More on Cook County primary

In a recent posting, I expressed my preference for Forrest Claypool over the incumbent John Stroger for Cook County Board President. Shortly afterward, Stroger suffered a stroke and is still hospitalized. It is likely he will remain in the hospital until after Tuesday's election.

This, of course, is a terrible misfortune for Stroger and for those close to him, and I hope that he is soon restored to health. However, I stand by what I said before, awkward as it may be. I can't improve on what columnist Eric Zorn wrote in his article for yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

The contest between Stroger and ... Claypool ... is still a referendum on the way the county is being run. It's still a battle between the cozy, business-as-usual network of hacks and cronies who have been in for the last dozen years and the insistent progressives who've been challenging and even thwarting them at turns.

...

As voters pray for [Stroger's] fast and full recovery, they should also realize that the question facing them has not changed: What direction should county government go?

The same direction that Stroger and his allies have been taking it? The direction that has been repudiated by the editorial boards of every major publication in the region with the exception of the Chicago Defender?

Or the direction that Claypool, Mike Quigley and their reform bloc on the board have been trying to take it? The direction toward greater efficiency and tough-minded stewardship...

The latest Tribune poll showed Claypool trailing Stroger by about 10 percentage points. This makes Claypool a long shot to win the primary, but I hold out hope for an upset.