Tell me, please, why did Chi Trib, which ran the ed-page graphic counting the days since the Stroger penny tax increase and until the Feb. 2 primary, endorse Preckwinkle the uncertain tax-cutter over the certain, enthusiastic, top-agenda tax-cutter O’Brien?
Has Trib been fooling us all this time?
O’Brien, polling behind Madame P. the alderwoman, who has run nothing bigger than a ward office in her whole life, has run an ad exposing her tax-raising history. In her book it’s a “desperate attack” of the sort “some candidates make when they’re behind a lot.”
Not that O’B has it wrong. She denies it not, namely her votes “to raise her salary in 1995, 1998, 2002 and 2006 (from $55,000 to $98,000, cumulatively) . . . to create a real estate transfer tax (1992), boost the sales tax on beer and wine (1993), raise the overall sales tax (2004) and raise the real-estate transfer tax (2008).”
Unable to deny it, she mounts a desperate counter-attack of the sort some candidates make when they are caught doing what voters most resent in the record of the despised and last-in-the-polls incumbent (Stroger).
Why wouldn’t Chi Trib have endorsed O’Brien, who has said from the start of his campaign that he would get rid of the penny increase right away, while Preckwinkle said not right away, she would have to think about it.
And oh, by the way, O’B for 18 years presided over a regional clean-water-supply operation budgeted tentatively for 2010 at nearly $1.7 billion, which I think — correct me if I’m wrong — is more than it takes to keep a ward office going, even in Chi.
Later: A new poll says this race is statistically in a four-way tie. Huh?
Blithe Spirit 
Great kick at the kitties on the Trib.
I was compelled . . .compelled . . mind you, to link this fine feature to my own musings on the Hyde Park Stroger herself.
Thanks!
Pat Hickey
http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/politics/2010/01/27/terry-obrien-cook-countys-only-tax-cutter-toni-preckwinkle-stroger-witho
LikeLike
O’Brien isn’t entitled to the Trib’s endorsement – he had to earn it, and he clearly didn’t. All the candidates had equal time before the editorial board, and now there’s whining because he didn’t get it. Beyond the Trib, Preckwinkle has been endorsed by all the major newspapers – so it’s a trend, not a fluke. I suppose O’Brien thinks it’s some sort of mass media conspiracy against him. He sounds like Todd Stroger when he complains about not getting fair media coverage.
He claims that he was elected as an independent, when it’s common knowledge that he’s part of the machine. He claims that he hires people for what they know, not who they know, yet has his own friends and family hiring program. His $100K side job involves a massive conflict of interest. He claims that he’s middle class, then loans himself $130K. He wasted $6M in taxpayer dollars with the Mesirow bond deal. The guy is disingenuous at best, dishonest and unethical at worst.
The debates have clearly proven Preckwinkle to be the superior candidate. She has the intelligence, personality, independence, and a broad and diverse coalition that will enable her to drive change, reform, and get results.
LikeLike
But Trib made repealing the penny hike the cornerstone of its opposition to Stroger, and then along came a candidate otherwise qualified who makes it the cornerstone of his, and Trib passes. Makes no sense.
LikeLike
The Trib’s endorsement makes sense if you think it through methodically rather than over-simplifying matters.
All three challengers have made their opposition to the Stroger tax a cornerstone issue, so they’re all even from that standpoint, with the only difference being how quickly they would repeal it. You can argue that O’Brien’s stance to do so immediately is actually reckless and irresponsible, whereas the Preckwinkle approach is more practical. So the Trib likely viewed her position as more credible and realistic.
Also, although the Trib has emphasized the penny sales tax as a key issue, they have also noted the importance of a candidate’s skills and leadership to drive reform. Machine candidates such as O’Brien and Stroger typically can’t be trusted to enact reform. Endorsing Preckwinkle was consistent with the Trib endorsing and independent reformer such as Quigley over Fritchey or Feigenholz.
The Trib has also admired people that have been willing to stand up to Daley, and Preckwinkle is one of the few aldermen with a track record of doing so. The Trib is also partial to candidates with a reputation for honesty and integrity, and Preckwinkle shines in this area.
LikeLike
Madame P. is the leader the county board desperately needs? Even with tax-cutting the main issue and her a tax-approver, as my piece relates — thanks to Greg Hinz at Crain’s Chi Business, by the way. Please. She’s sat on her bench for lo these many years, and a safe seat it’s been, she being a Dem lib from Hyde Park, for gosh sakes, providing her feel-good votes against the Daley budget, except the last one, as she maneuvered toward sitting with John Daley and running the county.
How has she been anything more than a pimple on the body politic led by Rich Daley? Whom has she led in coffee or any other kind of rebellion? Whom will she convince by her school-matronly charms among the commissioners to fire incompetents and make the whole county thing work, which it is not accustomed to doing?
As Hyde P. alderwoman, she has been accepted as a longstanding Dem party anomaly. Does not Brother Rabbit know that showing up every day as the, in her case, lady from Hyde Park is to fill a slot? Leadership, geez. As I said, she will revoke the remaining half cent after giving the matter some thought. She’s not sure, you see. She will have to see if her ward office experience serves her in good enough stead. On-job training in running a multi-million-dollar enterprise may take up so much of her time, she never gets around to it. And how much did Clarence Page’s vote count when the ed board made its pick?
LikeLike