* Thanks to a commenter, there’s a recent poll for the Cook County Board President’s race, but there are some major caveats here. First, we don’t know who was polled, how many were polled, which firm did it, the MoE, and whether they identified the candidates’ respective party affiliation, etc…

Business consultant Steve McClure, who headed the State Commerce Department during the administration of Gov. Jim Thompson, secretly commissioned a recent poll for potential Cook County Board Presidential candidate Paul Vallas — without telling him.

The backshot: The recorded telephone poll pitted former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas/Republican and Cook County Board Commissioner Forrest Claypool/Democrat, against each other for the job. Left OFF the list of potential candidates was current Cook County Board President Todd Stroger .

The kicker: McClure told Sneed: “Paul only learned about the poll after it was completed — that’s when I told his wife to tell him about it.”

The upshot: “Vallas won with 44 percent of the vote; Claypool came in with 23 percent; and 33 percent were undecided,” said McClure. “I’m told Paul was very pleased,” McClure added.

Take this with a big grain of salt, please.

* Related…

* Stroger: ‘I Will Veto’ New Rollback of Sales Tax

* Sales Tax Causes Rift Between Daley, Stroger: At yesterday’s board meeting, Daley criticized Stroger for not doing enough to curb county spending, in particular, for not issuing a hiring freeze. Stroger disagreed with Daley over the sales tax cut and addressed him directly.

* Commissioners’ vote no ‘present’ to taxpayers : Then Collins added for the benefit of those who might disagree with her non- decision: “You want to vote me out of office? Hooray. I would just love to go home for once in my life and relax.”

* Toni Preckwinkle Tours Cook Co. Suburbs in Presidential Race

* Cook County sales tax hike stands — for now

* Todd Stroger veto and his tax survive

* Stroger has failed to lead

* Loving Stroger’s tax

* Stroger no champion of the have-nots
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