News Coverage: County Building

Forrest Claypool, a career politician, has probably been called many things in his life. But “not a Democrat” is unlikely one of the taunts tossed his way until now.

Shortly after he announced his bid for Cook County assessor as an independent, Joseph Berrios, one of Claypool’s opponents and current chairman of the county Democratic Party, did just that.

"I really thought he was a Democrat," Berrios told reporters at the County Building yesterday. “If he wants to run for assessor, he’s got the ability to do that, but he is not a Democrat.” Read more...

The Twitter-related controversy that Commissioner Tony Peraica found himself in this week isn’t causing the suburban Republican to lose any sleep.

He regrets urging people to vote for Democrat Commissioner Deborah Sims’ opponents during Monday’s special county board meeting, but isn’t necessarily backing off the statement.

“I should not have been using that platform,” he says, referring to the taxpayer-paid wireless Internet connection at the County Building. Read more...