Davis pulls out of County Board President's race
Decides not to challenge Todd Stroger for Cook County Board president
Rep. Danny K. Davis conceded his game of chicken with Cook County Board President Todd Stroger Monday.
Davis pulled out of the race against Stroger and opted to run for re-election to his congressional seat. With seniority and a seat on the influential Ways and Means Committee, Davis said he can be of use there.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
On Sunday, Davis met with Stroger and discussed with him -- as he had before -- Davis' poll numbers that show Davis having an easier time winning the board race than Stroger. But Stroger still would not get out of the race.
That would leave four African-Americans in the race against one white candidate. But Davis emphasized that his decision to pull out was not about race -- it was about "progressive candidates who "just happen to be black" running against a more conservative candidate.
Asked if he thought Stroger was more "progressive" or "in touch with the common man" than the white candidate, Cook County Water Reclamation District President Terry O'Brien, Davis said, "I don't know much about Terry O'Brien's social consciousness. I know him well. I interact with him every year. I help get him money for the deep tunnel, the not-so-Deep Tunnel. But I don't know where Terry stands on a number of social issues." By contrast, Davis said he agrees with Todd Stroger on the most controversial item in Stroger's presidency, his penny increase in the sales
tax: "You've never heard me attack Todd on taxes. I think the county needs more, as opposed to less money. Look at the people out there in the jail on the floor." O'Brien had taken some heat earlier in the race for his anti-abortion record, but he appeared recently at the Personal PAC luncheon proclaiming himself to have a more progressive stand on abortion.
Davis said he should not feel guilty about waiting until deadline to make up his mind about whether to run for president or congress, even as other elected officials mounted campaigns to succeed him and now may drop out.
Asked if this was all just a political game, Davis appeared to resent the question.
"Do you think that I'm actually a damned fool?" Davis asked the reporter.
"Do you think that I would have worked all day, form early in the morning till late at night trying to forge together a concept of unity -- that that would be some kind of game?" Davis will endorse one of his opponents before the primary and he did not rule out endorsing O'Brien, though O'Brien is the only rival he has not yet met with.