What We Learned from the February 2nd Primary

Primary day is over. One message of the day seemed to be that it's hard to ask voters to go out on a cold winter day in an off-season election -- only 25% of registered voters turned out in Cook County. I won't belabor the familiar concern about how Illinois leaders moved its primary earlier in the year to help President Obama in 2008, and did not want to move it back to March or April because it seemingly benefits incumbents to have a low voter turnout.

The Chicago Tribune already did a good editorial on that very subject today. (Check their editorial archives for this date and the title "Push It Back.") They were right, however; low voter turnout did benefit incumbency, especially in the most populated areas of Cook County. All but one of the incumbents who have been supporting Cook County Board President Todd Stroger for years were returned to office.

Lots of very talented newcomers statewide came very close to beating some less superior incumbents, but did not succeed. It's a lesson to all of us for November that good voter turnout is essential if the voters want to clean house of those who have been responsible for Cook County government as it is.

We should work to use this time between now and November to discuss the issues of importance that face us. I have lots of time to meet each of you, the constituents of the 14th District of Cook County. Hopefully, there is time enough to recapture people's imaginations about what we CAN change about how Cook County is run.

Because there was also some good news on February 2, 2010. Toni Preckwinkle won decisively her bid to be Cook County Board President.

Todd Stroger, who came in dead last, is now a lame duck with ten months left to govern this government that is larger than 33 states. The Stroger dynasty has ended with a sad and very loud thud. We are already seeing evidence that he is taking revenge on those holding patronage jobs who did not support him to retain his undeserved seat.

I have known Toni Preckwinkle for years in our mutual work against violence. She is very smart and very dedicated. We are both former high school social studies teachers, and much alike in temperament and values as well. It was clear from the beginning that she was the best choice out of the field of four.

Terry O'Brien, the strong second-place finisher, who brought good fiscal management experience to the race, has always been a class act wherever I have seen him. He is a very capable leader, and I hope he will continue in public service all his life, as the President of the Water Reclamation District and whatever else he chooses to do.

Toni Preckwinkle ran an excellent county-wide campaign. She talked to everyone in this diverse county that she could. She is committed to the kind of reform that years ago moved me to also set this election as a goal, and she is capable of carrying it off. Given that 3/4 of Cook County is Democratic, it seems assured she will be our next Board President.

I won also on Tuesday, of course. More than 17,000 people got out on election day and found their way down the ballot to my name. Great news, and thanks especially to my wonderful team that is growing each day. It's a good landmark to get behind me now. Being unopposed in the primary took away any sense of mystery about the outcome months ago and also kept attention off the race by the media. But that will change.

I am now in a contested race against my opponent, the incumbent, who won his contested primary race with about 15,000 votes. He is in his 12th year in this job and has to defend the unimpressive record that he has from his three terms in office. I will be out again talking to voters in the 14th District, asking them whether or not they have felt well represented by Mr. Goslin and whether or not he has been able to deliver the kind of transformational change needed in Cook County.

My opponent makes a living in real estate. In contrast, and out of concern over conflict of interest, I will be a full-time commissioner. My opponent appointed himself to a seat in the Illinois Legislature which he did not retain, and then appointed himself similarly to a position on the county board for which he has never had a serious challenge. I know we can win the fall general election because we are a movement of the independent, thoughtful, hard-working voters of the northern and northwestern suburbs of Cook County who are fed up with business as usual. I will work very hard to win the votes of every single voter of the 14th District, going door to door and to any public gathering I can to meet my fellow residents. I will win this election by working for it.

I am a longtime government and ethics school teacher who was thrust into activism and advocating for better public policies after three members of my family were murdered. I bring a nationally recognized expertise to the single largest section of the Cook County Budget -- Criminal Justice -- which takes up about half of what taxpayers shell out. And I have significant experience advocating around public health issues, the second-largest piece of Cook County's budget.

I will be a singularly effective leader on the County Board for reforms that will save money and make our communities a better place to live. My incumbent opponent is one of the quiestest members of the board. I will be a passionate leader for systemic and fundamental change, vigorously innovative and insistent that the budgets we pass each year move us substantially towards streamlined and efficient county government.

I look forward to debating the current commissioner and have lots of questions to ask him. One will be about why there has been such little leadership for any of the substantive changes that Cook County so desperately needs. While he mentions his collaborative abilities, a skill that I know we have in common, that go-along trait has earned him criticism from his fellow Republican colleagues because he has worked too closely and too well with the Stroger Administration on many occasions.

While I work wherever possible in a collaborative style, I also have to stand on principle, especially when so much is at stake. Speaking truth to power is one of the qualities that has helped to earn me my reputation.

The grave concern I first had about my incumbent opponent -- enough to prompt me to run against him -- was his support of the first Todd Stroger budget. This budget, with horrible abuses of patronage and hired cousins making high salaries, at the same time cut frontline vital services such as emergency room medical personnel and prison guards. It was my anger over that vote that led to the first conversation I had with anyone about running to replace Mr. Goslin.

The voters will determine who is best equipped to serve them in the Preckwinkle administration. This is not about political party. The intelligent voters of the 14th District cross back and forth on ballots all the time to vote for the most competent and effective leader. I am a proven independent reformer, focused on the issues. I have a record of getting things done and of being open and promptly responsive to the needs of the vast majority of residents who want Cook County to competently execute its required services and get out of their way for everything else.

I will not rest until I have ended the patronage system in Cook County that is so costly to taxpayers. I support zero-based budgeting. I support making the independent Health Board permanent if we can make sure the details of that process are in the best interests of long-term accountability. I strongly support reforming the criminal justice system, that takes half of every taxpayer dollar, while preserving public safety.

And unless we give the Preckwinkle administration the strongest possible team to work with, she is going to have a hard time pushing her reform agenda over on those entrenched incumbents who managed to survive this primary, who have never taken the lead to bring about the transformative change the county has needed, and who have voted unceasingly for higher taxes and patronage.

NOTE: March 17 update - Congrats to the General Assembly who passed, and Governor Quinn has signed into law, a bill moving the Illinois Primary back to the third week in March.