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Decoding Stroger

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Illinois

* Let’s decode this Sun-Times story on Cook County Board President Todd Stroger…

Todd Stroger said he had no designs on being Cook County Board president. Maybe some other office, sure, but not his dad’s. So when Democratic Party leaders came calling and his family gave its blessing, he thought it was right.

* I don’t buy it. Back when he was a state Rep. there were widespread rumors that Stroger’s father wanted to pass down the office to his son.

But he continues to be dogged by talk he’s not interested in the job, something not helped on days he’s difficult to find or when he describes being president as “pretty much [a] 9-to-5 [job].”

* This unavailability extends to those around him. His campaign team often couldn’t reach him when he was running for the office, and even looked to hire somebody to answer his cell phone.

Stroger is aware of the talk about his electability and plummeting public opinion, as some in his camp desperately want to make him more publicly available. Others aren’t as trusting and want a wall built around him.

* That’s a good question for debate. Should he be more publicly available or less?

He says he needs more money, that he can’t make any more cuts. Having cut $500 million last year and not raising taxes, he thought, would win him praise. It’s instead drawn anger over where he cut.

* And then he overreacted to that by proposing a gigantic tax hike. A fairly recent Democratic poll had Stroger’s “very unfavorable” rating among fellow Cook Co. Democrats at 50 percent.

Discuss amongst yourselves…

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:14 am

Comments

Whether he makes himself more publicly accessible or hides doesn’t matter. The only way he is going to gain a more positive public image is to change his actions and policies as president. He needs to fire cronies and relatives and cut the budget He also needs to put Bill Beavers into the background.

Personally, I believe that he is requesting a huge tax hike now so that he can either lower them or at least not propose new taxes for the next two years, as the election approaches. He is hoping to get it passed, and banking on the public forgetting the increase this year, and focussing on a year or two of minor tax cuts.

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:20 am
I look forward to the Democratic primary in 2010. Should be very interesting.

Comment by Ravenswood Right Winger Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:27 am
Just because daddy Stroger wanted to hand the job to Todd doesn’t necessarily mean that he wants it, yes? Well he did take it though who knows what he did behind the scenes. And maybe if he’s trying to hide well I don’t think that’s good.

I’d like to see him do more interviews he’s better at that than giving stump speeches and press conferences. I think it’s easy for him to switch course as well.

Comment by Levois Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:28 am
My sense is that, like Blago, he is not all that quick on his feet when being questioned about budgets, policies, and so forth.

But hey, like with Blago, we knew he was no policy wonk when we hired him.

Let’s keep our attention where it belongs, on that tax increase. We have to keep saying no, no, no.
It’s not like he has the rhetorical skills to defend it. Or any skills at all, really, other than getting various friends and relatives a great place at the Democratic trough. Gobble, gobble, gobble.

And yet….don’t be too sure about Blago or Stroger losing out in 2010. Who’s going to run against them? It takes money and lots of energy.In both elections, the primary IS the election, thanks to our hibernating Republican party, and internal fights are tough to win and hard on the party in power.

If the party wants to get rid of these governing-challenged pols, they may have to find them a great job somewhere else. Blago as Secretary of State? Todd as Secretary of HUD?

Comment by Cassandra Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:38 am
I think Storger is confronted by a county operations bill which has long been losing ground on costs v income. He picked up a mess when he obtained the office. The problem is he has not been very good at finessing a solution. He appears to be making decisions alone and in isolation, the same thing that has plagued blago. He needs to work more at invovling the rest of the board and coming to decisions as part of a group effort. Not the entire board, but get a few key members on board to a joint idea, raising taxes, more cuts, or whatever it might.

There is a lot of chaffe and patronage waste in county employment, but there is also a need for a lot of those county services. He needs to get rid of the lone wolf (and inaccesible) persona.

Comment by Ghost Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 9:58 am
* I don’t buy it. Back when he was a state Rep. there were widespread rumors that Stroger’s father wanted to pass down the office to his son.

Your journalist’s memory serves you well. What I know is that when your family is in crisis, you don’t allow yourself to be thrown into a political circus unless you are willing and see yourself as worthy of the office, so his claim just doesn’t pass the smell test.

* This unavailability extends to those around him. His campaign team often couldn’t reach him when he was running for the office, and even looked to hire somebody to answer his cell phone.

He is overwhelmed. He wasn’t prepared to do what his father did. So, there is no way he could be prepared to do the job considering the multi-billion dollar debt and the entire fiscal meltdown going on in Cook.

* Should he be more publicly available or less?

He is losing it, so he needs to make public appearances that are staged and short. He needs to find a staff that can get him the controlled exposure he needs to demonstrate his viability. Disappearing might have gotten him his job, but he is no longer perceived as an innocent virgin by the public anymore. Voters are holding him responsible now. Stroger can no longer gain any benefits from disappearing.

* And then he overreacted to that by proposing a gigantic tax hike. A fairly recent Democratic poll had Stroger’s “very unfavorable” rating among fellow Cook Co. Democrats at 50 percent.

Sorry, but thats the breaks. If you want to serve the public, you do the best you can with the cards you are dealt. He is President at this time, and he needs to understand that Cook isn’t willing to open their wallets. After a campaign where inefficiencies, and reform were the issues, he cannot simply pretend that these hotly debated issue no longer apply.

His election created conditions he needs to meet. So wanting a tax increase that is too large, and justifying it as being needed for later - just isn’t very smart at all. If he wants to be seen as a leader, Stroger needs to make ends meet with what he has, and cut away the MASSIVE Cook County bureaucracy and overhead. It is 2008 sir, not 1978. You no longer can expect Cook residents to cover your mistakes with their cash.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 11:13 am
The office was a huge mess when he took over but instead of making the neccasary changes stroger Jr. kept buisnees as usual attitude hiring friends and relatives for important positions that they were unqualified to do. He has several spokespersons making over 85k he has hired commisioner moreno sister after she was let go from a job at the Juv center a job she wasnt qualified for and gave her a raise. He laid of nurses and laborers but not middle or upper managment. Strogers full time job is protecting the patronage jobs of his political army so he can remain relevant not conducting the buisness of streamlining county goverment. He does not make public apperances because he is bigger embaresment than mayor Daley when it comes to public speaking. At the budget hearings he started reading fom the budget then stated he was going to skip the words he couldnt say. He is a joke and so are the crook co voters.

Comment by FED UP Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 11:57 am
Stroger is in a lose-lose situation no matter what he does for the next four years because he’s in so far over his head in terms of his capabilites. His adminstration is doomed because of the manner in which he ascended to the CC Presidency and because he obviously doen’t have the political skills or the executive skills to do the job.

It looks like his administration will be a disaster from start to finish. I think he does himself more damage every time he opens his mouth and reveals how litle he understands his job. PR gaffes seem to be his forte.

Comment by Captain America Monday, Dec 10, 07 @ 12:11 pm
He should adopt a bunker mentality and call off his pit bull Bill Beavers…when Beavers opens his mouth, thousands and thousands of earsdrums stop functioning…his tenure will not have a happy ending for anyone including Cook County taxpayers

Comment by Loop Lady Tuesday, Dec 11, 07 @ 6:54 am