Preckwinkle joins with board candidates to back Cook health reform
Cook County Board president candidate Toni Preckwinkle teamed up with two Democrats running for commissioner to champion health care reform at the county level at a news conference Monday at the Hotel Allegro in downtown Chicago.
As self-proclaimed progressives, the Chicago Hyde Park Alderman Preckwinkle, Dr. Victor Forys of Park Ridge and Chicago state Rep. John Fritchey all said they would unite in a coalition to maintain the independence of the county's Health & Hospitals System and fight for reforms at the county's hospitals and clinics.
"This is really important for the long-term viability of our Health and Hospitals System," Preckwinkle said. Pointing out that one-third of the Cook budget is spent on health care, she called it "the primary mission of the county."
Preckwinkle admitted, "I'm not a health care professional," which is why she touted the necessary independence of the 11-member volunteer board overseeing HHS and its appointed Chief Executive Officer William Foley. She said that as president, she would leave it to Foley and his board to decide the fates of Oak Forest and Provident Hospitals, given the upcoming cut in the county sales tax, but pointed out the president and county board would retain control over the HHS budget and the makeup of the oversight committee.
Dr. Forys, meanwhile, presented his credentials as a 25-year health care professional.
"That is my area of expertise," he said, adding, "I would bring a unique perspective to the board ... and immediately be a leader (on the issue)."
He said changes were necessary at the county's hospitals and clinics. "There is a cost of corruption," Forys said, "and that's the problem with Cook County."
Forys and Fritchey were actually opponents last year in the race to replace Rahm Emanuel in the Fifth District congressional seat, but "we came out of that as new friends," Fritchey said, thanks largely to their similarly progressive stands on the issues.
"I am strongly supporting both," Preckwinkle said, and they in turn endorsed her run for president.
In the Feb. 2 Democratic Primary, Forys is running against Patrick Maher of Orland Park in the 17th District, which extends across the western edge of the county from the Southwest to the Northwest suburbs. Fritchey faces Ted Matlak in the 12th District on Chicago's North Side.
Citing her record fighting to preserve buildings in her Hyde Park ward, Preckwinkle also said the old Cook County Hospital building should be preserved for some other use.
Preckwinkle, however, came under attack in a new TV ad by Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President Terrence O'Brien that suggested she "never met a tax she didn't hike." Asking, "Who can clean up Todd Stroger's mess?" the ad also called the other Democratic challenger to the incumbent President Stroger, Clerk of the Circuit Court Dorothy Brown, "ethically challenged," but it saved its sharpest criticism for Preckwinkle.
"We didn't want to go this route, but we feel that it was needed," O'Brien said in unveiling the ad at his campaign headquarters in downtown Chicago. He said Preckwinkle had gotten "a free ride" from the media, adding, "The only thing we're asking for is fair criticism."
O'Brien pointed to how Preckwinkle recently joined the Chicago City Council in supporting Gov. Quinn's call for an increase in the state income tax, and also backed various tax and fee hikes over the years, as well as three raises and a cost-of-living increase for aldermen.
"I'm used to being the underdog. I have no problem being the underdog," O'Brien said, but he denied the ad targeted Preckwinkle as the perceived front-runner. "We don't perceive her as being the front-runner," O'Brien said.
Preckwinkle dismissed the new TV commercial as "desperation tactics," adding, "I'm very pleased with my position in the race."