From restaurants on Devon Avenue to churches on the South Side, the four Democratic candidates for Cook County Board president took their case to voters Sunday as the final weekend of the primary campaign season came to a close.
Addressing what has become the campaign’s main issue, President Todd Stroger defended his controversial county sales tax hike by telling thousands of people at the Apostolic Church of God on the South Side the penny-on-the-dollar increase was needed to maintain public safety and health care.
“I’ve spent these last years just trying to keep what we have, because it doesn’t just help African-Americans,” he told the predominantly black audience. “It helps everybody. … We all do better because of the system.”
Stroger has lagged behind his Democratic rivals in Tribune polling for Tuesday’s primary race, which historically decides who will win in the November general election.
On the other side of town, Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, 4th, led about 50 supporters on an impromptu parade down Devon that included brief stops at businesses ranging from a rug shop to a social services agency where she was presented with a black shawl.
“This won’t be my last time on Devon,” Preckwinkle told supporters, adding that she would make county government “as diverse as Cook County.”
Not far away, rival Terence O’Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, slammed Preckwinkle for supporting various tax hikes and aldermanic pay increases.
“Do you call someone like that a reformer?” O’Brien said.
O’Brien was joined by Ald. Bernard Stone, 50th, and former Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine, who noted his own upset win in 1996 had featured a rally in the same church gym.
Circuit Clerk Dorothy Brown predicted victory after visiting several South Side church services and a campaign fundraiser in Chinatown. “They know Dorothy Brown. They know her service. They trust Dorothy Brown,” Brown said of the voters.
In the Democratic race for U.S. Senate, campaigns for state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman both cited the recent GOP Senate victory in Massachusetts as a cautionary tale for why Democrats can’t be complacent in picking the best nominee for the fall campaign. “Illinois is not Massachusetts, right?” U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., called out to roughly 200 Giannoulias supporters at a union hall in Chicago.
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Hoffman noted the GOP will be making national news by trying to score a victory in the fall and take the seat once held by President Barack Obama.
“We know the Republicans are going to throw everything they can into this general election,” Hoffman said. “And so it is of critical importance that we have the strongest possible nominee.”
Giannoulias and Hoffman also face former Chicago Urban League CEO Cheryle Jackson, who was campaigning around Chicago as well. But one person they won’t be facing is Jacob Meister, who on Sunday dropped out of the race and endorsed Giannoulias.
Gov. Pat Quinn and Comptroller Dan Hynes tried to woo black voters even as they continued sniping at each other in the Democratic governor’s race. Hynes accused Quinn of exploiting the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal for political purposes.
Speaking at the Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church on the South Side, Quinn did not mention his competitor or Tuesday’s election. But he invoked the name of the late Mayor Harold Washington, whom Hynes has used in television commercials slamming Quinn.
“When we have tough times, we can’t be turning on each other and trying to divide people, one against the other,” Quinn said.
Hynes visited a soul-food restaurant and said he was optimistic about his chances.
“I feel that Tuesday’s going to be a new day in Illinois,” he said.
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