Preckwinkle declares victory in Cook County Board president race - Todd Stroger stung by last-place showing

Preckwinkle declares victory in Cook County Board president race - Todd Stroger stung by last-place showing
BY LISA DONOVAN, FRANK MAIN AND CHERYL JACKSON
Copyright by The Chicago Sun-Times
February 2, 2010
http://www.suntimes.com/news/elections/2025733,cook-county-board-race-020210.article


Declaring her victory a "call to action," Ald. Toni Preckwinkle (4th) handily won the Democratic primary race for Cook County Board president Tuesday -- routing incumbent Todd Stroger by 3-1.

"This is a great night for all of us," said Preckwinkle, 62, of Hyde Park, the first woman to win the party's nomination for the seat. "This victory belongs to the people of Cook County, people who demanded reform and accountability from their government. . . . Now is the time to end patronage. Now is the time to cut waste."

With 90 percent of the precincts reporting in the city and suburban Cook County, Preckwinkle had 49 percent of the vote, followed by Metropolitan Water Reclamation District chief Terry O'Brien with 23 percent of the vote, Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown, 14 percent, and Stroger dead last at 13 percent.

In making his concession speech at a downtown gathering, Stroger thanked his staff for their hard work and hinted that his political future isn't over.

"We have done a good job to maintain the county services -- so this is a bump in the road," he said, as someone in the crowd yelled out "Todd for mayor."

Indeed officials in Stroger's office floated that trial balloon: that Todd may run for mayor in 2011, possibly facing off with Mayor Daley.

Asked if he was serious, Stroger told a reporter: "I'd have to talk to my wife about it."

Stroger hinted at the racial struggles he, as an African American, has seen in his bid for re-election.

"At some point we're going to have to realize that every time an African-American male is being fought and trying to be pulled down we've got to look at it, we've got to take a hard look at it and see what's actually happening," said Stroger, who did not mention he was beaten by an African-American woman.

Indeed, Stroger has complained that he's been abandoned by the white Democratic establishment, noting that Mayor Daley in particular didn't endorse him [or anyone] in the four-way Democratic race.

'Jeans Day' controversy
It was a different story in 2006. That's when Stroger's predecessor and father, John Stroger, suffered a stroke that left him unable to run and eventually killed him.

Daley, House Speaker Mike Madigan and others worked hard to help Todd Stroger to a victory in that contest

But Stroger's years in office were marred by patronage hiring scandals and that unpopular 2008 penny-on-the dollar sales tax hike he championed.

Preckwinkle campaigned on a vow to cut her pay by 10 percent if she wins, a gradual repeal of what's left of the sales tax hike -- a half penny -- and to keep the independent health board out of the hands of the County Board president, a move that she believes will add a new layer of professionalism by having medical experts enforce bill collections and keep patronage hiring at bay.

O'Brien, the little-known sewage treatment boss, touted himself as the reform candidate, and while his message seemed to gain traction with donors, it didn't with voters.

In the final days of the campaign, Brown's role as boss over the 2,100-employee court system was embroiled in controversy.

While she holds an MBA as well as a CPA license, her own staff questioned where the money went for a "Jeans Day" program -- in which employees were allowed to wear dungarees if they tossed in a few bucks into an office kitty.

Brown said it went for charitable causes or office parties but struggled to provide a full accounting or documentation.

A painful press conference she held did little to dispute allegations of sloppy accounting.

If history is any judge, Preckwinkle will end up winning November's general election and running the $3.2 billion government that funds the jail and local courts as well as a hospital and health system for the poor and uninsured.

A Republican hasn't held the job in 40 years, though financial planner and former state Sen. Roger Keats, 61, of Wilmette -- who was winning Tuesday's GOP primary race -- points to Massachusetts voters handing the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's Senate seat to a GOPer.

Green Party candidate Tom Tresser ran unopposed in his party's race.