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Davis drops out of county race

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Illinois

* As I told subscribers this morning, Congressman Danny Davis has decided to run for reelection. Davis had filed for both county board president and congress. The AP talked to Davis…

Davis tells The Associated Press that he decided to seek re-election because he and three other black candidates running in the Cook County race would have competed for the same base of voters. He says he’ll give further details at a news conference later in the morning.

More…

“I always said that if there were four candidates coming from the same political base, that it mitigated against one of those individuals being successful,” Davis told The Associated Press.

He said he may endorse another candidate, but he had not made up his mind.

That endorsement could be important. The field might be further winnowed if Todd Stroger’s petitions are as bad as rumored. We’ll just have to wait and see.

* Related…

* Quinn sets stage for sales tax rollback

* Governor signs Cook County veto bill

* Now it’s time to scale back that tax

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 9:24 am

Comments

A wise move.

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 9:37 am
Quinn is already on record as an ardent supporter of higher taxes on Illinoisians and there is no evidence that he plans to abandon that stance, even in the face of the massive job loss, underemployment, and job insecurity of the Great Recession. And he’s not even that interested in progressivity, given the speed with which he backed off on that earned income tax credit.

So how is he going to reconcile his desire to raise income taxes (for our own good, of course)
with his apparent support for rolling back sales taxes in Cook. I’d expect some platitudes about
more power to the people and a few campaign commercials with that theme but he’ll take his pro-tax pledge into the primary. So we shouldn’t be distracted. The Dem primary is going to be a
clear referendum on an income tax increase. At least we won’t be able to say we didn’t see it coming.

Comment by cassandra Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 9:47 am
That would be an amazing story if Stroger got bumped because of bad petitions.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 9:48 am
Is Danny Davis having trouble deciding who will be the better President of the Cook County Board between Dorothy Brown, Toni Preckwinkle and Todd Stroger?

Really?

I once heard a claim that Davis was a pretty sexist individual on a personal level. I never saw it. Although he did make a peculiar reference to oral sex when telling a woman to hold the microphone closer to her mouth.

But two possibilities occur to me about Davis not endorsing in the Prez race.

1. He loathes the idea of endorsing a woman for this office.

2. John Stroger and Danny Davis are both from Arkansas. I suspect Davis might be doing his best to help Todd Stroger based on personal loyalty to the Stroger family.

Davis being in the Prez race did make it harder for Preckwinkle, and to a lesser extent Dorothy Brown, to raise money and build a volunteer organization.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 10:06 am
When Davis says “the same political base,” does that simply mean being black? Because that’s the strongest commonality I see among the candidates, and it’s not that strong. Of the black candidates, I would say that Preckwinkle appeals to a VERY different group of people than Stroger. One could argue about where Davis and Brown fit in. i would agree with Davis if he means that O’Brien’s chances are fundamentally unchanged by Davis’ departure from the contest.

And Carl - thanks for the laugh. Yeah, it seems like Davis could probably make a decision pretty easily if he were just going on rewarding good policy. I suspect he will look to see where his supporters go naturally, and then formally endorse their choice. Ah, leadership!

Comment by Thomas Westgard Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 10:17 am
Rep. Davis: much ado about so little…you may take my comment in a multitude of fashions…

Comment by Anonymous45 Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 10:29 am
Rich, can you share any additional details on Stroger’s petitions? I understand the line between rumor and verified fact, but I am curious what the details are on the rumor.

Comment by Boone Logan Square Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 10:40 am
It was clear by his cutsy games that Davis never intended to run for County Board President. He was from the very beginning merely protecting Todd Stroger from drawing another big-name challenger.

Comment by PFK Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 10:58 am
It will be interesting to see how many of the Democratic candidates who filed for Davis’ Congressional seat will have withdrawn their candidacies by the end of the day.

Comment by fedup dem Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 11:28 am
Re: Davis
Not a surprise at all, and I predicted this. Last week or the week before he was quoted as saying that Todd Stroger would make a good County Board President or something else positive to that effect.

So, are Danny and Todd working together to to ensure that Todd gets a good enough percentage of the south and west side black votes to squeak through? If Toni cannot get enough of the black vote and she and terry split the white vote, then toni might have a problem. (might whites enmasse stay home, especially now that the county penny tax is on the verge of being repealed?)

Comment by Will County Woman Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 11:36 am
Danny Davis started saying suspiciously nice things about Stroger a few weeks ago — so no one should be surprised if he endorses Todd.

I’m hearing a lot of talk about Dorothy Brown challenging Todd’s petitions too. If he did file 22,000 signatures, she’ll have to knock out more that 14,000 to get him off the ballot — a pretty tall order. But Dorothy does have the bodies to pull it off. They’ll be a lot of clerk-of-the- court employees at the Brd of Elections in the coming weeks if she does file a challenge. Dorothy will catch a lot of heat from the media for allegedly forcing employees to do political work, but she probably figures it’s worth the risk to get Todd tossed.

Comment by Sammy E. Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 11:52 am
I hope Preckwinkle can outfox/beat Stroger and Davis playing their power games…Toni will need lots of help and cash to win this race…let’s make it happen folks…

Comment by Anonymous45 Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 11:54 am
Cassie,
You’re speaking truth to the power.
Re: Todd
I hope that they don’t find my sheets.

Comment by Bill Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 12:00 pm
* Over 300 ministers asked Danny Davis to support Stroger. I have not seen 20 ministers stand publicly with Brown or Preckwinkle.

* If Davis says the race for County Board President was crowded., how many candidates are running for the 7th District, OR maybe that field wikll lessen today with withdrawals because of Davis re-election announcement.?

Comment by Mark S. Allen Monday, Nov 9, 09 @ 1:53 pm