First, Todd Stroger, the Cook County Board president, lost the backing of the mostly white Democratic power structure that he and his father had served for decades. And now, not long after his failed run for another term, Mr. Stroger has also given up the right to lead the political foot soldiers who long served his family’s South Side political dynasty.
Less than a month after his primary defeat, Mr. Stroger resigned last week as committeeman of the once-powerful 8th Ward Democratic Organization and handed the post to Michelle Harris, the alderman of the ward.
In an interview last week, Mr. Stroger said nobody pushed him out of the position. Still, he suggested that some of his fellow 8th Ward Democrats gave up on his re-election bid.
“Do I believe that everyone worked as hard as they could?” he said. “No. It was an uphill battle from the beginning, so I don’t blame anyone.”
Under the leadership of his father, John Stroger, the 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization was among the most powerful ward groups in the city, and its loyalists were rewarded. A Chicago Tribune investigation in 1999, when the elder Mr. Stroger was Cook County Board president, found that 100 of 115 members of the 8th Ward Democratic organization held city, county or state jobs.
But in the primary on Feb. 2, the 8th Ward Democrats mustered only 41 percent of the vote for their native son — a margin of just 500 votes over Toni Preckwinkle, who won the nomination — as Mr. Stroger finished last countywide in the four-way race.
“He didn’t show strength, so they deserted him,” said William Beavers, the Cook County commissioner and a longtime ally of Mr. Stroger and his father.
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