I wouldn't recommend that Toni Preckwinkle take a vacation until November now that she's won the Democratic primary for president of the Cook-County Board. On the other hand, something like that would be necessary to make this a tight race. Her problem -- bar some major act of God -- isn't winning the general.
Her problem will be governing the county after being installed in office. There used to be a small-but-reliable clique of good-government types on the County Board. With Mike Quigley in Congress and Forrest Clypool retiring, that clique is smaller.
More after the jump.
The machine types are used to doing what the president wants, but:
- The brief reign of Todd Stroger made that pattern unpopular.
- Machine types are much less co-operative with reform executives.
As Obama has learned, as Harold Washington learned a generation earlier, getting executive power doesn't mean that your legislation will be passed.
Still,
The election, itself, was a beautiful thing:
- The incumbent ran dead last.
- The White Hope got less than 25% of the vote against 3 African Americans. This, in a county which has a large white majority.
And the county commissioner who considers sabotaging Preckwinkle's program better check her vote in his district first. The people want change; I'd not enjoy standing in the way of the change they want. (There was once a book about the machine called: Don't Make No Waves. Don't Back No Losers. That might be good advice for the next four years.)