TONI TOUTS ‘THICK’ SKIN — BUT RIVALS SAY SHE’S ‘PLAYING THE VICTIM’
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle held a women’s rally on Tuesday, using the event as a chance for African-American women to both celebrate her mayoral candidacy and demand that it’s time for the news media to “be fair to Toni.” Preckwinkle insisted she can take the heat. “You know, if you’re going to be in public life, you have to have the hide of an alligator, and I’m pretty thick-skinned,” Preckwinkle said.
But two mayoral rivals — also women of color — suggested the event was little more than a pity party, calling it “simply stunning” that the powerful Cook County Democratic chair “is now playing the victim.”
Preckwinkle held her “Women for Toni” rally at the headquarters of the Chicago Teachers Union. It featured Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser to President Barack Obama; Ald. Sophia King (4th) and activist FM Supreme.
Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the union, said Preckwinkle’s candidacy is an opportunity to lead the city in a better direction.
“Toni Preckwinkle is in a position to make history Feb. 26, and I am proud that black women in Chicago get to have a person that is representative of their experience as black women in the city, the state and the country,” Gates said. “It is important that we see the accomplishments she’s made — County Board president, chair of the Democratic Party — not as machine but as transformative achievements.”
For weeks, Preckwinkle’s candidacy has been dogged by unwelcome headlines linked to Ald. Ed Burke’s scandals.
The 14th Ward alderman is accused of pressuring a Burger King franchise owner to make a $10,000 campaign contribution to Preckwinkle. She returned the donation because it exceeded the legal limits, saying she was unaware of any alleged shakedown. But Preckwinkle has also had to explain why her campaign only reported the donation and refund after Burke was charged with attempted extortion.
She also had to explain why she promoted Burke’s son to a lucrative county position after a personal pitch from the alderman.
Gates said the absence of other stories, such as Preckwinkle’s work in helping to reduce the population at Cook County Jail and in creating CountyCare, the county’s Medicaid program, as well as her support for State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul leaves the coverage “imbalanced.”
Preckwinkle wouldn’t say whether or not people were unfair to her, only “there’s a lot of noise out there.”
“I’ve been working hard over the last six months to share with the people of the city of Chicago, my vision for the future,” she said.
But rivals Lori Lightfoot and Susana Mendoza scoffed, issuing a joint statement in advance of the rally.
“The idea that Toni Preckwinkle, among the most powerful elected officials in Illinois, and the head of the political machine in Cook County, is now playing the victim, is simply stunning,” the statement read. “As women of color and candidates for public office, we know what it’s like to go through the gauntlet — to defend ourselves against unfair, unethical and sexist attacks — and to get up the next morning and keep going.”
Charmaine Rickette, a restaurateur who attended Preckwinkle’s rally, said this is the first event she’s attended to support a candidate. She said Preckwinkle “understands the need to move the city forward.”
“I think that given the chance, she will show she’s not one dimensional in her thought process and won’t repeat past mistakes,” Rickette said.