With the D-2s all in, Toni Preckwinkle began 2010 from a commanding position. After raising $302,690.50 in individual contributions this half of 2009, she had $444,519.05 available to start 2010. This is more than twice the amount that Dorothy Brown had on hand to start the new year ($187,101.08), almost three times what Todd Stroger had and more than four times what Terry O'Brien had at the end of the reporting period.
On Tuesday, December 8th, Circuit Cook Clerk Dorothy Brown spoke to "Team Obama" (now Team HOPE) at the Flossmoor Station about her campaign for Cook County Board President.
Dorothy talked about her four point improvement plan for county government and took questions from the audience.
Happy Nominating Petition Filing Period Opening Day!
After dithering over whether to run for his US Congressional seat, or for Cook County Board President, Danny Davis today submitted his petition to run for the later. In fact, he said that his "mind is made up." Kinda. BEZ has the exact quote. You decide what that means.
Tom Tresser hasn't even announced his candidacy for Cook County Board President yet, but already he has an ethical dispute brewing. The basic issue is this - if you signed up for No Games Chicago, does that mean you also signed up to support his candidacy for Cook County Board President?
In some ways, yes. At least, Tom Tresser thinks so.
Hinz is reporting that Michael Madigan is allowing a vote on two bills (HB4624 and HB4625) which would place limits on Todd Stroger's power, both which would effectively reverse his sales tax increase:
One bill would outright repeal the increase, overriding Cook County's home-rule authority. The other would lower the threshold needed to override a veto by Mr. Stroger, the president of the Cook County Board, from four-fifths of board members to three-fifths.
The bills are sponsored by Rep. Mark Walker, a Democrat from Arlington Heights. Fritchey and Feigenholtz are co-sponsors of both bills. Hamos is a co-sponsor of HB4625.
It is TIME to not feel ashamed to live in "Crook County" anymore. It is TIME for the second largest County in the US to no longer be a punchline. It is TIME to start to roll back the hereditary monarchies (Stroger, Daley, Madigan, Hynes, etc.) in Illinois. It is TIME for progressives in Illinois to get full-on behind Toni Preckwinkle for President of the Cook County Board.
Smart? Indeed - AB and AM from U of C. Not givin' those away for clout. Progressive? Check how many times she's voted against Daley and with us on our key issues - and with people like Joe Moore. Start with the living wage for example. Gets things done? She inherited over 3,000 empty lots in her Ward and I think the total now, after 18 years, is down to like 30. That's not talking about change, that's change we can see.
Yes there are some Congressional races to be concerned about, a few, and Gov. Quinn of course, but progressives in Cook County have a chance to make real change. It is freakin' TIME my friends. (more below) tonipreckwinkle.org
On May 12, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle came down to the South Suburbs to talk to "Team Obama" at the Flossmoor Station as part of her outreach to the suburbs as she gathers momentum in her race for the Cook County Board President. She mentions near the end that the previous evening she had been in Glenview (in the north suburbs).
She started off talking about what the Cook County Board does and her approach to County government. But she quickly turned to answering the questions of the 50-odd people who showed up for our May meeting.
progressives and machine democrats in chicago/cook have the same goal in campaigns and elections: to put together the right coalition of blacks, browns and whites to win. time and again when talking with volunteers with the claypool campaign, i got the impression that some of his (white) volunteers thought that all they had to do to win was to turn out the (white) northside. but that's not where the votes are.
as a (chaotic) physicist, one of the most fascinating principles that i've worked with is self-similarity. what interested me when working with the unique part of the world that is fractal in nature was not the intuitive beauty that people found there, but the rather persuasive assumption that self-similarity was common, not unique. other people think like us, right? self-similarity (that other people think like us) is intuitive, we do not realize the aberrational character of self-similarity.
post-election analysis is one of the most important elements of the campaign season that republicans undertake. the genesis of the voter vault actually began after three cycles of intensive electoral analysis, where the incisive questions emerged that led to this comprehensive database.
during the course of these open threads (i will do one on each race that had followers here), i will try to expose readers to another way of looking at electoral outcomes. basically, these are the "fundamentals" of campaigns & elections, and have been found to have been determinative to outcomes. the point is not to frame the discussion for each particular race to be analyzed -- i've found that people tend prefer one over the others, the one that makes the most sense (is most intuitive) to them.
i'm not expecting people to post within that framework. i expect people to think, bored, that's interesting, but here's what i think! this is as much about data collection (anecdotes, etc) as analysis. analysis is only made better by specific examples that are probably unknown to others.
It is good news that the election is perceived as legitimate and that, for better or worse, the will of the people has been heard. Unfortunately, it seems like it may take a major foul up to get the general public and the major media outlets to start addressing the problems of voting irregularities and systematic problems.
The next question will be if Stroger stays on the ballot or someone else is picked by the party. My gut, and nothing else, tells me to be on the look out for Stroger's son.
In the wake of the IL-6, erm, result, it is easy to overlook what may become the defining election in Chicago: Claypool vs. Stroger.
With about 50% reporting last night when I went to bed, Claypool was sitting on a 4 point lead (52%-48%). Now, with nearly 90% of the vote in Stroger has reversed the results, leading Claypool 52% to 47%.
Meanwhile both candidates are claiming voting irregularities. Certainly things have gone problematic in Chicago and Cook County, what isn't clear is why or what it will mean. This has the potential of being for the Chicago Democratic machine what IL-6 is to the DC Democratic establishment, only, if possible, worse.
