There was no bigger race in the past election than the Forrest Claypool versus John Stroger County Board President race. We all know the outcome. Stroger won Cook County overall, Claypool won the 49th ward with 57.75 percent of the vote.
What's troublesome is the fact our 49th ward committeeman Dave Fagus and our 49th ward Alderman Moore backed the hospital bed-ridden-democratic machine backed candidate John Stroger over Forrest Claypool. There was nothing grass roots about backing Stroger. He was the front-runner with the political backing and force of Mayor Daley and Alderman Moore.
After they lost the 49th ward, the 49th ward democratic party played the race card. That's right, the David Fagus run 49th ward democratic party played race card. Here's the quote in case you missed it. And many bloggers did.
" In the final race, President of the Cook County Board, we did not carry a majority of the votes for our candidate. In one of the more racially divisive and polarizing races we have seen in a long time our candidate came in with 42.25% of the votes from the 49th Ward."
Here's what really bothers the "Broken Heart." The two words you use, "racially divisive?"
If history serves us Mr. Fagus, the issues we had on the table were John Strogers' poor health, his cronyism when it comes to hiring and the amount of money his campaign spent running negative (and false) ads.
We focused on his waste of taxpayer money, the poor county health system under his and your watch and the fact prisoners were running the county jail.
Oh, and another fact. When President Stroger did have his massive stroke, President Stroger didn't even go to his own personally named hospital for health care. We played the game on issues, not the color of the candidates skin. A had no disagreement with his skin color. I had disagreements with his policies and taxpayer waste.
So, here's the $64 dollar question Mr. Fagus. How did John Stroger receive 81.8% of the Democratic Party of the 49th Ward's vote at the boards endorsement session? Clearly, the actual election numbers are so vastly different than yours, you must have polled the wrong ward.
6 comments:
I think you're misinterpreting what Fagus means by "racially divisive." He's not saying that anybody focused on the race of the candidate, but rather that the election was divided by race -- with people of various races voting differently from other races. That's what racially divisive means. He's not "playing the race card."
Stroger got the endorsement of Fagus's cabal for a very good reason... the high-paying job Fagus has with the Stroger administration. Fagus knew that Claypool would fire him in his first day as County Board President (as will Tony Peraica).
mentioning race seems inappropriate in what was basically a review of voting percentages.
More than one political operative has been known to "say anything" whether it's true or not with the goal being that if it's said enough, people will come to believe it to be true. Obviously Mr. Stroger will not be running in the general election so the Dem/Stroger machine, to which the obsequious Fagus pays obeisance, must tee up a non issue that pulls at folks emotionally if they are to have any hopes of winning and keeping their jobs, irrespective of Mr. Stroger's health.
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