Bully Preckwinkle Backed By 'Inept' Stroger After Awkward Hug​

Toni Preckwinkle put her mayoral campaign’s desperation on full display this week when she embraced Todd Stroger’s endorsement. Let's face it, she might as well quit.

There’s no other way to interpret Preckwinkle’s ironic decision to cozy up to Stroger, the legacy Democrat she once called “inept” after ousting him as Cook County board president.

“I try to forget that she said that about me, but it gets stuck in my head,” Stroger said with a chuckle on Thursday.

“But I’m not going to let that stop me from trying to turn what looks like a lose-lose situation into something good for us Negroes. The way this election is going, you’d think we didn’t exist.”

Stroger says he decided to bury the hatchet with his bitter rival after an awkward embrace at WVON, where he’s a fill-in host on the morning show this week.

“I ran into Toni. She was all warm and fuzzy. She said, ‘Thanks, Todd for all the work you’re doing.’ … I put my hand out, and she had her arms out and hugged me. It was like something in a movie,” said Stroger, who works for Ald. Howard Brookins (21st).

[ Commentary ]

“My first thought was that Toni went to Miss Manners School. She treated me like a long-lost auntie.”

A dead politician walking might be closer to the truth.

Preckwinkle has run the "Worst. Campaign. Ever," according to Capitol Fax, falling from supposed frontrunner to a serious long shot.

Contributions to her campaign have slowed to a trickle and she’s stopped running TV ads. Prominent African-American Democrats have endorsed Lori Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor and political outsider. And if that's not bad enough, Preckwinkle continues to embarrass herself by relying on notes to remember mean-spirited talking points during mayoral debates.

Related: Chicago City Hall No Longer A Place For A Boss Like Preckwinkle

Preckwinkle’s floundering mayoral campaign has eroded her support among African-American elected officials and veteran bureaucrats who have worked alongside her — and under her thumb — and jumped on frontrunner Lori Lightfoot’s bandwagon.

When I gave some of those folks a chance to talk off the record, not for attribution, boy did I get an earful.

“The woman is just mean. Either you do what she tells you to do or it’s like she’ll kill your first born. Everybody fell in line because they’re scared. I was so glad when the tide turned,” one elected official said.

“When she was in the City Council, nobody liked her. She got lucky running against Todd [Stroger] when he was weak. Then she was vindictive against everybody who ever wrote her off. Taking over as party chair was her downfall. She became the thing she despised.”

A former Preckwinkle administration insider who witnessed the county board president bully staff and verbally abuse elected officials put it another way: “You can only be an a------ for so long before it costs you support.”

“The community has been talked to like 8-year-old children.
It’s been, ‘Follow me. Yes ma’am.’ Well, that didn’t work out for her
and all the sudden we’re relevant again.”
- Todd Stroger -

Another former Preckwinkle staffer said, “She’s not loyal to anybody, her word is s--- in the community and people are sick of it. When black pastors start endorsing a gay woman for mayor, you know that’s an indictment of Toni."

That's the political reality that pulled Preckwinkle into the arms of Stroger, who despite his endorsement, couldn’t help but agree.

“I know exactly what they’re speaking of. She has a personality problem and a management-style problem,” he said. “But now she’s lost her teeth. I think she’s trying to exude some warmth even if it might be a little too late. She realized, ‘Uh-oh, I’m in trouble and I better come back to what should be my base.’”

Stroger said Preckwinkle's biggest mistake has been assuming the African-American community she ignored would vote for her anyway.

“The community has been talked to like 8-year-old children. It’s been, ‘Follow me. Yes ma’am.’ Well, that didn’t work out for her and all the sudden we’re relevant again,” he said.

For the moment, Stroger again has regained some political relevancy, too.

“Let me lay it out for you. There’s two people running for mayor and neither one has truly said anything about their plans for rebuilding the South and West sides. I’m just thinking about how do we get Preckwinkle to do something for ’em,” he said. “I know Toni needs help. And Toni knows all the black folks. For me, it’s better to be in the fight and lose than to not be in the fight at all.”

That might not be the strongest endorsement, but Preckwinkle is lucky to have Stroger in her corner.

She’s going to need another hug after taking a beating at the polls on April 2.

See Also:

• Chicago City Hall No Longer A Place For A Boss Like Preckwinkle
• Foster-Bonner Makes Run-Off Against Rubber Stamp 6th Ward Boss
• Preckwinkle Disses Voters By Ditching Sun-Times Mayoral Debate
• The Lori Lightfoot I Know Blindsided Mayor Emanuel With The Truth
• Chicago Election Results Confirm Referendum On Emanuel's Failure
• Want Change Chicago? Vote Out Absentee, Rubber-Stamp Aldermen
• A Vote For Daley, Preckwinkle, Mendoza, Chico Is A Vote For Rahm
• 'Empire' Actor Doesn't Fib As Well As Chicago's Clout Candidates
• Is Chicago Crazy Enough To Elect Bill Daley, The Rahm Candidate?
• Don't Believe CTU Hype: Undecideds Could Shock Mayoral Status Quo
• Mendoza Rapid-Fire Tweets Sling Mud On Clout Candidates, Herself
• Chicago Mayoral Race Is Absurd And Nightmare If You Don't Wake Up
• Did Rahm's Failure, Solis' FBI Wire Make Chicago GOP Relevant?
• Mayoral Candidate Susana Mendoza Can't Be Taken Seriously Anymore
• Facts About Pay-To-Play Preckwinkle Help To Voters To Form Opinion
• Chicago Needs To Elect Bunch Of Snitches To Kill Code Of Silence
• Rahm's Podcast Isn't Practice For TV Gig; He Stinks On TV (VIDEO)
• Are You For 'Cockroaches' Or Reformers In Chicago Mayoral Race?
• Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'
• Hmm, Mayor Candidate Bill Daley Doesn't Want To Dis Rahm Anymore

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and Emmy-nominated producer, was a producer, writer and narrator for the Chicagoland series on CNN.