Forrest Claypool
Forrest Claypool is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. An attorney, Claypool has lived in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago for the past 15 years. He is married and has three children.
Overview
A native of southern Illinois, Claypool, 48, is best known for his work on the Cook County Board and as the CEO and Superintendent of the Chicago Park District. Politically, he is best labeled as a progressive, though ironically he has built his career on reducing wasteful spending in local government. He is traditionally liberal on social issues (abortion, gay rights), and has also fought to expand access to health care.
Claypool has supported liberal candidates throughout his career, including U.S. Senators Paul M. Simon and Barack Obama, and Mayor Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago.
Education and Early Career
Claypool received his Bachelor's Degree from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and a law degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After school, Claypool worked as an attorney and served in several non-elected positions in state and county government, including deputy commissioner of the Cook County Board of Appeals and as deputy state treasurer.
In 1984, he helped his friend David Axelrod, a Democratic political consultant, found the firm Axelrod and Associates. Axelrod's firm has been noted for the high quality of its work, principally as the major advertisement producer for the successful campaign of U.S. Senator Barack Obama. (The firm's name is now AKP Message & Media.) Claypool served as the firm's managing partner until 1989 when he left to serve in the government of Mayor Richard M. Daley.
Chicago Park District
In 1989, Claypool began working for Mayor Daley, serving for two years as his first Chief of Staff. In 1993, Daley asked Claypool to take on the monumental task of overhauling the Chicago Park District.
When Claypool became the CEO and Superintendent of the CPD, the District had a budget of $300 million as well as a payroll of 4,100 full-time employees and roughly an equal number of seasonal employees. Despite this extraordinarily large payroll, many basic services were not being performed. It was said that the District "worked for the insiders" and not the people of Chicago.
Under Claypool's tenure, many of the politically-appointed positions were eliminated and employees who appeared to be doing little were forced to reapply for their jobs. By 1996, the payroll had fallen to 3,000 full-time employees while services consistently improved. When Claypool took over the District in 1991 it was also in financial disorder. For example, the District had outlays of $65 million for capital improvements but it had only $15 million in cash; it had also reached the maximum on its debt ceiling.
After reducing the staff by about 25% and cancelling many non-essential and wasteful projects, Claypool began to work with businesses to improve the CPD. For example, "In 1993, Kemper Golf Management, Chicago, took over the operation of the district's six golf courses and two driving ranges. The contract guarantees the park district about $250,000 a year up front for capital improvements, and the remaining revenues are divided equally. In 1992, the district suffered a $530,000 operating deficit; in 1994, that was turned into a $550,000 profit." (Kelly 1995, American City and County)
The CPD also began experimenting with the partial privatization of Soldier Field and its parking lots. In 1994, Soldier Field turned a profit for the first time in its history. Due to the success of the partial privatization, the Soldier Field Joint Venture started managing the stadium in late 1994.
Claypool left the CPD in 1996, serving a second term as Chief of Staff to Daley. In 1998, he managed the mayor's successful reelection campaign, one in which he received over 75% of the vote and won majorities of the white, black, Hispanic, and Asian votes.
Cook County Board
Capitalzing on his record as a reformer, Claypool made a run for the Cook County Board in November of 2002. Waging a fierce campaign in which he attacked what he saw as patronage and a bloated bureaucracy in the county government, Claypool defeated incumbent Commissioner Ted Lechowicz in the Democratic primary. (Lechowicz was a strong supporter of Cook County Board President John Stroger, Jr.) Because Claypool's district, the 12th, is overwhelmingly Democratic, he faced only nominal opposition in the general election.
Claypool quickly allied hiself with fellow freshmen Commissioners Larry Suffredin (D) and Tony Peraica (R). The three were joined by sophomore Commissioner Mike Quigley (D). When, in December of 2003, the four reformers garnered enough swing votes to defeat Stroger's FY 2004 budget (the first time such a thing had happened to a Cook County Board President in three decades) Stroger gave Claypool a backhanded compliment, saying, "The media has prevailed, along with Mr. Claypool." This quote ran under the banner headline, "Hell Freezes Over: Cook County Board rejects Stroger's budget" in the Chicago Sun-Times. The following year (FY 2005), the County Board rejected Stroger's plan tax increases again. The Chicago Tribune has credited Claypool and his allies for "bringing democracy" to and starting a "revolution" on the Board.
County Board President
Claypool declared in December that he is running for the Democratic nomination for County Board President in 2006. Stroger, who is also a Democrat, announced earlier that he would seek a fourth term, setting up a race among Claypool, Stroger, and Quigley for the Democratic nomination. Though Quigley promised that he would stay in the race after entering it over the summer, he dropped out in mid-December and endorsed Claypool, saying that only Claypool had the funding and the campaign organization to defeat Stroger.
In terms of funding, Claypool had outraisied every other candidate in 2005, including Stroger and Quigley ending the first half of the year with over $900,000 on hand and announcing that he would have $1.5 million on hand by the end of the year. Quigley agreed to chair Claypool's steering committee.
Most pundits agree that the Democratic primary is the real race, as Cook County is one of the most Democratic counties in the entire nation. Nevertheless, whoever wins between Claypool and Stroger will face Peraica, the likely Republican nominee, in November.
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