County Board Follies

By Kevin Robinson in News on Nov 3, 2009 3:00PM

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.