Poll: Republican Peraica leading Todd Stroger

October 30, 2006 (WLS) -- Voters may be on the verge of electing the first Republican Cook County Board president in 40 years. An exclusive new poll shows Tony Peraica leading Todd Stroger. The poll was conducted by ABC7 and The Daily Herald.

Alderman Todd Stroger, who replaced his ailing father on the Democratic party ballot, is twice as well known to the voters in our poll as Republican County Commissioner Tony Peraica. But, b the same margin of more than 2-to-1, the same voters have a negative opinion of Stroger, and a lot of them are Democrats who wanted Forrest Claypool on the ballot this fall. So, they are supporting Peraica, who may be on the verge of one of the biggest upsets in Cook County history.

Republican Tony Peraica is leading Todd Stroger by 9 percentage points over Democrat Todd Stroger in our exclusive poll, 51-to-42, with 7 percent undecided, and a 6 percent margin of error. So, it could be closer, but the message from the voters is clear, according to pollster Richard Day.

"It says that they are extraordinarily underwhelmed by Todd Stroger," said Richard Day, ABC7 Daily Herald pollster.

"I never hear anything that he has done. The other fella I think he has something to show that I can vote for," said Pablo Diaz, Chicago voter.

Peraica is not very well known. But it doesn't seem to matter.

"His whole claim to fame is that he's not Todd Stroger," Day said.

The numbers tell the story: Stroger is only getting 57 percent of the Democratic vote to Peraica's 34. Democrats, who don't have a strong party affiliation, are backing Peraica by a margin of 55-to-35.

Many of them supported Democrat Forrest Claypool in the primary against Todd Stroger's father John and they resent the way the Democratic party handled the information about John Stroger's serious stroke, and then maneuvered his son onto the ballot to replace him without even considering Claypool.

"As a voter, and as an individual, I'm a little offended by what the Democrats did in that race," said Gayle Paprocki, Chicago Democrat.

On a favorability scale of 1-to-10 the ailing John Stroger is a respectable 5.6. But Todd is all the way down at 4.0. More than 90 percent of the African-American voters say they support him, but not enthusiastically, which may indicate a dangerously low turnout.

Leonard Harris was ready to support Peraica until he met Stroger in person.

"I met Stroger, I feel a little more comfortable with him, that's why I'm going with him," said Leonard Harrison, Chicago voter.

Our pollster, Richard Day, interviewed 300 likely Cook County voters by telephone just over a week ago, before Todd Stroger went on TV with the big ad campaign and the Democratic organization cranked up a get-out-the-vote operation that Republicans can't begin to compete with. So, the race figures to tighten up considerably, but Tony Peraica still has a good chance to pull off a major upset and turn a $3 billion dollar operation over to the GOP for the first time in 40 years.

You can also find these poll results in Tuesday's Daily Herald, and also on their Web site www.dailyherald.com.

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