Todd Stroger gets backing of 90 African-American ministers - Clergy members say they want a unified front in the race for Cook County Board president

Todd Stroger gets backing of 90 African-American ministers - Clergy members say they want a unified front in the race for Cook County Board president
By Hal Dardick and Robert Becker
Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune
October 14, 2009
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-county-board-president-14oct14,0,7992234.story

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger formally kicked off his re-election campaign Tuesday with the backing of nearly 90 African-American ministers who say they favor him over three other black candidates in the contest.

Though some of his opponents in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary sought to discount the endorsements, Stroger entered the historic Quinn Chapel AME Church to thunderous applause and thanked the ministers.

"I cannot be the only warrior," Stroger told them. "I stand on your shoulders."

Potential board president candidate U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Chicago, called the endorsements an attempt by the Stroger campaign "to heighten expectations."

"It appears to me that the effort kind of fizzled and didn't turn out to be what the campaign had hoped it would be," Davis said. "Lots of other groups of communities were not there."

Chicago Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, said winning the board president contest will require appeal across demographic lines.

"This is a Democratic primary, not an African-American primary," Preckwinkle said, noting her efforts to reach other voting blocs, including Latinos and women.

Members of Clergy for a Better Chicagoland said endorsing a single African-American candidate in the primary is an attempt to avert fragmenting black political power.

"This community needs a unified front to address the issues that are pressing against our people," said the Rev. John Richard Bryant, a senior bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The lone major white candidate for board president is Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien.

The ministers also said they continue to back the other potential board president candidates -- Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown, Davis and Preckwinkle -- for the offices they now hold.

After being formally endorsed, Stroger made a case for his leadership.

Stroger defended the controversial penny-on-the-dollar sales tax increase enacted last year, saying it prevented the budget shortfalls facing most governments and saved the public health care system.

Stroger said the ministers' endorsement should give his opponents "some pause in thinking; people don't know how well the county is being run and that I've really saved this health care system."

How helpful the endorsements will be remains to be seen. A recent Tribune poll found Stroger's approval rating stood at 10 percent. In addition to the tax hike, Stroger's administration also has been buffeted by patronage hiring scandals.

hdardick@tribune.com

rxbecker@tribune.com