Todd Stroger could learn something from Sisyphus.
Both men are the sons of powerful leaders. Both face difficult and unending tasks. Sisyphus, the figure of Greek mythology, pushes a boulder uphill for eternity. Stroger tries to convince people in Cook County that his governance has been positive.
For years, the county board president’s opponents have maligned him as a do-little politician, embedded in the old ways of county politics.
The fractious Illinois Legislature united behind a law specifically aimed at quashing Stroger’s veto power. And a Tribune/WGN poll Friday found voters rank him third in the Democratic primary race.
So, what, exactly, is the case for a second Stroger term?
Stroger says his greatest accomplishment as president has been maintaining the county’s health system with the help of the unpopular and now diminished penny-on-the-dollar sales tax.
“Keeping the health care system intact. That’s the single greatest thing I’ve been able to do,” Stroger said during an interview in his office overlooking Clark Street. “That one penny literally kept Provident Hospital and Oak Forest Hospital and all the clinics open.”
Critics argue the health system would survive without the sales tax infusion.
The sales tax aside, Stroger rattles off a list of accomplishments that he says have been ignored in the press and derided by his opponents.
“It’s an uphill battle because people are not informed, and the newspapers tend not to do what I thought newspapers did, which is to get people information,” he says.
Stroger says he’s proud of the way he has expanded diversity in the county. Out of 29 departments, 16 now have women in top leadership positions. More ethnic and religious minorities populate the ranks.
He touts the county’s green initiatives, including using rubberized asphalt to pave county streets and low-emission vehicles.
The county has shed more than 1,600 workers and spending has been flat for three years. As the state and city grapple with their own budget crises, cutting services and dipping into rainy day funds, Stroger says the county has remained solvent under his watch.
“We’ve been able to keep our doors open every day of the week,” he says.
Even Commissioner Tony Peraica, Stroger’s most vocal critic on the board, concedes that point – sort of.
“The city of Chicago and Mayor Daley’s profligate spending pattern puts drunken sailors’ spending in a good light,” he says. “If you’re going to measure Todd Stroger’s performance against Mayor Daley’s and the city’s inability to perform … I would say, yeah, he performs better.”
But, Peraica says, much of that is due in part to the county board’s crackdown on other inefficiencies in the government.
And despite Stroger’s efforts, voters may most remember him for his ill-fated effort to defend the sales tax increase.
“The only real goal he’s achieved is the money from the sales tax,” says Dick Simpson, head of the political science department at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Simpson says those problems will stick with voters over Stroger’s accomplishments.
“He would have to explain to the voters why they should continue down the way the county has been being governed, and that’s a hard sell,” he says.
Convincing potential Democratic allies, such as Mayor Richard M. Daley and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, has also been tough. Stroger and Daley sniped at each other earlier this month after Stroger complained of not yet gaining the mayor’s endorsement.
Stroger hedged when asked if he needed it.
“There is no way any other elected official who has these accomplishments wouldn’t get all the other elected officials’ endorsements,” he says.
In any case, he says, it will be a bumpy campaign.
“Of course it is hard getting to 5.4 million (voters), and that’s the toughest part: Really being able to spread the message of all the good things that have happened,” he says. “It’s going to be tough. I don’t expect to run away with it.”
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