The Mechanics: How Now Brown? Pow!

Todd Stroger doesn't really have a chance to be reelected as the Cook County Board President, barring something fantastical happening. His unpopularity in the suburbs, where County government seems to be little more than the people who keep raising annoying taxes and collecting their property taxes, was guaranteed given his last name--John Stroger, his father, wasn't particularly popular there in the last few election cycles. His controversial "selection" after his father's stroke during the 2006 primary sank him among the Lakefront liberals. Still, the presence of Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Dorothy Brown in the primary this time around, according to cynical racial politics, meant there was a chance the "black vote" could be split enough that Stroger's old-school organization supporters on the South Side and in the South Suburbs could push him past the post.

With the ongoing revelations about Dorothy Brown's problematic ballot access petition signatures--now with allegations that her campaign "coerced" EarnFare workers into collecting signatures for her--her candidacy is at risk of becoming an irrelevancy, pitting Stroger more directly against Toni Preckwinkle. That spells doom for Stroger.

Preckwinkle has the type of political history (and reputation) that will appeal her to the Good Government Lite Liberals who loathe the Strogers of the world, and her roots in middle class South Side neighborhoods gives her an electoral coalition none of the other candidates has. Hello, President Preckwinkle.

In other news this week...