Via WBEZ comes a release from Cook County Comm. Larry Suffredin calling on Board President Todd Stroger to resign.  Suffredin says that, after the abrupt and mysterious firing of chief financial officer Donna Dunnings this week, "the person who gave her all this power should follow her lead":

His cousin, Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings, resigned in the dead of last night because of serious unexplained issues. Ms. Dunning has been the de facto President of the County Board telling her cousin when to talk and what to do. She has developed and put in place hiring processes that benefited President Stroger’s friends and family and is the architect of the latest plan to borrow more money than the County needs. If she has to resign, then the person who gave her all this power should follow her lead as he has on every other important County issue.

Ouch.  Commissioner Tony Peraica has called on Stroger to resign as well, according to today's Tribune article, which fills in more details about the man at the center of the Dunnings controversy -- Tony Cole, a former county employee with a disturbing rap sheet hired by Stroger while a busboy at a Chicago steakhouse. The Defender further reports that allegations of a sexual relationship between Dunnings and Cole are at the center of this mess.

The word on the street in recent weeks has been that the regular Democrats who previously supported Stroger were trying to convince him not to run for reelection.  This latest development seems to have brought that effort out into the open, as CBS 2 reports:

The Donna Dunnings scandal is the last straw. Several African-American politicians say they plan to tell Stroger that he should not run for re-election. Organization Democrats are looking for another candidate.