Stroger fires cousin ahead of “media circus”

I don't write enough about Stroger around these parts. Anything related to the county you can see over at The Sixth Ward.

I see this post at the Capitol Fax this morning about Cook County board Pres. Todd Stroger firing his cousin Donna Dunnigs as the chief finance officer. He essentially said that he forced her out or convinced her to resign because of allegations made by an former county employee who just so happened to have a felony on his record. You know I'm so tempted to call this person, who was a college basketball player, a patronage employee.

This is basically what the Stroger regime is somewhat known for, the friends and family plan. When I say the Stroger regimel, I'm talking about both the late county board Pres. John Stroger and his son who effectively replaced John after a stroke that left him incapacitated during an election campaign. By this logic I could even conclude that Todd was on the plan since he eventually was elected to his dad's old slot. Did daddy Stroger want his son to eventually succeed him?

Anyway Todd is there now, even if there are those who aren't happy about it at all, especially how he found himself in this position. Hell, even I wasn't too thrilled with it. It is what it is now.

Recently Todd Stroger had discussed rolling back the sales tax a small percent. If one was to be cynical then one could conclude that this was all about re-election next year. While this may be great news could it be too little too late given how Stroger started his term and the attention we've seen at the county during his term? There is special attention given to the Stroger friends and family plan, especially since Ms. Dunnings found herself as CFO at Cook County and it must be coincidental that she's related to the "main" man himself.

One could look at this cynically as well. It should be apparent if you read thru that CapFax post where he'll takes snippets from different links and build up a story. Perhaps he had her leave her post because this could affect his chances at re-election. Yeah I can definitely point to that his excuse that she may not continue to be effective as CFO may point to politics more than anything.

Whether it will help him next year is another question. Opponents are lining up now starting with Toni Preckwinkle and another Democrat, state Sen. Rickey Hendon, opined on Public Affairs that Stroger is finished as county board president. We'll see because 2010 is only around the corner!

PS: I posted this at Illinoize not too long ago. Stroger was on Good Day Chicago to discuss county secession of some townships and his future plans especially for re-election. The anchors were taken aback when he said that he didn't know how much money he had raised.