Toni Preckwinkle Can't Take A Hint, Announces Re-Election Bid

CHICAGO — Toni Preckwinkle clearly can't take a hint. Despite a depleted campaign war chest — and her embarrassing landslide election loss to Mayor Lori Lightfoot — the 74-year-old Cook County Board president has announced plans to run for re-election.

Preckwinkle, who pulls double duty as the Cook County Democratic Party boss, must think voters have forgotten all the reasons that she didn't carry a single ward — and only picked up 26 percent of the vote citywide — in her 2019 failed mayoral bid.

[COMMENTARY]

Well, here's a reminder to any good-government politician with a pulse who wants to challenge her: There are plenty of reasons the "anybody but Preckwinkle" sentiment echoed across Chicago in the waning days of the last mayor's race runoff.

Originally billed by the big newspapers as the front-runner to replace former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Preckwinkle's candidacy lost its glimmer when more of the truth came out about how the former "independent" and "school teacher" actually conducts her political business.

It started when feds released details on the indictment of Ald. Ed Burke that showed Preckwinkle was the beneficiary of $100,000 in donations — including a $10,000 check from the alleged subject of a shakedown — linked to a fundraising party at Burke's home.

Preckwinkle also hired Burke's namesake son to a do-nothing job with a six-figure salary.

It only takes a quick search of campaign finance records to see Preckwinkle's connections to the corrupt Democratic Party status-quo span decades. She has a long history of taking cash from billionaires, contractors, labor unions and insiders who stuffed the campaign war chests of former mayors Emanuel and Richard M. Daley and former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Some donations that Preckwinkle accepted came curiously close to controversial appointments and contracts, and her endorsement of former Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios.

MORE ON PATCH: Cash Connects 'Independent' Preckwinkle To 'Good Ol' Boys Club'

Go ahead, read more about it here. The money trail makes it clear that Preckwinkle is one of them — the old-school politicians known for conducting the public's business the Chicago Way, with an expected amount of quid pro quo.

Chicagoans saw Preckwinkle's true colors when she blew a dog whistle meant to signal to Black pastors and their voting congregations that Lightfoot was the LESBIAN candidate during a televised debate.

MORE ON PATCH: Preckwinkle Blew A Dog Whistle On Lightfoot's 'LGBTQ Orientation'

When reporters challenged Preckwinkle to answer tough questions during her last political campaign, she regularly dodged them. Sometimes, Preckwinkle ditched candidate forums. At almost every campaign event — and many of her news conferences since — she robotically reads from a prepared script.

Let's not forget, Preckwinkle is the political godmother of Cook County's continuously blundering state's attorney, Kim Foxx.

And since Preckwinkle's epic mayoral defeat, her greatest accomplishments have been taking credit for dolling out federal coronavirus dollars, and passing budgets that are advertised as balanced.

Her re-election campaign announcement on Twitter touts 2018 accomplishments and vague promises of more higher-wage jobs and "equity and inclusion" as reasons she deserves four more years in power.

And all of that comes in the face of how 75 percent of Chicago voters responded to Preckwinkle's very similar mayoral campaign pitch — and a recent poll published by Politico that suggests 34 percent of voters find her "unfavorable."

Here's a little perspective: Emanuel had better polling numbers in the months before he decided not to seek re-election.

Put it all together, and Preckwinkle's re-election pitch seems more like she's begging Cook County voters to oust her from office.

My advice: Give the boss what she wants.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots."

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