Monday, November 20, 2017

Todd Stroger is back....


[VIDEO] You might remember him from 2006 to 2010 he had been the county board president and was formerly an Alderman and committeeman in the 8th ward in addition to being a state legislator in Springfield. He had floated his name for a variety of offices in recent years for example to replace Jesse Jackson Jr. for the 2nd Congressional District or for Water Reclamation District. Today he announced that he wants his old job as county board president back.

Toni Preckwinkle the current president defeated Stroger in the 2010 Democratic primary utilizing voter anger against a sales tax hikes instituted by Stroger for the county hospital and other services. Preckwinkle had that sales tax repealed only to re-institute that tax at some point during her tenure which is something Stroger himself sees as vindication. Also we should mention the recent penny-per-oz. soda tax which is scheduled to expire next month which is seen as another cause of voter anger against Preckwinkle.

It won't only Stroger facing Preckwinkle at the county in the 2018 Democratic primary - which more often than not is the race to watch not the Novemeber general election unfortunately - former 2nd ward Alderman and former mayoral candidate Bob Fioretti is also running in the primary. Time will tell if either man is able to successfully challenge Preckwinkle for the Democratic nomination and essentially the county board president.

BTW, I just had to note in 2006 Stroger controversially was installed to replace his father on the ballot as Democratic nominee for county board president. John Stroger  who was then president had been bested by a stroke not long before the 2006 Democratic primary and he still won the election. However, the elder Stroger was medically unable to continue and Todd was his replacement on the ballot and ultimately was election county board president. John Stroger died in 2008.

BTW, I still wonder if this was HIS blog.

EDIT 9:12 PM Greg Hinz wrote about Stroger running for his old job next year:
Todd Stroger, who endured a rocky stretch as Cook County Board president before being unseated by Toni Preckwinkle in the 2010 Democratic primary, says he intends to challenge her in the next primary. (Check out his TV interview at the end of this story.)

"The incumbent has shown her true colors," Stroger told me today. "Her (political) base is crumbling."

He has done little politically since his defeat, but his name is known from his four years in office and from the decades his father, John Stroger, served as a county commissioner and board president.

Todd Stroger lost the president post largely because of a revolt over a penny-on-the-dollar sales tax he pushed through—and because of continuing criticism over how, in 2006, he was installed as the candidate for board president by insiders after his father fell seriously ill.

Preckwinkle repealed and then reinstated that sales tax, saying the money largely was needed to pay off unfunded county pension liability.
I keep forgetting all these tax increases from the soda tax to the sales tax to the state income tax are all about funding these public pensions.

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