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| Preckwinkle looking toward 4th term in office |
Preckwinkle,
72, has already served two terms as president of the Cook County Board, and managed
to get herself elected to a third term – of which she has barely served one
year.
BUT
PRECKWINKLE LET it be known this week that she’s already planning her next
re-election. An election cycle that actually won’t come about until 2022.
Which
if she manages to carry it through and win, would keep her in office through
2026 and have her as an elected official at age 80. Not bad for a woman who
previously said this year she was running her last campaign for office.
It
would seem that Preckwinkle hasn’t let her political defeat earlier this year
to Lori Lightfoot as mayor crush her political spirits. She’s going to be in
public office as long as she can – and may very well envision herself becoming
the equivalent of Richard J. Daley or Harold Washington.
Both
of whom died while in office. With Washington taking that literally – he suffered
a stroke while working at his desk.
NOW
I’M SURE some people are completely appalled at the notion that Preckwinkle won’t
just wither away into anonymity. There are those who were offended that she
didn’t have to give up her county board presidency post in order to run for
mayor.
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| Won't let Lightfoot victory set her legacy |
They
would have wanted her overwhelming defeat to Lightfoot (tempered somewhat by
the notion that many more people didn’t bother to vote at all) to be a
career-crusher. Something that would cause her name to go into the Chicago history
books as evidence of her public disgrace.
Instead,
Preckwinkle remains as county board president (the post known informally to
some political watchers as the “mayor of Cook County”) and as chairman of the Cook
County Democratic Party.
Making
her political legacy one of coming close to reaching the titles (if not the
actual power or influence) of Mayor Daley, the elder, himself.
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| Does Preckwinkle hope to last as long as Dunne or Daley? |
WHICH
MEANS I’M sure there are some who already are gearing up to cast votes against
her come 2022.
Who
knows? Maybe some people truly are petty enough to hold a life-long grudge against
Preckwinkle for that pop tax measure (a penny per ounce) she pushed that
boosted the cost of a can of cola upward by about 21 cents.
While
some who truly carried the notion of Lightfoot as some sort of political saint
may well want to hate on Preckwinkle for having the nerve to run against her
earlier this year.
All
I know is that there’s quite a bit of time between now and 2022. Who’s to say
what will happen that will change conditions for Preckwinkle. Perhaps she’ll become
politically fashionable again?
OR
MAYBE SHE’LL come up with circumstances that show she won’t be able to run for
a fourth term – which would be something extraordinary.
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| Will Preckwinkle have Washington-type ending? |
Because
if she truly were able to serve four terms as county board president, that
would make her one of the longest holders of that office ever. You’d literally
have to look back to George Dunne (who served from 1969 to 1971) to find
someone who held the post longer.
The
point may well be that Toni Preckwinkle isn’t going anywhere. She’s in office,
and intends to carry on with her job for years to come.
The
real question, one that we’ll see answered in 2022, is whether the electorate
is in any mood to retain her in office. Or will voters remain as temperamental
three years from now as they were back in May – and finally send her off to
political retirement?
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