Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) is dropping out of the race for Cook County Board president and running for reelection in Congress.

Last week, Davis submitted petitions both for re-election to his 7th congressional district post and for Cook County Board president. Monday was the deadline to drop out of one of them.

On Monday, Davis pulled out of the race against Board President Todd 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.

Davis started his news conference by reading a letter from an inmate at a federal penitentiary in Beaumont, Texas, who wrote, "Those of us in the federal penitentiary will sorely miss your advocacy on federal good time and parole." Davis' signature issue in Congress has been second-chance programs for ex-offenders.

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.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger now has three challengers in the Democratic primary -- Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown, Ald. Toni Preckwinckle (4th) and Water Reclamation District President Terry O'Brien.

Davis was first elected to Congress in 1996. His 7th District includes downtown Chicago, much of the West Side, and some western suburbs.

Davis had previously indicated that he would leave Congress to run for County Board president, but later filed to run for both offices.

Among the other Democratic candidates either confirmed or rumored to be running for the 7th District seat are realtor Jim Ascot, minister and political activist Clarence Desmond Clemons, Ald. Sharon Dixon (24th), Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd), New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Marshall Hatch, Illinois State Sen. Rickey Hendon (D-Chicago), health care consultant and onetime Illinois lieutenant governor candidate Joyce Washington, and Cook County Recorder of Deeds' Office Chief Deputy Darlena Williams-Burnett.

Republican Mark Weiman and Green Party candidate Kip Robbins are running unopposed in their respective primaries.

The Associated Press and the Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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