Daley: No Endorsement In County Board Prez Race

By Karl Klockars in News on Jan 11, 2010 9:20PM

Any one of the candidates running for Cook County Board President would probably love to receive the endorsement of Mayor Daley. Unfortunately for them, he's not planning on making one. Over the weekend he told WBBM Radio that he wasn't going to endorse any candidate and played the "what the press will say card" once again:

"If I do endorse, you'll just say 'Boss Daley did this,'" Daley told reporters. "In this day and age it's completely different."

In that respect, he's correct - the press's job is to indeed report what he says and does, not "what he meant." But what might an endorsement mean? For Dorothy Brown, it could represent the final nail in the coffin for the other candidates. For Toni Preckwinkle, it could be the one thing that finally puts her over the top. For Todd Stroger, it would mean at least one positive news cycle for his campaign. For Terry O'Brien, it would be a matter of seconds before cries of "racism" broke out. And for Tom Tresser...well, the press would have to explain just who Tom Tresser was again. [Ed's Note: Not that it would happen, anyway, what with that whole "No Games Chicago" thing... - M.G.]

Of course, a Daley endorsement in 2010 is completely different than a 2006 Daley endorsement. Without a doubt, the endorsee's opponents would make plenty of political hay out of Daley's words endorsing Todd Stroger - in October of '06, Daley called Stroger a "wonderful candidate" who was going to be "a great President of the County Board." And look how that turned out.