Lethargic campaign effort may seal Stroger's fate

Read Laura Washington's latest column on the county board president's race. Reading this column and some other materials out there I'm starting to get the feeling that Stroger is going to lose. I can't feel bad he's had a good run, but I am looking at the strikes against him especially during his current term. Gripes about mismanagement at Stroger Hospital, problems with patronage and corruption.

What critics may have on Stroger is that he is an old school politico out of step with the current era. According to Washington...

Stroger has been a loyal machine pol since the dinosaur age. He is riding on the tattered coattails of the Regular Democratic Organization. That's a monumental mistake.

I'm willing to bet Stroger is either depending on people like my mother who's going to vote for him because they want him to have one more term under the sun. Or perhaps the reasoning is that they know him so well while they don't know much about Forrest Claypool, who strikes me as being a lakefront liberal.

Either way it seems that in a bare couple of weeks before the primary election commences Stroger hasn't been working hard to get re-elected. If he hasn't been I'm also willing to bet that he is just tired and apparently so is his team. Stroger is in his 70s and like I said Stroger has definitely had a very good run.

She also contends that blacks aren't going to vote for him in droves. He hasn't really been campaigning in the community. Laura Washington mentions there isn't even a sign in an eating establishment in Stroger's 8th Ward...

There isn't even a "Stroger for President" sign in the window of the Soul Queen Restaurant, the iconic spa at 90th Street and Stony Island Avenue.

Washington closes out her column on this note...

Regardless of the outcome, the Stroger malaise is telling. Black progressives dropped the ball on this one. They should have fielded a young, energetic fresh face and eased Stroger aside. Instead, they allowed Daley to define the race.