Stroger Lame Duck

Favorite target Toddler Stroger is on the way out:

• With two-thirds of the precincts reporting in suburban Cook County alone, Preckwinkle had 53.91 percent of the vote — a 2-to-1 lead over her closest rival in the race, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District chief Terry O’Brien, who garnered 26.82 percent of the votes, followed by Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court, with 11.22 percent of the vote and Stroger with less than 10 percent.

  In the city, it was a similar story. With 84 percent of the precincts reporting, Preckwinkle won 47 percent of the vote, O’Brien, 21 percent, Stroger 16.5 percent and Brown 16 percent.

No word yet on what this means for "Hog Balls" Beavers, who's daughter failed to hold on to his aldermanic seat and all of his considerable political capital has now evaporated.

The Sun Times is already throwing the fall election Preckwinkle's direction, discounting the republican side of things:

• If history is any judge, Preckwinkle will run the $3.2 billion government that funds the jail and local courts as well as a hospital and health system for the poor and uninsured.

  A Republican hasn’t held the job in 40 years, though financial planner and former state Sen. Roger Keats, 61, of Wilmette defeated Chicago Police Lt. John Garrido, 42, in the Republican race, points to Massachusetts voters handing the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s senate seat to a GOPer.

Quite a bit will depend on how the national economy goes this summer, and at the moment, things are grim.