TRIBUNE ENDORSEMENT FOR COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT
The GOP alternative: Keats
January 12, 2010

Four decades have passed since a Republican, the late Richard Ogilvie, presided over the Cook County Board. But many voters are furious about the obsolete and costly bureaucracy that county government has become under 40 years of one-party rule. If the Democrats re-nominate President Todd Stroger or choose another weak candidate, voters just might pick someone else to blast the County Building from the 19th century to the 21st.

Two Republicans seek their party's nomination, and their policy stands are similar: Both want to eliminate the second half of the 2008 county sales tax hike, both favor combining the county's many redundant offices and functions, both would boost the number of county inspector general's investigators in this haven of patronage hiring and lucrative contracts for insiders and political donors, and both would extend to other realms the concept of oversight independent of the County Board -- much as an independent panel now runs the Cook County health system.

Republicans need to present an experienced candidate in November so voters will have an alternative, someone who's ready to run things. Former state Sen. Roger Keats butted heads with Democrats in Springfield and understands that he'd have to do more of that as president of the County Board. Some county Dems privately say they fear that Keats, a businessman, has the understanding of budgeting -- and, frankly, the outsized self-confidence -- to shake business as usual at the County Building.

Republican voters give themselves the best chance of winning in November if they nominate Roger Keats on Feb. 2. (Click for PDF)

PIONEER PRESS
Endorsements: Keats for county president
January 21, 2010

Cook County Republicans also have a solid candidate running for Cook County board president.

Roger Keats promises to make county finances more transparent by posting the budget and checkbook, reforming the way property tax assessments are determined and implementing the recommendations of the hospital oversight board.

But first he wants to repeal the final 1/2-cent of President Stroger's unpopular sales tax which Keats says hurts businesses and penalizes residents for shopping locally.

He wants to create more jobs and revitalize state businesses by changing the assessment system and organizing a summit of business leaders to secure their input.

A former state representative and state senator, Keats would bring a businessman's perspective to a county that could use professional oversight.

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