Cook County’s Question: What’s Become of Leader?

When John H. Stroger Jr., president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, suffered a severe stroke one week before the Democratic primary in March, all public communication with the longtime politician understandably stopped.

Three months later, there’s still been no official word.

No photographs. No interviews. Nothing to show that the man who heads up the second-most-populous county in the country -- and the 19th-largest government in the United States -- was able to do his job.

Yet the silence didn’t prevent the 77-year-old from winning the primary by a wide margin. The public still doesn’t know what sort of shape Stroger is in -- or whether he’ll actually run for reelection in the fall. He has apparently been in and out of the hospital since his stroke; local news reports say he may be hospitalized now.

Hanging in the balance is leadership of the county and its patronage-rich $3-billion budget.

Allies have fought to paint a portrait of a man slowly recovering and refusing to give up on reclaiming his seat. Rivals have campaigned to replace Stroger, temporarily or permanently.

At least seven Democrats have been mentioned in local news reports as possible replacements -- including Stroger’s son, Todd H. Stroger, 43, a city alderman who has expressed interest in filling his father’s shoes.

“Granted, everyone’s concerned about the man’s illness. But there are a lot of jobs and contracts at stake, so no one is sitting back and patiently waiting for an update,” said Paul M. Green, a political science professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago. “This is old-fashioned Chicago politics. It’s all about jockeying for power.”

Born in Arkansas, Stroger started his political career here as a Democratic Party assistant precinct captain in the mid-1950s, which led to his landing a job as a municipal court worker. He was elected to the County Board of Commissioners in 1970. In 1994, he became the first African American to be elected president of the Cook County Board and has served three terms.

Along the way, he’s wrestled with weight and health problems including prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes. In 2001, he had a quadruple heart bypass.

Supporters, who have praised him for leading the construction of an expanded county hospital and helping to establish a domestic violence court, have steadfastly insisted that Stroger remains a viable political candidate. That support extends to the Cook County Democratic Party, which has until early September to change candidate names on the ballot.

Last week, two local ministers and Alderman William M. Beavers said they met with Stroger. Beavers, a political ally of Stroger, told reporters the board president was mentally alert, eating solid foods and keeping track of the controversy by watching the local TV news.

“No one is pushing John out of the way. We’re not lining up any alternatives right now,” said Thomas G. Lyons, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. “Even if they got someone to fill his seat temporarily, that person would be nothing more than a gavel-dropper to open and close the meetings.”

Stroger’s family has declined to comment and has refused to allow him to be photographed or to let his doctors speak about his condition. They maintain that he plans to decide what to do with his political career by July.

His critics, who blame Stroger for patronage-heavy and wasteful practices that have led to federal investigations, say the government needs to move forward.

Commissioner Anthony J. Peraica, Stroger’s GOP opponent in the fall, believes that the ailing political leader’s friends are lying about his condition. Peraica called for public hearings to be held on Stroger’s health, with doctors and medical records to be subpoenaed.

As evidence, he points to recent reports by the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Southtown newspapers, which cite sources claiming that Stroger’s health is fragile. Peraica also noted Stroger’s last medical update, which came days after the stroke: At the time, one of his doctors at Rush University Medical Center said it appeared unlikely that Stroger could “return to a baseline normal state.”

“We have a county budget looming on the horizon,” Peraica said. “We have numerous union contracts to negotiate. We can’t afford to wait. We need the truth and we need action now.”

Though Peraica’s push for hearings has been met with scorn, the county board’s 17 commissioners have been meeting with lawyers to figure out what steps it needs to take to appoint a temporary replacement.

“It’s all been handled very badly, and that’s saying something in Chicago,” said Dick Simpson, a University of Illinois professor and author of “Rogues, Rebels, and Rubber Stamps: The Politics of the Chicago City Council From 1863 to the Present.”

“There should have been an assessment of his health and a path that clearly moved forward,” Simpson said. “Instead, what you get is political sniping that doesn’t engender voter confidence.”