What's Cooking?

Okay, I'm back from a couple of days of R+R, and (I think) ready to get back into the thick of things. I have received a number of requests for a thread on the Cook County Board President race between incumbent John Stroger and Commissioner Forrest Claypool. And in light of Laura Washington's article in Monday's Sun-Times, today is as good a day as any to open the blog up to people's thoughts on the race.

She starts off by taking what I thought to be an unnecessary cheap shot at Claypool, , and then proceeds to set forth her assertion that Claypool is going nowhere fast. "A reform campaign that doesn't have significant black, Latino and gay support can forget it", says Washington.

What I find interesting is that the overwhelming media sentiment had seemed to be that with Claypool and Commissioner Mike Quigley both in the race, Stroger was golden, but that once Quigley honorably stepped out of the race, Stroger was in big, big trouble.

Washington's article paints quite a different picture, one in which the race card still looms large.

To the voters, clout and loyalty count more than newspaper endorsements, white papers, and blue-ribbon committees. The mood in the 'hood says that once an office goes black, it never goes back.

So to those who asked for this thread, and anybody else wanting to weigh in here, let me pose a few questions:

How do you see the race thus far?
What issues is it going to turn on?
Who prevails on those issues?
At the end of the day, is race going to trump everything else?
And if so, and on the heels of Dr. King's birthday, what does that say about where we are as a society?

I think that the outcome of this race will make for some fascinating fodder for the present state
of politics in the City and County.

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