News Coverage: Dick Simpson

“It's the opening salvo in what is going to be a war,” said Dick Simpson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois-Chicago and a former alderman.

Forrest Claypool, the county commissioner who left the Democratic party to run as independent candidate for Cook County assessor, says he'll file petitions today signed by more than 90,000 voters in his bid to get on the ballot in November.

Claypool is running against Democrat Joseph Berrios, a board of review commissioner and chairman of the party, Republican Sharon Strobeck-Eckersall, a former Evanston assessor, and the Green Party's Robert Grota.

Claypool announced his candidacy in early April, angering Democrats by leaving the party and running without having participated in the primary. He needed to garner 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot, and expects a tough challenge from election lawyers retained by the Berrios campaign. Read more...

Republican nominee for County Board President Roger Keats today announced he would embrace a number of reform proposals supported by anti-corruption watchdogs, and said he hopes lawmakers in Cook County and Springfield will put such reforms into law.

Keats says he has support from some county commissioners and state lawmakers to make some of the reforms outlined in a February report from the University of Illinois at Chicago law.

“What we’re trying to remind people is that as corrupt as this place is, there are some of us who are trying to do something about it,” said Keats, who is running against Democrat Toni Preckwinkle and Green Party nominee Tom Tresser. Read more...

Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool already faces an uphill battle in gathering 25,000 petition signatures to get him on the ballot in his independent run for assessor.

A caveat in state election law might present another challenge for the erstwhile Democrat.

The law states that no one who has sought petition signatures for a campaign can gather signatures for another candidate in the same election cycle. That could pose a problem for Claypool, as he ramps us bid for assessor. Read more...

It’s rare that a top Chicago official calls out the city’s shortcomings, but if you ask City Clerk Miguel Del Valle, Chicago is far behind other municipalities in putting its dirty laundry out there for all to see.

“It’s a world-class city that needs to have a world-class legislative branch of government,” he said. But, “we’re playing catch up. We’re not leading the way here.”

In unveiling a City Council video archive housed on the clerk’s site today, Del Valle called it a small step forward in guaranteeing transparency in government, and said the city still has a long way to go. Read more...