Walling out Cook voters is a risky strategy
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Chicago Sun-Times
By Dick Simpson
June 30, 2006
Todd Stroger is about to be anointed to succeed his father
as Cook County Board president. He is so weak that Ald. William
Beavers is being sent over to the County Board to "watch
his back." Meanwhile, John Stroger, who is suffering from
a stroke, is supposed to continue to serve as the president
of the Cook County Board because anyone chosen to do so might
come to like the job too much. Apparently, Cook County is a
monarchy or no better than a third-rate banana republic despite
being the 19th-largest government in the United States.
This political jockeying behind the scenes is exactly the same
as when Mayor Richard J. Daley died in 1976 and Mayor Harold
Washington died in 1987. There is no formal succession plan
in the county. Moreover, there is no definition in state law
or in county statutes to define "incapacitated" despite
the fact that John Stroger's not being able to do the job for
four months would seem to be an adequate definition of "incapacitated."
I have an easy solution to propose to this comic opera. Since
we are supposed to be a democracy, why don't we accept the will
of the voters in the last election?
In March, voters gave John Stroger, despite his stroke, 299,000
votes and his opponent Forrest Claypool 277,000. That is, 48
percent of the voters in the county voted for Claypool; 61 percent
of the voters in suburban Cook County did so. President Stroger
can no longer serve. Logically, his opponent, Claypool, should
be appointed as acting County Board president and be placed
on the ballot in the November election, when the voters would
decide between him and Republican Commissioner Anthony Peraica.
If Todd Stroger had been on the ballot in March, he would have
lost to Claypool.
If this is so simple, straightforward and logical, why isn't
that happening? Because backroom, old-style, slatemaking, Machine
and racial politics will determine both the acting president
and the nominee on the ballot. Voters are not allowed a say.
Those 277,000 people who wanted Claypool as president of the
Cook County Board in the last election can just be ignored.
They have no clout in the backrooms of Machine politics.
Maybe there isn't really a smoke-filled room anymore, but deals
for power are still made in private by the county commissioners
and the ward committeemen, many of whom are the same people.
Despite revelations of the Hired Truck scandal and the patronage
trial about Machine politics being alive and well, those folks
at City Hall look like saints in comparison with the county.
The county is all patronage jobs all the time, with contractors
with clout getting all the contracts.
Witness the Better Government Association study of Stroger's
campaign contributions over the last six years. It concluded:
"More than 51 percent of [Stroger's] itemized 1999-2005
campaign contributions came from government contractors and
county employees . . . many of these contributions are in direct
violation of the 1993 Cook County Ethics Ordinance." In
short, about one-fourth came from county employees and about
one-fourth from county contractors. I assume that the other
half came from people wanting to be employees and contractors
who hadn't gotten their payoffs yet.
Claypool ran for County Board president on a good-government
platform of no new taxes, eliminating waste in the county patronage
offices, performance-based budgeting, accountability, transparency
and banning corrupt contractors for at least five years. The
fear of the commissioners and the Democratic ward committeemen
who control access to the November ballot is that he might actually
do these things. Then they would lose clout, jobs and contracts
for their family members and contributors.
So don't expect much but Machine machinations when the commissioners
decide whether to have an acting County Board president despite
a $100 million debt looming like an iceberg on the horizon.
Don't count on the old Machine bosses in the backroom getting
religion and discovering democracy as they rig the November
ballot.
Still, the ultimate authority ought not be party Machine bosses,
but the voters. The voters spoke last March, but bosses don't
care. They may be surprised in November when voters not only
vote against Todd Stroger but against the entire Democratic
slate. Not only Commissioner Tony Peraica in his County Board
president campaign, but Judy Baar Topinka just got a big boost
in her campaign for governor.
