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Cook County president’s race

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Cook County Board President John Stroger began airing TV ads this week. Word is the cable buy alone was $100,000. He’s also on network TV. I saw it yesterday while I was in Chicago and it looks a little weak.

Rahm Emanuel splits with party, endorses old friend Claypool. Mayor Daley and Emanuel are very close, so you wonder if the machine is hedging its bets.

While Stroger did get Daley’s endorsement, Daley said he wouldn’t bad-mouth Claypool, who twice was his chief of staff.

The president of Friends of the Parks tells Zorn “parks improved dramatically under Forrest’s leadership,” contradicting President Stroger’s contention that Claypool “destroyed” the park district and was the “worst person who ever ran the parks.”

Claypool promises to downsize government, but can’t say how he’ll do it.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 7:50 am

Comments

Wasn’t Emmanuel one of the candidates who benefitted the most from Donald Tomczak and all that hired truck money and HDO support? There’s big rumors on the northside that Tricky Dick Mell is getting behind Claypool too.

Amazing that this will be spun as “reformers” getting together against Stroger. But let’s be honest: the mayor is on all sides in this election and those who really are genuinely committed to reform should begin to be honest about who they’re running with in this election.

Reformers who want to see change in the County can legitimately be admired. But if Reform Movements are being hijacked by Daley, Emmanuel, Mell and the others who have poisoned government in Chicago and Cook County all these years, it makes you wonder who Claypool really is.

Maybe Quigley had a point about Claypool being too close to Daley to be a genuine reformer.

Ugh. If the choice is Stroger or Claypool, reformers might want to sit this one out.

Comment by C'mon Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 9:29 am
Congressman Emanuel would never had endorsed Claypool without first running it past Daley. The only good thing about it from Stroger’s perspective is that Emanuel’s announcement was drowned out in terms of news exposure by the resignation of City Clerk James Laski.

The Cook County Budget is still being debated, with just three weeks to go before the deadline for adopting the budget. As Claypool & Co. continue to pick Stroger’s bloated budget apart, the news for Stroger is likely to get worse and worse.

By the way, one area in which the Cook County Commissioners may try to save money is to take a close look at pet programs or departments that seek expansion at the expense of others that do more of the workload but are not the glamour girl of the day.

Comment by Randall Sherman Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 9:34 am
It will be Stroger with 68%.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 10:54 am
I don’t think it will be that high, but Stroger will do ok.

Comment by Master of Knowledge Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 7:07 pm
Emanuel is nice for Claypool and will help w/ money. However, he represents the same area where most of his strength is from, i.e. his own district, Ald. Schulter, north side, liberal, etc.

Comment by My Take Tuesday, Feb 7, 06 @ 11:25 pm
It will be too little, too late for Claypool. It is too bad, since the Cook County Board needs a major shakeup. It may just be me, but it seems that people are still not paying attention to any of the races. Both Blago and Stroger have impressive challengers, and neither race is getting much real coverage.

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Feb 8, 06 @ 9:23 am
Has anyone looked into the cost of bonds being floated for the Chicago Park District. It’s gone from $17m to $35m since the time Forrest the “reformer” screwed it up. This is the reality of the story - the bottom line! Don’t let good old Forrest brag about his “success story” without looking into the facts.

Comment by clayhole Friday, Feb 10, 06 @ 7:09 pm
Claypool states he will put police in parks but some believe he will eliminate Forest preserve police. Good luck getting other police departments to handle the 60,000 acres of forest preserve land. They will not be a safe place anymore.

Comment by mike andersom Wednesday, Mar 8, 06 @ 11:14 pm