Quigley compares foe to Richard Nixon in race to replace Rahm Emanuel
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Posted by John McCormick at 1:30 p.m.; updated at 1:56 with Feigenholtz response and 4:26 p.m. with Houlihan endorsement. Congressional candidate Mike Quigley today compared opponent Sara Feigenholtz to Richard Nixon as he responded to her TV campaign ad attacking his reformer credentials just days before the Democratic primary to replace Rahm Emanuel. “This is Sara Nixon,” he said. “In the 11th hour, when it’s much harder to combat an unfair charge, that’s when you do this, because you know that there’s limited ability [to respond].” Quigley, a Cook County commissioner, was mad about a new ad that tells viewers he supported County Board President Todd Stroger's first budget and backed his election a few months earlier. “Mike Quigley? He talks a good game, but he endorsed Todd Stroger. Even sending his county staff to help Stroger’s campaign,” the ad says. “And Quigley voted for Stroger’s budget, cutting nurses and hospital workers to keep Stroger friends on the payroll.” Clout Street first reported on the ad Thursday evening and provided a fact-check that is linked here. Quigley called Feigenholtz's ad a “Swift Boat attempt,” comparing it to the attack ads that damaged the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry in 2004. “You attack somebody at their greatest strength, and you do it the last hour because you know it is much tougher to retaliate and defend yourself,” he said. |
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Date: February 26, 2009
Feigenholtz links Quigley to Todd Stroger in new attack ad
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Posted by Dan Mihalopoulos and John McCormick at 7:58 p.m.; updated at 8:15 p.m. With the special primary election to replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress just days away, state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz unveiled a new TV campaign ad tonight attacking opponent Mike Quigley for supporting Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s first budget and backing his election a few months earlier. “Mike Quigley? He talks a good game, but he endorsed Todd Stroger. Even sending his county staff to help Stroger’s campaign. And Quigley voted for Stroger’s budget, cutting nurses and hospital workers to keep Stroger friends on the payroll,” says the announcer. (You can view the ad here.) Let’s break that down. Quigley did vote for Stroger’s first budget in the wee hours of the morning back in February 2007, supporting a spending plan that aimed at laying off more than 1,200 health-care workers, sheriff's deputies and other county workers. But commissioners who voted against Stroger’s budget blasted Quigley and others for what they said was sacrificing frontline workers to protect 400 administrators whose jobs they wanted to cut. Critics said some of those administrators were patronage hires that the county could afford to jettison. |
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Date: February 20, 2009
Cook County Board approves budget with no taxes increases or borrowing
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 3:59 p.m. The Cook County Board approved a new $2.9 billion budget today that doesn't raise taxes or borrow money. The 14-3 approval was far less contentious than last year, when Board President Todd Stroger had to pull out all the stops to pass a 1-percentage-point sales tax increase. Stroger wanted to borrow several hundred million dollars this year, but ultimately could not muster the votes to get it done. The borrowing issue was deferred to another day. |
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Date: February 19, 2009
County commissioners rebuke Stroger on tardy campaign filings
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 5:15 p.m. In a rebuke of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, commissioners are calling for harsher penalties to be imposed on politicians who don’t meet state deadlines for disclosing their campaigns’ donors and expenses. The resolution, which called on the General Assembly to change campaign finance laws, was approved 9-2 on Wednesday, with three usual Stroger allies supporting the measure. Three other Stroger supporters voted present. Commissioners Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley, both Chicago Democrats, proposed the measure in response to a Tribune story about how Stroger’s campaign last month finally gave a detailed account of what he raised and spent since he first sought his current post in early 2006. The records showed he failed to report $733,000 in political donations by the deadlines set in state law. |
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Date: February 18, 2009
Peraica crosses party lines to help suburban Democratic political boss
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 3:45 p.m.; updated at 4:15 p.m. Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-Riverside) today helped a South Suburban Democratic political boss win appointment to a county panel that determines whether non-union workers have been fired fairly. Absent Peraica's favorable vote, Thornton Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli—also the township Democratic committeemen—would not have become the newest member of the Employee Appeals Board. Zuccarelli joins Rita Rezko, the wife of Tony Rezko, who awaits federal sentencing on political corruption charges, lobbyist William Filan and two others on the part-time panel. Each is paid $38,500 and receives full benefits, including health care. |
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Date: February 12, 2009
Stroger to cancel county contract for confusing highway signs
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 4:01 p.m. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger said today he would take steps to cancel a contract to put up highway signs that have done little but leave drivers perplexed. About 1,300 signs, which include designations such as "W32," a code understood only by county highway workers, are being installed under a two-year, $120,000 contract paid for with gas taxes. After they were highlighted in a Tribune story, two county board commissioners sought a legal opinion on whether they are required under federal or state laws. Stroger said the signs are useful to highway workers, to identify where repairs need to be made. But he also acknowledged the awkwardness of the signs during tight financial times. |
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Date: February 11, 2009
Cook County road signs raise eyebrows
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From today's print edition: Cook County road signs raise eyebrowsCook County spending $120,000 to put up arcane road markers that are of little use to motoristsBy Jon Hilkevitch Tribune reporter Alan Kuska was tooling down Roberts Road in the southwest suburbs when he noticed a new, completely baffling road sign. W32? What does that mean? It turns out the sign is part of a new program by Cook County to put in 1,300 route markers whose sole purpose is letting drivers know they are on a road owned and maintained by the county. The message behind the signs isn't at all clear to motorists, who are paying for them—an estimated $120,000 over two years—through motor fuel taxes. County officials say they are posting the signs "as a public service." But the route numbers on the signs do not correspond to state routes or U.S. highways. Instead, the alpha-numeric designations are only used by the Cook County Highway Department. They have no meaning to the public. |
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Date: February 04, 2009
Vallas wants to challenge Stroger as Republican
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Posted by Rick Pearson and Hal Dardick at 4:40 p.m. Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools chief and unsuccessful Democratic governor candidate, said Wednesday he’s exploring a run for Cook County Board president as a Republican and is counting on his new political party to help him raise money. “I really believe that it’s almost impossible to run as an independent or as a reform candidate through the Democratic Party,” Vallas said. “At the end of the day, if you’re going to be a reform candidate, particularly in Cook County…it becomes more realistic and more practical to run as a Republican.” Vallas, who spoke to WGN-AM (720), said he planned to leave his job at a New Orleans school district at year’s end and said he was “seriously considering” running for the county post held by Democrat Todd Stroger. Vallas, who narrowly lost the 2002 Democratic nomination for governor to Rod Blagojevich, said county government needs to be “reinvented and needs to be restructured and needs to be reformed.” |
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Date: January 05, 2009
Stroger defends bond plan
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 7:27 p.m. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger stood firm Monday on his effort to issue $740 million in bonds, saying every penny was needed to pay for big projects while maintaining services at the county’s massive public safety and health care systems. Stroger was defending his proposed 2009 budget before the Tribune editorial board, a harsh critic of his financial policies. The budget calls for nearly flat spending and no new taxes—a year after Stroger pushed through a much maligned percentage-point increase in the county sales tax. Critics contend that the sales-tax increase, expected to generate about $390 million in new revenue even in these tough economic times, has made the three bond issues unnecessary. Without the bond issues, nearly half of which would be used for operating expenses, “there’s an instant effect that will be felt by people,” Stroger countered. “You are going to see something major happen. Court cases will last long. You won’t be able to hire a state’s attorney or public defenders. The hospital won’t be able to hire the doctors and nurses that they need.” |
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Date: December 19, 2008
Civic group calls Stroger budget 'bad deal'
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Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:01 a.m.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s budget proposal relies far too much on borrowing to pay day-to-day expenses, according to an analysis to be released Friday by a business-backed budget watchdog group. "It's an extraordinarily bad deal for the citizens of Cook County at an extraordinarily difficult time," Civic Federation President Laurence Msall said. "We are opposing this budget, because it's built on the unsustainable concept of borrowing over $360 million for operating expenses right on the heals of this massive tax increase." He was referring to the 1 percentage-point sales tax increase Stroger pushed through the board in February. It's expected to generate $390 million in revenue next year. Read the Civic Federation report: Download civicfederationanalysis.pdf |
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