When I speak with someone who lives outside of Chicago area about what is the hot-button political issue here, the answer is Todd "Corruption Tax" Stroger, Cook County Board President.Yep, one guy...he's an issue.
Oh yeah, Rod Blagojevich is still snickered about, but politically Blago is in our collective rear-view mirror. But whenever Cook County residents go shopping, they're reminded about Stroger's corruption tax.
Here's what Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn, a liberal, wrote after Barack Obama co-wrote an endorsement letter for Stroger three years ago:
The letter, which puffs lots of hot air into the saggy balloon of Stroger's legislative resume, refers to him as "a good progressive Democrat" who will "lead us into a new era of Cook County government."
Todd Stroger was a "strong voice" in Springfield, the letter says. He has "worked assiduously" for the poor as an alderman. Yet, of course, the record reveals that Stroger is an unimaginative legislative drone whose reform credentials are wholly imaginary--an unlikely trailblazer to a new era.
Last week Stroger fired Donna Dunnings, his first cousin, who served as Cook County's chief financial officer. Twice Dunnings bailed out Tony Cole, her $58,000-a-year assistant, after he violated an order of protection.
But Stroger is the one who hired Cole, a former college basketball player, after "The Toddler" met him at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Cole was a busboy there. Yep, a busboy.After Cole was hired, a criminal background check was performed and handed to Stroger last December--but he wasn't fired until earlier this month.
In an op-ed today, here's what the Chicago Tribune wrote:
We don't know if the hapless Stroger understands that he's in the most perilous moment of his ill-starred tenure. Democratic committeemen slated him for board president in 2006 because he would sustain county government's two key missions: the employment of patronage workers in the thousands, and the awarding of insider contracts in the millions. His brazen, needless raising of the sales tax has yielded still more of the revenue flow that keeps this Chicago machine fortress standing erect.
A new era? You bet.
Meanwhile, thanks to Stroger, Chicagoans pay the nation's highest sales tax, 10.25 percent. Suburban Cook residents like myself pay "only" 10 percent.
Stroger is up for reelection next year.
Related posts:
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Todd "Corruption Tax" Stroger dragged into municipal election
Hey Obama! Speak out on proposal to impose nation's highest sales tax in your hometown: UDPATED
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Todd Stroger: More Chicago Democratic sleaze
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Bid to rescind Cook County corruption tax fails: UPDATED
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Election 
Democrats 
Illinois Politics 
Cook County 
Stroger 
cronyism 
nepotism 
ruth's chris 
crime 
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politics 
Barack Obama
6 comments:
Wish I could afford Ruth's Chris House!
Must be a nice perk of Government work.
Hey, we private sector workers suffer.
Luckily I can afford my camera so I can at least take a photo of the place.
(Although that's the Northbrook location, not the one Stroger chowed down in)
What are the odds that Stroger could eke out another win? 2006 was disappointing 2010 could be the same. That's not to say that a change won't be coming.
Where did you find that tee shirt?
At the Chicago Tax Day Tea Party. He was packing up the sound system when I took it, he was nice enough to pose for me.
http://www.crookcountytaxes.com
Make a fashion statement!
Correction: don't thank Stroger for the tax, thank Obama.
Without that endorsement, Stroger would be an after-thought.
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