Laura Washington Speaks on County Board Race
Stroger clout, loyalty leave Claypool drowning
January 16, 2006
When Forrest Claypool looks at himself in the mirror (and I hear that's quite often), he indubitably sees the next president of the Cook County Board. Undoubtedly, he's fooling himself.
There are 10 weeks left in his Democratic primary faceoff with board President John Stroger. Claypool has been raising money for more than a year -- close to $1 million at last count. His fund-raising prowess TKO'ed fellow Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley's selfsame campaign. They calculated, correctly, that two white reformers in the race would cancel each other out.
Claypool's got the right message. It's time to reform the county's bloated government and fix its broken bureaucracy. In a public policy speech last week before the City Club of Chicago, he railed against "unconscionable deaths" at the county's Provident Hospital on Chicago's South Side. He noted that the Illinois attorney general is investigating "beatings and riots" at the county's Juvenile Detention Center. He argues that Stroger's administration is "built on the "friends and family plan," where connections trump qualifications.
He's right. As someone who's long had friends and family languish at County and Provident -- black folks, poor folks -- I know we can do a lot better.
On paper, Claypool's resume is golden. His blue-chip campaign committee, headed by Quigley, sports a slew of good-government goo-goos, including my old buddy, Tom "Don Quixote" Geoghegan.
So why is the Claypool campaign calcified? Despite "all his failings," Ald. Ricardo Munoz told me, Munoz's 22nd Ward Organization is down with Stroger. The new Stroger Hospital is a top priority for Latinos, and the president "is a true advocate for health care in Cook County."
Munoz, who leans independent, argues that Claypool's stint as a slasher of Chicago Park District jobs "doesn't bode well" for the delivery of health services to the poor. "I shudder to think about what a Claypool administration could do to the health care system."
Claypool can't count on gays and lesbians, many of whom populate his North Side territory. That's because Stroger is a longtime and unwavering advocate for their rights, says Rick Garcia, political director for Equality Illinois, the state's leading gay rights group. Garcia and most of his board are backing the incumbent. "There's a very, very long history there," Garcia says. "What's the line? 'You dance with the one who brought you.' ''
Stroger Hospital has been "the place of last resort" for gays, especially those seeking HIV treatment, according to Garcia. "President Stroger organically understands the importance of that in a way that Claypool does not."
Garcia is not the first to note that Claypool, an aloof policy wonk, is "not a dynamic candidate." He wonders, "outside of his own base, who knows him?"
On Chicago's South and West sides, Stroger is the political grandpappy who has boosted many a career and doled out hundreds of jobs. John Paul Jones, chairman of the Greater Englewood Community and Family Task Force, says: "People are going for Stroger. Claypool is not exposed to the larger public in the African-American community."
Blacks know Claypool best for his tenure as Mayor Daley's chief of staff. He was Daley's pick to run the Chicago Park District, where he slashed 1,000 jobs. "He was so close to the Daley administration. People still see him as an administration man," Jones notes.
That's a tragic irony for Claypool, since Daley and his sibling, Cook County Commissioner John Daley, will pull out all the stops to keep him out of the president's seat.
Claypool's steering committee is dominated by North Shore and lakefront whites. He has corralled all of three -- count 'em -- endorsements from county elected officials: Aldermen Eugene Schulter (47th), Mary Ann Smith (48th) and Rey Colon (35th). Three bold souls.
A reform campaign that doesn't have significant black, Latino and gay support can forget it.
Claypool campaign manager Marj Halperin says it's still early in the run-up to the March 21 primary, and more endorsements are on the way. Quigley is working to bring his posse into the Claypool fold. Halperin says her candidate is reaching out countywide to "people who rely on the county for health care, people who care about how the criminal justice system is administered, and people who care about how their tax dollars are spent."
She assures me that Claypool plans to visit some African-American churches this month.
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.
The message is on target. The messenger needs some work.
