to serve some time in a federal correctional institution following the “guilty” verdict reached by jurors recently on tax-related criminal charges.

But even if the committeemen from the South Side and nearby suburbs are willing to agree to let Stroger back into the universe of Chicago politics, he’s not going to have the post handed to him on a political platter.

For one of the other people who’s letting the committeemen know he’d like the post of Cook County commissioner from Chicago’s Southeastern portion and nearby suburbs is Ken Sawyer.

HE’S A COUSIN to 6^th Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer – who is a son to the late alderman-turned-mayor upon the death of Harold Washington.

If that isn’t enough people with ties to the Sawyer family, it also seems that the current alderman’s chief of staff, Brian Sleet, also has some thoughts dancing about his head of being able to call himself commissioner, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Which may be lower-ranking than alderman or congressman, but sure beats the heck out of being a hired staffer to an elected official.

Are we literally going to get factions of the Sawyer and Stroger families engaged in a civil war of sorts – with all the committeemen of the sixth and seventh wards trying to negotiate the best deals for themselves in exchange for their support from the special committee created by Cook County Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios to screen candidates for the post to which Beavers still had just over another year-and-a-half to serve?

HOW UGLY COULD it get?

Personally, I’d get a kick out of it if someone else came into the mix – and neither a Sawyer nor a Stroger wound up getting the position.

But let’s not forget the Book of Royko and all those “begats.” The mere existence of a familiar surname is bound to sway many of those who will have a say in this decision.

And for those whose distaste for Todd Stroger is just too intense for them to consider backing him for the post, I can’t help but think that someone whose ties to Sawyer ought to be considered the frontrunner.

ALTHOUGH I WONDER if the idea of having a Sawyer as alderman and as county commissioner will scare some people into thinking that too much political power will lie in one family. Then again, when the name was “Daley” and there were simultaneous sittings on the county board AND the mayor’s office, few were bothered.

Then again, that “Daley” name contains a certain appeal to a certain type of Chicagoan to the point that I’m convinced it will crop up again in a third generation – yet another “begat” for us to beget.

There’s also the fact that I’m certain there are some people who take all the Stroger trashing that Todd endures as some sort of bias. They’d be willing to disagree with it – particularly if they still have some sort of debts (not necessarily financial) owed to the family.

There also would be one way in which bringing Todd Stroger onto the county board would be all too appropriate.

FOR BEAVERS WAS usually the one county commissioner who was willing to defend Todd in some way. He’d usually mock talk of financial problems by saying they were created by the eagerness of some county officials to do away with the hike in the county’s portion of the sales tax that Stroger pushed through during his term in office.

Now that Beavers is gone, we’d lose what public opposition we could have to county board President Toni Preckwinkle.

Unless we have Todd Stroger sitting in that front row seat within easy eyeshot of
“Madame President” herself.

At the very least, it could make county board sessions for the next year or so all the more interesting – unless you get excited by the repeated efforts of commissioners to get their government colleague, Jerry “the Iceman” Butler to sing!

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Stroger ‘eradication’ more important to county pols than a simple policy

We’re coming up on that time of the year when the Cook County Board has to put together a budget for the upcoming year, and officials seem determined to want to say that they’re erasing the memories of former board President Todd Stroger.

STROGER: The contempt remains

Even if that winds up complicating their best efforts to approve a spending plan for county government that comes close to being balanced.

FOR BOARD PRESIDENT Toni Preckwinkle’s budget director told the City Club of Chicago this week that there may be a combination of fee increases and select tax hikes to raise more money for county government.

But this will come as Preckwinkle is determined to be able to say she erased from the books that increase in the sales tax in Cook County that Stroger pushed for during his time in office to try to balance out the books.

That was the increase that pushed the overall sales tax in Chicago to over 10 percent, and was the continual rallying point for Stroger’s opposition – most of whom were really opposed to him because of the way he got elected and were never willing to forgive him for it.

County officials have been decreasing their share of the sales tax in recent years, and this is the year that the last 0.25 percent of Stroger’s increase is supposed to be removed.

AFTER THIS YEAR, our government officials will be able to boast that they rescinded a tax increase that was incredibly unpopular (not that any tax increase is ever considered desirable).

But it seems that perhaps Stroger and his allies (he does have them, whether you want to believe it or not) were right in thinking that the revenue from that increase was necessary if there is to be a balanced budget for Cook County government.

We may well be in a situation where our county officials do away with a portion of the sales tax so they can claim they’re looking out for our best interests and will have something solid to show for it.

But then we’ll be told the equivalent of not looking too hard behind the curtain, on account of the fact that there may be other tax and fee increases that will get passed to make up for the lost revenue.

EITHER WAY, IT seems we’re going to have to pay. It’s just a matter of which fund our money gets paid into. From our perspective, it all comes out of the same wallet.

Which makes all of this seem like a lot of partisan bumbling that won’t save us anything of significance. Except that those of us whose political hang-ups concerning Stroger will be appeased.

A minor concession, if we still have to pay more.

Although I’ll concede that we don’t know how much more, since county officials are refusing to be specific about what they have in mind. We’ll probably learn for sure what will be done come that date in December when the county board gives its approval to an actual budget.

WE’LL BE KEPT in the dark until then, in all likelihood. I’m not sure that any ding to Stroger’s reputation is worth this trade-off.

Then again, it seems that almost anything is acceptable to people, so long as Todd comes off on the bad end.

Take the legislative election taking place on the West Side, where former state Rep. Derrick Smith (the representative who was expelled from the Illinois House) is the Democrat on the ballot who faces an independent challenger.

That challenger, recruited by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, turns out to be a former chief of staff to Stroger.

WHICH HAS SOME (including Preckwinkle herself) thinking that having a legislator who faces charges of soliciting bribes in U.S. District Court is less embarrassing than backing someone with ties to Stroger.

Either way, the situation comes across as embarrassing to all.

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Court quirks; is everybody broke?

When the federal government decides that its law enforcement types want to single you out, it is an expensive proposition.

Which is why I can’t help but see the truth in what was former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s initial reaction to learning that his former press spokesman and childhood friend now faces an indictment in U.S. District Court.

ACCORDING TO THE Chicago Sun-Times (but not the Chicago Tribune), the Stroger reaction was to say, “That’s too bad because he’ll have to spend money on lawyers.”

Some people are interpreting that comment as some sort of vacuous remark on the part of Stroger, the younger. While others are going out of their way to stretch out an interpretation that claims it is a virtual admission that he will probably have to spend money on lawyers someday.

I just see it as a truthful statement. It might well be the most honest thing that has come out of a political person’s mouth all week.

For 48-year-old Eugene Mullins is going to find his life turned upside down, now that he has to defend himself against a multi-count indictment along with other people.

IT IS LIKELY that all of them will wind up taking each other down – which is the big reason that federal prosecutors like to have trials with multiple defendants.

The confusion over who did what often makes jurors think that everybody did something wrong, so everybody goes down.

And if any of them had any money to begin with, it invariably gets eaten up by legal expenses and the cost of trying to avoid prison.

I still recall former state Treasurer Jerry Cosentino, who back in the 1990s had his own legal problems and wound up being found guilty. But he managed to avoid a prison term because of his advanced age (which is what William Cellini wishes for these days, but that’s a story for another day).

HE ALSO DIED broke. He lost his house. The only thing that prevented him from being homeless was that his daughter took him in during the final years of his life.

Mullins will soon find himself in a similar situation.

In fact, some already are in that situation even though their criminal proceedings have barely started.

For former Cook County Commissioner Joseph Mario Moreno and former alderman Ambrosio Medrano were in court this week on their own corruption charges.

BUT UNLIKE THE attorneys who seem to feed off of political people facing corruption charges, none of them are swarming around Moreno or Medrano.

Both of them appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Morton Denlow, entered their plea of “not guilty,” then formally said they can’t afford to hire legal representation.

They’re getting the federal equivalent of the public defender – who likely is swamped with so many other cases involving indigent defendants  that it is questionable how high a quality of a legal defense they’ll get.

I’m sure the attorneys who get assigned to these two will do the best they possibly can. But the key to comprehending our legal system at times (as evidenced by O.J. Simpson) is that money does talk!

OF COURSE, PERHAPS it is part of a legal strategy. The two face charges that basically say they enriched themselves with bribes. Yet both are now busted! How criminal could they be if they don’t have any money to show for it?

Particularly in the case of Medrano, who already has done a prison sentence for a previous government corruption case against him. He’s already unique in being a possible repeat offender.

Now, he’s an indigent government official. Medrano has definitely earned his place in the Chicago political history books.

All in all, all of these cases are a sad (as in pathetic, not tragic) saga. Crime, if it really did happen here, truly did not pay!

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): He sounds so naïve, Rahm does on taxes

A part of me wants to chuckle at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s rhetoric about wanting to cut the city’s share of the sales tax.

EMANUEL: Todd II?

He thinks he’s about to become a populist hero who slashed taxes to benefit the people by doing the exact opposite of Todd Stroger – who during his time as Cook County Board president actually raised the county’s share of the tax to help raise money to cover all the services they provide.

SOME PEOPLE ARE determined to never forgive Stroger for that move. It will dangle from around his neck forevermore and WILL BE his political legacy. So Emanuel thinks he can get the exact opposite legacy for suggesting that the city share of the sales tax be reduced by about 0.25 percent.

If his talk were that simple, perhaps it would work. Some people are so eager to hear the words “tax cut” that they don’t pay attention to the specifics. Which in this case would mean a lot more tax increases than decreases.

For Emanuel wants to alter the list of items and services that actually get taxed.

There are certain things that people actually pay less of a tax on, and a few others for which the sales tax does not apply. Take a look at your grocery receipt sometime to figure out the different items and what gets taxed at what rate. Just think of all the services that can now be taxed.

YOU JUST KNOW that cutting the overall sales tax rate (which is higher in Chicago than in other parts of the state) will be ignored if certain items now get taxed at a higher rate.

STROGER: Learn from his lesson



He’ll be Rahm the Tax-Hiker, rather than the mad Tax-Slasher. If he seriously goes forth with this rhetoric (the Chicago Sun-Times reported Wednesday that he’s likely to do so), he’s going to find out how quickly he becomes even more despised than Stroger among Chicago taxpayers.

There is one potential plus in this whole mess. This is an issue that ultimately has to be decided by the Illinois General Assembly. Emanuel can’t do this on his own. So will Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, save Rahm from himself? Or will they give him what he wants, along with the rope to hang himself in the process?

What other items are of interest on the shores of the southwestern tip of Lake Michigan?

SOMEBODY NEEDS TO LEARN THE LESSONS OF HEIPLE: State Sen. Suzi Schmidt, R-Lake Villa, is new to the Legislature. So she doesn’t have the memory of watching then-Illinois Supreme Court Justice James Heiple have to explain why he thought he was exempt from speeding laws.



Heiple, as I recall from his testimony, responded to being pulled over by a traffic cop by flashing his court credentials, then got all huffy when the cop indicated he didn’t care that Heiple was a judge.

Schmidt now gives us a moment of arrogance to rival that, as the Lake County sheriff’s department this week made public the recordings of calls she made to 911, telling the police up front she was the former Lake County Board chairman, and that the police should ignore any calls for help that her husband might make. Perhaps Heiple and Schmidt would make the perfect couple when it comes to ego. Although I find it amusing that she identified herself by her old political post, rather than her current one. She figures nobody would care what a state senator thought?

Insofar as the actual contents of what are at least three calls the Lake County sheriff has had to respond to at the Schmidt residence since December, all I’ll say is that they remind me too much of an old Saturday Night Live sketch that parodied programs such as COPS – one in which police had to respond to a call at the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Ark., because “Bill” just got beat up by spouse “Hillary” after she caught him messing around with other women.

CHICAGO FOLLOWS OZZIE TO MIAMI???: Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen already has people thinking they might like to be connected to the National League team because of his presence. What is shocking is how many of them are Chicago Cubs.

Reports indicate that hard-hitting infielder Aramis Ramirez and hot-tempered pitcher Carlos Zambrano might want to become Marlins. There even are reports that if Cubs manager Mike Quade does get dumped, he could wind up as one of Guillen’s coaches – because Ozzie admires the job he did with such an awful ballclub.

That could mean more Cubs following Guillen to Florida than family members, since wife Ibis and sons reportedly have said they want to stay in Chicago.

I just worry that bringing so many Cubs brings a funk to the Marlins. After all, the old ex-Cub Factor (first publicized by the late columnist Mike Royko) says that the presence of three or more ex-Cubs brings defeat in the World Series.

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No political hiring in Cook County Govt?

I’m sure that soon-to-be-former Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and his minions will dig out that old cliché about “comparing apples to oranges” to criticize me for the following commentary.

But I couldn’t help but snicker at reading the news reports Friday that said Stroger had 157 violations of the rules that currently prevent government hiring based on political criteria.

BECAUSE I STILL remember vividly a moment that occurred at a Cook County Board meeting almost a year ago to the date, when Stroger self-righteously insisted that there was no political hiring within county government under his watch.

Of course, nobody believed it back when he said it. So we’re not shocked now to learn that Michael Shakman, the man whose life (and name) has been devoted to the idea of undermining the concept of “we don’t want nobody nobody sent,” is saying under oath in open court that there have been 13 dozen (plus one) violations of the law.

So who’s right? It seems like it is a very technical question that the courts are going to resolve.

Because attorneys for Stroger, including the daughter of one-time Cook County Commissioner Ted Lechowicz, says that none of the hires involved in this case are true violations of rules against politically motivated hiring.

THERE IS A degree to which an elected official should be able to have certain positions filled with people whose political loyalty is toward himself (or herself, depending on the official’s gender).

Laura Lechowicz Felicione argued in court this week that these 157 people are in positions that should fall under such a category, but that officials are still in the process of finishing work on a list of exactly which jobs can be filled for political reasons.

“I don’t think we have violated the ban,” she told the Chicago Tribune. Which means this is about technicalities.

For the record, the compliance administrator who is heading a team of people that is supposed to be working out all those technicalities said the problem is that county officials, including Stroger, don’t seem to be in any hurry to finish the list – which makes the situation deliberately vague.

OF COURSE, IT was this same administrator who, when she said last year that it was possible for systems to be “manipulated” so that one could not definitively say which county employees were political hires and which were truly legitimate workers who benefitted the public, got Stroger to make his snippy little remarks – which included his utterly-laughable claim that, “we (the county) don’t use clout in” human resources.

Which makes the bottom line on this issue one that we will have many more years of litigation. It also probably means a reality that we will never be able to fully eliminate the idea that someone got a job on a government payroll because of who they knew.

Now I know that reality will offend some people who want to think we can have an ideal world where everybody who bothers to work on a public payroll does so out of a sense of wanting to do “the people’s business” instead of trying – first and foremost – to earn a living for themselves.

It is just that I can comprehend why someone who gets elected to office wouldn’t want to have huge amounts of people doing the actual scut work of implementing his/her policies into practice who don’t necessarily agree – and might even think they are there to undermine “the boss.”

CONSIDERING ALSO THAT I once held a job while still in college working on the Cook County payroll (the summer of 1986, with the Recorder of Deeds office, because I knew someone who knew then-Rich Township Democratic Committeeman Lee Conlon), I can understand that connections don’t always work in sordid ways.

If anything, one of the factors I always take into account whether considering a candidate for my vote is to figure what kind of people he/she would bring along with them – assuming they were to win office and start using the perks of having control over jobs.

Candidates who seem to attract lazy slugs who are only interested in a government job because they think they won’t have to actually work are the ones who have trouble getting my vote.

Those candidates who manage to put a batch of their friends on the government payroll (which there is ample evidence that Stroger has done) are the ones who create an issue that their opponents can use against them.

WHICH MEANS THAT while I understand why people who are among Shakman’s biggest supporters get worked up over the thought of political hiring, I have my own troubles with the concept of restricting it largely for the same reason why I think those people who go about screaming “term limits!” are not thinking the issue through.

One of the reasons why Stroger came in fourth in a four-way Democratic primary despite having all the familial advantages that should have made him a government official-for-life is that voters thought he overdid the political hiring thing.

He lost. That is the ultimate punishment for a politician, moreso than any sanctions a court might impose.

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Surprise, surprise! Stroger vetoes attempt by critics to restrain his final months

I’m sure there are political observers who are now condemning Cook County Board President Todd Stroger for the fact that he used his veto power to kill a proposal intended to be a good government gesture by the full county board.

But when one considers that the so-called good government gesture was really nothing more than a cynical move in and of itself against Stroger, I can’t say I am all that offended by the fact that the lame duck president refused to play along.

TO BE SPECIFIC, the county board of Commissioners last week approved a series of measures that restrict the county president’s authority, particularly when it comes to spending of county money. There are those who fear that Stroger will use his final months in office to reward his allies financially – at county expense.

Stroger made it clear the day the county board acted that he was not going to go along with this political attack willingly. On Monday, he carried through on that promise by issuing the veto on the ordinance that would impose a hiring freeze on county government – unless Stroger could justify any new hires on the grounds that they constituted a legitimate county emergency.

Now I read those same news reports that everybody else did in recent weeks – the ones that implied Stroger bought new furniture for his government office and was giving significant pay hikes to people who had family ties to himself.

I’m not saying I necessarily approve of the idea that Stroger seems to want to use every remaining bit of time he has in Cook County government to his advantage. A part of me thinks the county board members who voted 16-1 to restrict Stroger’s power were well-intentioned, if misguided.

WHICH MAY MAKE county board member William Beavers (the “1” in the “16-1” vote) the most logical county commissioner when he called the moves “ridiculous.”

My bottom-line thought process on this issue says that political people need to get over the level of disgust they feel for Stroger and accept the fact that Todd still has six-and-a-half months remaining on his four-year term.

He still has the authority to do things, and the idea that he should be restrained for the rest of his term because of his electoral loss in the Feb. 2 primary comes off as petty politicking on the part of the people who voted against Stroger.

To be honest, the pettiness expressed against Stroger offends me much more than anything Stroger does. The fact is that he won back in 2006, and that victory gave him authority through December of this year.

IT IS THE reason why I also found it ridiculous for the Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald newspaper to editorialize last week that Stroger needs to resign his post. If anything, we’re stuck with him. We will be rid of him soon enough.

Come December, we will get a transition, most likely to Alderman Toni Preckwinkle. Be honest, Cook County will remain a Democratic Party bastion in the Nov. 2 general elections, it is the suburban collar counties that will decide whether or not Illinois swings Republican for a couple of years before things settle back to the status quo for future elections.

Personally, I can look at the long-range picture once Stroger leaves. Because all that this activity within the county board is going to cause is more legal activity – which ought to be the last thing anybody wants.

For the fact of that 16-1 vote is that the county board has more than enough votes to approve an override of Stroger’s “veto,” when they meet again next week.

WHICH MEANS THE restrictions on Stroger’s authority ultimately will become law. Stroger knows that. He knew it when he signed the paperwork calling for a veto.

This is about him saying he’s not going to let himself get pushed around for the next few months by the people who for the past four years have been taking his name in vain every time it gets mentioned. Which means that once the veto override is approved, the next step will be some sort of court battle. Stroger against the county board. Which means that the county’s attorneys will get a court battle, along with all the special legal counsels that will have to be hired at county taxpayer expense.

After all, whose side would the county’s attorneys take in this fight? The commissioners who are restricting goverment authority, or the president who is being smacked about? This particular fight ultimately comes down to the taxpayers being the losers – regardless of which side would prevail years from now.

I don’t see the need to put the Cook County taxpayers through that kind of an expensive legal fight, especially not with the tight economic times our government now faces, just because some political people want to reinforce the thought that Todd Stroger leaves office in Decemberr in defeat.

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Does Todd Stroger think the Latino vote will put him over the top on Tuesday?

That literally was the thought that popped into my head when I saw the release issued by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger Sunday night about immigration reform.

It seems the Cook County Board passed one of its many symbolic resolutions when they last met – this particular one says that the county officially thinks that people living in this country without a valid visa ought to be able to get the proper papers so they can live openly here.

IN SHORT, STROGER is putting himself on the side of people who want serious reform of the nation’s immigration laws. He’s putting himself against those whose idea of immigration reform amounts to an increase in the number of deportations from the United States.

Not that any of those ideologically conservative types would ever have voted for Stroger. There’s also the fact that Chicago is such an ethnic-oriented city (even the white people are usually fully aware of their ethnic origins) that a measure like this is not the least bit controversial.

In fact, I hadn’t seen any news coverage of the fact that the county board approved this measure – which means it probably got lost in the shuffle of all the more relevant activity that the county board did when they met Jan. 26. After all, it’s not like the Cook County Board has any real authority to pass anything into law that would affect the immigration status of anyone.

But now, Todd Stroger can make appeals to the Latino population – which in Chicago accounts for more than one-quarter of the city’s residents. Technically, this is county government making this appeal, not the Stroger campaign; although end end recipient is one and the same Todd.

STROGER IS USING the language usually used by politicos who want to appeal to the Latino voter – who perceive the immigration issue as evidence of how our growing ethnic numbers are perceived since we realize some people in this country don’t want to have to tell the difference between a Latino who was born in this country and one who was born elsewhere.

“These immigrants could contribute even more to our communities if they were given the opportunity to gain legal status, which would enable them to gain more productive jobs, earn more and pay more in taxes,” he said, in a prepared statement. “It would enable in particular immigrant youths to pursue education and serve our nation in the armed forces.”

Stroger can say he’s in full support of Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who late last year introduced a bill before Congress that would make significant changes in federal immigration law to make it possible for people without visas to get them (the very practice that the nativist element of our society likes to lambast as “amnesty”).

He may even envision having Gutierrez work to turn out some votes in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods northwest where the Congressman has some influence. Considering that the most recent Chicago Tribune poll showed county board President challenger Toni Preckwinkle leading among white voters and Dorothy Brown getting more support among black voters than any other candidate, does Stroger think the Latinos are going to go for him?

HE MAY, BUT that would be delusional, particularly since Gutierrez himself came out in support for the Preckwinkle campaign several weeks back. While I haven’t seen any specific polling of the Cook County Board president’s race broken down along racial or ethnic lines to specify the Latino vote, I wouldn’t be shocked if many are going along with Toni.

Her campaign seems to be the one that is putting together something resembling the biracial, progressive coalition that once put Harold Washington into the mayor’s office. If Stroger wins, I could easily envision the Latino populace being just as shocked as everybody else in this county who wants to count "the Toddler" out.

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What should we think of Haiti?

I realize it is the way of political people to try to make themselves appear to be on top of every possible issue.

Yet I got my chuckle the other night when in my e-mail turned up an announcement from Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, informing me and everybody else he felt the need to notify about the county’s relief efforts intended for the people of Haiti.

THAT CARIBBEAN ISLAND nation suffered a severe earthquake earlier this week that you have to be a virtual shut-in to have avoided hearing anything about. Of course, some people are complaining about the degree to which they are hearing things, wishing they could shut themselves off from the suffering taking place there.

But seeing the big bold red typeface telling me Stroger to kick off Cook County Haitian relief effort made me wonder how desperate is Todd for votes if he’s trying to put himself at the head of the pack – since he was the first Chicago-area politico (to my knowledge) to take a public stand on Haiti.

Then again, I’m surprised it took our local political people until Wednesday night before they started issuing statements trying to make themselves appear to be aligned with the needs of Haiti – a nation that many of them usually try to ignore. Life won't be anywhere near this idylic in Port-au-Prince for a long time. Photograph provided by Library of Congress collection.

Now I shouldn’t complain.

IT IS NICE that Cook County government is cooperating with activists and other people in Chicago’s population of Haitian ethnic descent to put together some sort of relief effort to help people who are trying to dig through the rubble for survivors – while also helping those people above-ground to rebuild their lives.

They probably had very little to begin with, and now have managed to lose even that. It is a shame that eventually, another news story will come along to sweep Haiti out of the public eye because it likely will take years for the island nation to rebuild itself.

But locally at this point, I would guess that Stroger is looking for every possible vote source he can find in hopes of putting together the magical “30 percent” level of support that would theoretically enable him to win a four-way primary for county president.

So trying to be on top of the Haitian situation could help in terms of gaining votes from those Haitian people now living here (about 40,000 estimated out of the 2.9-something million population of Chicago as a whole).

IF IT READS like I’m being crass or cynical, perhaps it is just the mood of the candidates these days that is rubbing off on me. Anybody who believes that political people always behave altruistically is being naïve. And I’m not trying to imply that it is just Stroger who can have political motives.

Even President Barack Obama is on top of the Haiti situation now – saying Thursday that their situation ought to be a “top priority” for federal government agencies. Our nation is pledging at least $100 million in aid, with more likely to follow up in the near future.

Former President Bill Clinton, who would like to someday displace Jimmy Carter in the informal title of “Greatest Ex-President ever,” got his name in the news by saying people should make cash donations to relief agencies if they truly want to help. Which is why I took notice of a CNN Headline News report that gave a “voice” to people who were angry about so much attention being paid to Haiti.

It seems like the economic struggles of our nation for the past year have so many people feeling like they have too many problems of their own in order to afford to make any kind of donation.

COULD IT BE that these appeals for aid from political people will wind up causing some resentment that will cost them votes on future Election Days? I can appreciate that some people don’t like to be made to feel guilty about their inability to give.

Or will they just take it out on the so-called “liberal news media” for exaggerating the significance of the situation in Haiti – although I’d argue it is difficult to “exaggerate” the destruction caused by a 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake that may have killed at least 100,000 people.

Unless someone is truly callous enough to think that a crisis in Haiti isn’t worth our attention because it’s only Haiti. I’d like to give our society more credit and that the complaining isn’t due to that kind of reasoning.

But then again, maybe that’s just me being naïve.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: You can find just about every ethnicity in Chicago, although the Haitian community isn’t (http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF2002/Valbrun/Valbrun.html) exactly a dominant part of the (http://cbs2chicago.com/local/haiti.earthquake.chicago.2.1422309.html) Second City’s culture.

People can make a $10 donation to the Red Cross through their cellphones (http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/earthquake/index.htm), although more significant donations can be made (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/impact/) through various groups.

Will campaign racial/ethnic appeals work?

Todd Stroger wants to be sure we comprehend that he’s the official “black” candidate running for Cook County Board president, while Rudy Lozano Jr. is making sure we all understand that he’s the Latino running for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives.

I’m not sure how it’s all going to play out for the latter, but I’m skeptical that going for the racial vote will be enough to ensure that Stroger gets the nomination to run for another term as county president come the November general election.

NOW I’M WILLING to give Stroger the benefit of the doubt that he would never have approved the flier circulating in select South Side neighborhoods that portrays a local government consisting of white Irish guys – IF Stroger is not re-elected.

It also uses bluntly racial slurs to depict the other African-American candidates running against Stroger in the Feb. 2 primary. It’s a scare tactic meant to try to stir up the black vote in Chicago to turn out in percentages that haven’t been seen since the days of Harold Washington.

But Stroger doesn’t need to resort to such blunt tactics when his own official campaign stunts also play off the idea that black people should want Todd back in office to look out for their interests.

Several government officials on Tuesday made it public that they support Strogoer for re-election, including the county board members who kept voting in his favor with regards to repealing a portion of the county’s share of sales tax revenues.

ANOTHER OF THOSE government officials who is willing to back Todd publicly is Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., the man who most recently is remembered for a borderline incoherent diatribe in support of Roland Burris for the U.S. Senate.

Some pundits (the ones who most enjoy getting up on their pedestals and giving us their Rush Limbaugh impersonations for being balls of hot gas) are saying that Rush is engaging in race-baiting politics, and will continue that trend in speaking out publicly for Stroger.

I’ll agree that Rush is part of an effort to get those old-school black activist-type voters to make the effort to turn out on Election Day to cast ballots. But I’m not sure I see that as some sort of evil conspiracy.

Or should we think it equally reprehensible that, earlier this week, Rush’s congressional colleague, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., performed her own endorsement stunt by backing Stroger opponent Toni Preckwinkle.

SHE LABELLED PRECKWINKLE, an alderman from the Hyde Park neighborhood, as the only “progressive” candidate in the campaign, and there is a good chance that many of the more liberal voters who normally are needed to elect a black candidate over the vociferous right wing that wants to believe picking better qualified people always means going with the white guy will side with her.

One could argue that the Preckwinkle endorsement will carry with it certain racial connotations. So I’m not offended by Rush. Not nearly as much as by the activity of Wallace “Gator” Bradley, the South Side political activist who allegedly was behind the fliers that labelled some black government officials as “house n----rs” for the white political establishment.

Insofar as Stroger’s chances of winning only with the black vote, I can’t help but look back at Chicago mayoral elections of the past couple of decades where Richard M. Daley ran against African-American candidates who tried to win with only the black vote (instead of the black, liberal white and Latino coalition that put Washington in office in 1983 and 1987).

Rush should remember He was Daley’s Election Day victim in 1999, and had no better luck with such a strategy than did people like Tim Evans or Danny Davis.

THEN, WE GET to the case of Lozano, who wants to enter electoral politics in the way that most people in Chicago do so – they gain experience and training by winning a position in the Illinois Legislature.

Specifically, Lozano wants the Illinois House seat for his home community, which is a majority Latino (mostly Mexican-American) neighborhood and is surrounded by neighborhoods with significant Latino populations.

The “problem” is that the district has been represented in Springfield by Dan Burke, who not only has the advantages of incumbency but also of family – his brother is the long-serving, influential alderman Ed Burke. Part of Burke’s influence in city government comes from the fact that he has a “family connection” at the Statehouse in Springpatch.

So even though the neighborhood is no longer the Polish/German/Irish mixture that it once was, the Burkes are going to go all out to keep the seat.

LOZANO AND HIS supporters on Tuesday held their own press conference to complain about Burke’s campaign fliers – which they say try to make it appear as though Latino community leaders who support Lozano actually back Burke.

Lozano-ites go so far as to call these fliers “racist,” although not having actually seen one but had them described to me, they sound like the usual campaign confusion. Trash, best tossed into the can to eliminate litter – rather than becoming the basis of a campaign “issue.”

But it did give Lozano a chance to remind voters once again that their neighborhood has changed, and that perhaps it is time for people to re-think who they are sending to Springfield to represent them.

Now I’m not saying flat out that Burke needs to go. He has made some efforts to keep in touch with the growing Latino constituency (which encompasses about two-thirds of the Southwest Side legislative district'sa registered voters). Ultimately, Lozano needs to convince voters he can better serve the people.

IF HE CAN do that, then he deserves to win. If he can’t, then Burke should get to extend his public service into a third decade (he has been in the Illinois House since 1991).

But this campaign ultimately reflects on the shifting population of Chicago and the surrounding area, and Burke would hardly be the first official to depart because of demographics. Take Vito Marzullo, the alderman who served in the City Council for three decades until retiring because the changing demographics turned his community from Italian to Latino.

There are times when a politician’s changing neighborhood has been evidence that it was time to go.

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