County Board President Election
Claypool declared in December that he would run for the Democratic nomination for County Board President in 2006. John Stroger, who was a Democrat, announced earlier that he would seek a fourth term, setting up a race among Claypool, Stroger, and Quigley for the Democratic nomination. Quigley dropped out in mid-December, saying "I am throwing my full effort and support to help elect Forrest Claypool as the next County Board President."
Claypool raised more campaign funds than every other candidate in 2005, ending the first half of the year with over $900,000. Most pundits agreed that the Democratic primary was the real election, as Cook County is one of the most Democratic counties in the entire nation. Claypool won the support of many newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, Crain's Chicago Business, the Daily Herald, the Daily Southtown, and others. In addition, he was endorsed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn.
Despite the endorsements, and the fact that Stroger suffered a stroke a week before, Claypool still lost to Stroger in the primary. The Cook County Democratic Party appointed Stroger's son Todd Stroger as the nominee to run against Tony Peraica in the general election. Todd Stroger won the election. Claypool refused to endorse Stroger and was chastised heavily by Democratic politicians and stalwarts including Mayor Daley.
Read more about this topic: Forrest Claypool
Famous quotes containing the words county, board, president and/or election:
“It would astonish if not amuse, the older citizens of your County who twelve years ago knew me a stranger, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working on a flat boat—at ten dollars per month to learn that I have been put down here as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“During depression the world disappears. Language itself. One has nothing to say. Nothing. No small talk, no anecdotes. Nothing can be risked on the board of talk. Because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? Why should I go on?”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)
“The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)
“He hung out of the window a long while looking up and down the street. The world’s second metropolis. In the brick houses and the dingy lamplight and the voices of a group of boys kidding and quarreling on the steps of a house opposite, in the regular firm tread of a policeman, he felt a marching like soldiers, like a sidewheeler going up the Hudson under the Palisades, like an election parade, through long streets towards something tall white full of colonnades and stately. Metropolis.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)