Todd Stroger

Daily Herald

November 2, 2006

By Rob Olmstead

Todd Stroger is a man struggling to come out of the shadow of his father.

It was former Cook County Board President John H. Stroger's connections that put Todd Stroger in office as a state representative, and then later, as a Chicago alderman. At campaign appearances, enthusiastic supporters shake his hand and tell him what a great man his father, the namesake of Stroger Hospital, is.

The constant association is somewhat self-inflicted. When asked about his qualifications, Todd Stroger, 43, often cites the osmosis effect, saying his father was in county government almost all Todd's life, and he has absorbed knowledge just by being around that.

But with the good comes the bad. Throughout his campaign for Cook County Board president, Stroger's opponent, Anthony Peraica, has sought to lay the mistakes of John H. Stroger at Todd Stroger's doorstep.

Gerald Nichols, John Stroger's patronage chief, is on suspension from county government and his hiring practices are being investigated by the FBI. Nichols was also a member of Todd Stroger's 8th Ward organization. For days after the FBI raid of county offices, Todd Stroger kept Nichols as a campaign volunteer, but later reversed course, and eventually said he'll fire Nichols from county government if elected.

And even a few Democrats, such as Forrest Claypool, who lost to John Stroger in the primary, take issue with how Todd Stroger and the Democratic party handled John Stroger's stroke to assure Todd's placement on the ballot.

Todd Stroger and ministers aligned with him said John Stroger would be back. Then, after the deadline for independent candidates to file for the November ballot had passed, John Stroger stepped down and announced in a letter he wanted his son to replace him. Democratic Committeemen went along with the recommendation, passing over candidates with more county experience, such as Danny K. Davis and current board president Bobbie Steele.

Stroger and longtime friends State Rep. Marlow H. Colvin and Chicago Ald. Walter Burnett Jr. say the help Todd Stroger has received from his father belies the fact that the two often disagreed vehemently, although they can't provide specifics.

Todd Stroger, they say, is his own man and has earned everything he's gotten. His gentle demeanor is buttressed by a bluntness that some often mistake as dismissive, they say.

"Todd is probably the most genuine person you're ever going to meet," Colvin says.

Stroger agrees that he's direct.

"I'm [Bill] Beavers without the edge," he says, laughing, referring to the grizzled city council alderman who helped engineer Stroger's succession to the November ballot.

Who is Todd Stroger?

The product of Catholic schools, Stroger attended St. Felicitas Elementary School and St. Ignatius High School. One of his campaign spokesmen today, Bill Figel, was Stroger's English teacher in grade school.

As a child growing up, Colvin said, John Stroger tried to ensure his son was well-rounded, exposing him to all types of cultural experiences, including many far removed from the South Side's largely African-American 8th Ward.

That included prime seats at a Glen Campbell concert, remembers Colvin, who attended with Stroger, whom he has known since childhood.

The country music experience was a little too eclectic for Colvin's taste.

"I thought, this must be what purgatory is like," said Colvin.

Stroger attended Xavier University of Louisiana, as his father did. He majored in history, but also took a lot of math.

Like his opponent, Anthony Peraica, who was orphaned at a young age, Todd Stroger has known tragedy. At 19, his older brother Hans died suddenly at age 22 of an asthma attack. It devastated the young Stroger, whose 6-year-old son Hans is named after his brother.

After college, Stroger returned to Chicago and worked for the chief judge's office in the county, and then the Chicago Park District. While working at the county, Ald. Burnett said, many county workers were unaware he was the son of John Stroger.

"Todd would be moving boxes in the basement of the county building, sweating," said Burnett. "They used to be shocked ... here his son is working a menial job."

Soon, however, Todd moved on to less demanding labor at SBK Brooks as an investment banker, securing government bond contracts at the city of Chicago and Cook County. In 1992, he ran for State Representative, and at the start of his campaign, reached out to Xavier alumni for campaign volunteers. One was a young woman named Jeanine, who was working for an assistant producer for the Jenny Jones show, said Colvin.

Friends thought there might be something between them, but Stroger insisted they were just friends.

"We were like 'Todd, man, you got a fine friend,' " laughed Burnett. "Matter of fact, we knew Todd was going to get married to his wife before Todd knew."

They were right. The two married and now have two children, Hans, 6, and Claire, 3.

Stroger served as representative from 1992 to 2001, when he became the 8th Ward alderman for Chicago, where he still serves.

His positions

To address corruption in the county, Stroger proposes revamping the Inspector General's Office, making it a six-year term not on a cycle with the president's term, to foster independence. Under his father, the inspector general was largely a reactive office, often beginning investigations after the media exposed problems. Stroger would take nominations for the position from the Chicago Bar Association and Cook County Bar Association, and selection would be subject to ratification by the county board.

Stroger says he will ask all county departments and elected officials to voluntarily submit to the inspector general's investigative authority, and, if they refuse, he vows to go to Springfield to force them to comply.

Stroger has promised not to raise taxes in his first year in office, and said he has "no plans" to do so in his entire four- year-term, but will not swear to it, saying unforeseen emergencies could force an increase.

After Peraica vowed to reduce the county payroll by attrition from 27,000 to 21,000, Stroger said he would cut the payroll to 22,000. Following the lead of Commissioner Mike Quigley of Chicago, Finance Chairman John Daley and Peraica, Stroger supports the consolidation of the property tax components of the offices of treasurer, assessor, clerk and recorder of deeds.

He vows to protect abortion rights at Cook County Hospital, as well as domestic partnership benefits for county employees.

He does not support the recommendation of a Northwestern University study that advises putting the county Bureau of Health under the control of board of health professionals, nor does he support suing the state to force it to fund the Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp as was originally promised. He supports implementation of a measure passed by the county board to consolidate public relations and other positions at the hospital to save money.

Detractors

Critics of Stroger say his struggle to come out of his father's shadow is so difficult because he is strictly his father's creation. They point to undistinguished careers in the legislature and city council, where he did not advance much significant legislation. When asked for his major accomplishments, Stroger lists a law that doubled the fines on fly dumping.

Peraica accuses him of being absent on 340 roll call votes and cites another 127 excused absences.

Stroger paints himself as the only candidate who can guarantee abortion rights for women, but he once voted in the legislature against Medicaid funding for abortions for poor women who needed them for health reasons, and he voted present another time when the issue came up.

Stroger responds that, overall, he has a 90 to 95 percent abortion rights voting record.

Unlike his opponent, Stroger has not vowed to refuse campaign donations from county employees and vendors, most recently taking money from Digby's Detective Agency, a county contractor. That reliance on money from interests tied to county business, critics say, doesn't lend much credence to Stroger's vow to clean up county government.

Copyright 2006, Paddock Publications

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