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Todd Stroger filed for re-election of his seat as Cook County Board President late Monday afternoon. By filing the nearly 22,000 signatures he's collected to put him on the ballot so late - he filed less than an hour before the deadline - he'll secure the last position on the ballot, considered second to the top spot in terms of voting booth strategy. "I feel great," Stroger told the press after filing. "I feel like 150 pounds of dynamite." While Stroger is perceived as politically vulnerable after a tenure of tax increases and budget debacles, that 150 pounds of dynamite has yet to really go off on Cook County residents. The 22,000 signatures are only about half of what a few of his opponents turned in. Never one to take the blame himself, Stroger instead told the Sun-Times it had to do with his helpers: "Normally, you have people who collect signatures. It's hard getting people out there to collect signatures."
While Stroger will still face 4th Ward Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Dorothy Brown and (maybe!) U.S. Rep. Danny Davis in the Democratic, Terrence J. O'Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago and the lone white Democrat running for the seat is facing a brewing corruption scandal. The Sun-Times has uncovered documents indicating that companies that O'Brien held ownership stakes have done millions of dollars of work on government contracts for the city, county and state. But that's not the only controversy for the candidates. In October, Stroger received the endorsement of a group of black clerics, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who worry about the black candidates splitting the vote. The primary is February 2, 2010.
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Stroger feels like 150 pounds of dynamite? He looks more like 10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag.
Personally, I'd rather vote for that bag of crap.
An now a segment called....
"Inside the head of Kevin, a Chicagoist writer"
Hummm I guess I should write about how Terry O'Brien, used a part time but over paid elected office to rake in millions of tax payer dollars, including government contacts from the very same Cook County Board President who he wants to replace.
Hummmm I guess I could also tie him in as a member of a whole Democratic Ward organization that also has lots of top high paying jobs with the very same Cook County Board President. Yea that would be an interesting story about Todd Stroger bending over backwards to help O’Brien and the ward organization he belongs too, and they repay him by running against him.
Nahhhhhh, I’m just gonna write about Todd’s petitions. It’s an easier story and I think he’s a clown,that's all we are interested in. Nuanced reporting isn't called for with that guy. Its all excuse the pun (he he he) black and white.
And O’Brien seems like an o.k. guy who's just being entrepreneurial which should not be held against him.
Todd Stroger just isn’t smart enough to care about making money. Its not that he's personally honest."
The End
Spook, if you think I'm somehow backing Terry O'Brien because he's white, hell, if you think I'm backing Terry O'Brien at all! then I've been giving you far too much credit over the years.
Maybe Toni Preckwinkle ain't black enough for you to vote for, but I'm putting vote behind someone that supported Harold Washington and Barack Obama when they weren't rock stars, not the son of the former board president that wouldn't back a black candidate.
Kevin, has it really been "over the years"!?! Don't answer that!
Any way , No I don't think you're voting for O'Brien. But yet you covered petitions over flagrant corruption and political betrayal of the Machine based on race.
See I think that all white people are racist, just like a lot of Black people are prejudice. The issue is to what degree. I think that
given all that's going on with this race and the county board itself, that you( of all people) reported
on Stroger's petitions( above every thing else) says allot about the racial divide in Chicago. I bet if he was the first one who turned in petitions people would have said he's spending more time campaigning than running Cook County, and it seems like he has his hands full.
I like Toni Preckwinkle, well as much as you can "like" her, but should you not be concerned about voting for some one who was in the Washington Admin. and saw first hand what happened to the Black and Hispanic( and the poor white community) when Evanes split the community. Now this is coming from some one who (even though I was a non voting youngster) still sided with Evanes. It was a mistake! At least for poor folks and progressives it was. Sawyer would have been much better. Poor folks and progressives would have at least had access.
I use to hate Stroger's father
because I was too politically immature to know that there would not have been a Harold Washington if it wasn't for Stroger and the Black Machine( as sad as it is), this includes Obama.
Preckwinkle is a
political opportunist! And playing footsie with the Daley? How could she! That dude is a human rights criminal!
And I'm not even going to get into what's going on with poor folks in her ward. Not that Tilman in the next ward was about any thing better, but I expected way more from Preckwinkle.
Some times you just gotta hold your nose, because allot is at stake here, unless you are part of the protected class, because if you are not then you cannot afford to lose the county board. Its all a certain group of people have left. Unless you're gonna talk to you boy Obama because it certainly don't look like he's into building sustainable institutions in the Black Community. We certainly know what his wife did at the U of C, dumped all the poor patients into Stroger Hospital.
And what Valarie Valerie Jarrett did at CHA, dumped all the poor people into the south suburbs for Stroger to have to deal with. Of course he had to raise taxes because of Daley!
And lets not forget Arnie Duncan. Personally I'm not willing to risk half the south and westside with out jobs and opportunity because of your brand of "reform"
Spook over and out!
p.s and tell Marcus to fix the F*cking avatar! I feel bare nekid!
Aw, Spook. You know it's been "over the years" with you and me, baby.
Stroger even filing petitions (and at 22K, it's far less than his opposition have filed) is a story indeed, given the perception that he's embattled and a complete idiot (see above comments for confirmation thereof). He's said he'll run for re-election; filing those petitions (and the strategy behind how he did it) shows that he's serious and there's more to the guy than people think. Which I've been saying for a while now. I will grant you that Terry O'Brien's nonsense is worthy of a full post on its own. I will correct then in the future when I write about him.
Like I said, you and I go back, so I'll address your points:
I was going to back Claypool again, but Preckwinkle impressed me when I interviewed her earlier this year. I've been around the block enough times to know that a truly transformative candidate is a rare a special thing. I'll take competent management from a candidate I mostly agree with these days.
because I was too politically immature to know that there would not have been a Harold Washington if it wasn't for Stroger and the Black Machine( as sad as it is)
I won't discount the role of black political organizing, something that most organizers (political or otherwise) can only hope to dream of in electing Harold Washington. But if my memory of history serves me right, Stroger backed Richard Daley for mayor in '83. I don't recall whom he backed in '87, but by then his endorsement wouldn't have mattered.
Anyone running for office that's worth their salt is.
Agreed. But I don't see how electing Toni Preckwinkle is losing the county board, unless you think she's not black enough the hold that office. (She looked pretty black to me when I was sitting in her ward office.) Todd Stroger has done very little good for the black community in the Cook County, although you could make the argument that he's held the door open for black patronage workers. That doesn't help the black community, except to give out jobs to people that have a political connection. The so-called black political machine (of which Bill Beavers seems to believe he is part and parcel) isn't doing anything to create real economic development in the black community in Cook County. In fact, their practices and policies hold back poor blacks that can't afford access otherwise.
Ooooh Kevin to dust off that girls rock segment( including the picture) is a low diabolical blow!
Oh "how long can you go? Death Row, what a brotha know"!
That was just wrong! I I guess I should be greatfull that you didn't use the censored censored comment about the "over weight" issue, at least for the time being. I still stand by the comment as a whole, but I did stray to far with the over weight comment! Lordie! I was a young Spook!
Any way you're not alone in covering Stroger to make him look bad, which is a major reason he looks bad, because every body from one side of Chicago is piling on. He deserves some of it, but all of it?
In a critically thinking society "Stroger's petitions" would be about the possible first major split in the Machine since Ralph Harold Metcalfe. But that would mean actually trying to figure out what's going on in the Black community.
Some progressives are beginning to think that Stroger is vulnerable also because he is slowly but steadily bucking the white machine based upon the needs of Cook County's growing pop. of poor people expelled to the southern burbs. by the city. No one covers this.
They will not grapple with the "Daley Affect" on poor people. Instead we've had the greatest demonization of a Black candidate since Harold Washington. I know Todd Stroger is no Harold Washington, but do you really think Todd Stroger
is a "complete idiot"? This man who is a father, husband, devote Roman Catholic, teetotaler, and part of a larger political tradition that helped cement the Black middle class in Chicago, is just a moron? Where did this blind hatred come from and why has it only been directed against Todd Stroger? We have a system that's created a Jon Burge culture and still protects those responsible, a system that has displaced thousands of poor people from their homes causing an epic crime wave. A property tax system run by a cabal of Irish politicians that is breaking the backs of all home owners. They're not vilified! But Todd Stroger has become the Willie Horton of white politics. And Black folks are just suppose to toss him over the boat?
Have you bothered to read what any of the smaller but still credible white suburban papers have say about him? Yes that google key is an amazing thing! They seem to like him calling him unassuming and thoughtful and being honest that they did not expect to like him. Didn't expect him to know what's going on.
Do you really think that Cook County Government is just running backwards? Could it be that the Suntimes, Tribe, etc, choose to cover only the negative? Have you set up an interview with him? From what I hear( in the Chicago Defender and the Reader) his office sends out whole forests of information to the press about how they're reforming gov., including letters to the editors and none of it gets printed, unlike Daley.
The negative gets all the play.
The Cook County Jail doors are not working and a hapless Tom Dart( who has more jobs and power than Stroger) says "Stroger is the "landlord" its his fault!
Oh, now Todd Stroger is an evil land lord to boot and Tom Dart( a true patronage lord) is a victim.
Yes I accuse the white press of racism.
After seeing what they did to Harold Washington, a grade A battled tested and older politician, what do you think they would do to a politician who has not had the chance to fully rise to the occasion while trying to turn the second largest county in the United State's around?
Remember Harold Washington was a "back bencher"in the legislature for years and from what I read a ghost pay-roller, skirt chaser and hard drinker to boot. But some where he was able to mature and develop. Stroger's father backed Daley in 83 because "he went home with the guy who brought him to the dance". Harold knew and understood this. Stroger's came along during a time when if Black people didn't "scrape and bow" at best did not eat, at worse died. And in politics things have not changed as much as you want to think.
This is a system your people put in place and most of your people refuse even to recognize and deal with the after affects. I'm just happy I wasn't around in those times.
When Harold won the primary, Stroger not only backed him, but raised a lot of money for him, which was a big deal because most wealthy negroes still refused to give. Stroger twisted their arms. They don't call this Plantation Politics for nothing. I guess it's the same way, Preckwinkle gets to be called a reformer. Kevin you have read what I've posted so you know if doesn't come down to color. What would Marx think? My concern is the poor and I bare witness to a generation of poor people removed from Preckwinkle's ward without so much as a whimper, except for the Coalition to Protect Public Housing, a mostly white group I might add. No major media out let (including Chicagoist) covered that they just testified before the UN's Organization of American States Commission on Human Rights about what's going on with the demolition of Public housing. Like Malcolm X, did back in the 1960's. Can't get America to deal with its policy toward Black people so you gotta take it where Human Rights are recognized. In Chicago because those babies don't look like you, Chicago's media don't care and neither do most people. Todd Stroger is a life line to these communities. Not the best, but he is the only one they got.
Preckwinkle is now a reformer du jour,
she signed on to Daley's land grab Olympic games which is why she was was booed at the debate at Malcolm X. I expected her to protect those people, more than I expected Obama to. I expected her to provide a real life line, to be a Dorothy Tilman with a brain. Back to Stroger, how has he hurt Black people? He provides contracts, jobs which keeps afloat the Black community. Danny Davis understands this.
And can you really say that Stroger has managed worse than Daley or Blago? Do you see massive lay offs knocking at the door of Cook County? Do you see healthcare and at risk youth providers suing for over two years of back pay? What if Stroger put off dealing with an insanely dismal county budget( because of an election) like our state leaders did? The press would not leave him alone!
Maybe the problem is Stroger is not a political opportunist, not a skilled political operator, just a manager?
And do you really think the people pushing brooms and changing bed pans, picking up trash are politically connected? Most of these people are live a humble life. Getting up every day or night to report to Cook County.
Yes many got their job from a minister or volunteering for years at a ward office. But the rank and file Black "patronage" workers are hard working living pay check to pay. These are the people you vilify. Do you hang out with these people? Do you think they have our opportunities?
These are stroger's people.
But the press doesn't talk about this, nor how the white ward bosses( Dart, Hynes, Madigan, Daley, etc, etc) get more jobs from Stroger than any body else. This is what this is about now. Stroger is rethinking this. He's from a different generation.
And besides for Donna Dunnings, (an MBA from Northwestern), who's problems have nothing do do with managing our money but should have been fired( and more) what other incompetent family members can you point too?