Ads cast lame-duck Stroger as political pariah

Lame-duck Cook County Board President Todd Stroger isn't even on the ballot Tuesday, having lost his bid for re-election in the Democratic Primary, but a voter wouldn't know that from campaign fliers circulating in the days before the general election.

Stroger, a one-term president vilified for a 1-percentage-point hike in the county sales tax and an administration beset by scandal, is being used in guilt-by-association political attack fliers even on both sides of the same race.

In the bitter Cook Board campaign in the 17th District, which includes part of the Northwest suburbs, Republican Commissioner Liz Gorman has attacked her Democratic opponent in a flier by suggesting: “Patrick Maher and Todd Stroger have a lot in common. They're both Democrats, they're both second-generation Chicago politicians placed in public office by their fathers, and both pack friends and family on the public payrolls they control.”

“We stand by it,” Gorman said of her flier.

Maher was actually the first to play the Stroger card with a flier juxtaposing photos of Gorman and Stroger and insisting: “Two times we elected Liz Gorman to the County Board on her promise to cut taxes. Two times, she's let us down by voting YES on Todd Stroger's bloated budgets.”

Gorman, of Orland Park, pointed to the balanced budgets as sources of pride and cited how the 2009 budget of $2.9 billion was actually $100 million less than the budget two years earlier also mentioned in the flier.

“All of our communications are based on the facts of Liz Gorman's record as commissioner,” countered Maher, president of the Orland Fire Protection District. “Those aren't balanced budgets. Each budget has put us more in debt.”

Of Gorman's Stroger fliers, he said, “They're absurd.

I've never met Todd Stroger. I've never donated to him.” Maher pointed out he backed Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien in the primary. “She said I'm a second-generation Chicago politician and my dad put me in office. I ran for office, and I won. ... And I've never hired a friend or a family member at the fire district. The whole thing is a lie.”

A General Assembly race wouldn't seem to have anything to do with Stroger at the county level, but Democratic state Rep. Mark Walker of Arlington Heights has likewise juxtaposed photos of Stroger with his opponent, David Harris, on a political flier suggesting: “One's a Democrat, one's a Republican, but they agree on one thing: When the going gets tough, they get taxing.”

“It's ridiculous for a couple reasons,” Harris said. “It's a cheap shot in a campaign that's filled with nothing but cheap shots. But are you aware it's the exact same piece they sent out two years ago?”

According to Harris, the Walker campaign simply replaced a picture of Christine Prochno, the Republican candidate in the 66th District two years ago, with his photo, using the same tag line. “They ought to be at least a little bit creative,” he said, adding, “To try to link me with Todd Stroger is distorting my previous record.”

The former Arlington Heights state representative said it was particularly egregious in that he has called out Cook Democratic presidential candidate Toni Preckwinkle for not committing to immediately rescind the other half-penny-on-the-dollar sales-tax hike left after Stroger's original tax increase was halved by the County Board this summer.

“The point of the flier is to let voters know that, when it comes to taxes, I'm a tax fighter,” Walker responded. “I voted against Pat Quinn's income-tax increase and introduced the legislation, now law, that enabled Todd Stroger's sales tax to be reduced. ... David Harris has a very similar record to Todd Stroger's, relative to taxes.”

Stroger, meanwhile, in his last weeks in office, took the political high road.

“He's not going to comment on it,” said Stroger spokesman Marcel Bright, who took it philosophically. “It's the political season. There are commercials on TV doing basically the same thing.”

Given the current political vitriol, Stroger's certain to be kicked around right down to Tuesday's vote, even if he'll have only another month in office after that.

“He's the toxic person to not be associated with,” Gorman said.