The Four Horsemen.

The name sounds like a metal band or a bar.

But in Cook County politics, the Four Horsemen is a nickname for a group of reform commissioners.

Over the past few years, they've united to block budgets, slay tax increases and redefine the politics of the county.

The last year, however, has been a rocky one-and now there are signs this powerful alliance is cracking.

Chicago Public Radio's Ben Calhoun reports.

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The story of the Four Horsemen of the Cook County Board is about things politicians often promise but rarely deliver.

It involves challenging power, rebellion and change.

It also involves friendship, and trust, and betrayal.

It starts with this guy.

QUIGLEY: Mike Quigley, Cook County Commissioner, 10th District

Like most governments, Cook County has a legislative body, the commissioners... and an executive, the Board President.

But when Mike Quigley was elected in 1998, it wasn't a checks and balances sort of government.

There were commissioners who did their jobs-but former County Board President John Stroger was clearly calling the shots.

STROGER: A threat means you may do it. I'm going to do that.

Stroger and Quigley immediately started bumping heads.

Quigley went against the grain-calling for smaller government, lower taxes-for cutting bloat and patronage.

In short, he made himself

QUIGLEY: The person credited or blamed with starting reform issues here at the county.

But Quigley's was just one commissioner-he could make a lot of noise, but didn't have much power.

Then things changed.

QUIGLEY: Fortunately in 2002, about a third of the board was replaced.

Among the new commissioners were three reformers.

SUFFREDIN/PERAICA: Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin from the 13th District. Tony Peraica County Commissioner 16th District.

And from the 12th District.

CLAYPOOL: Forrest Claypool.

The three Democrats, with Republican Peraica, formed a coalition.

MONTAGE: I heard various names for us. Some of them not printable/Well it was a Carol Marin column/Actually I believe it was Jeff Berkowitz/Somebody said it was the Four Horsemen of the Apolocolypse/Referred to us as that/The Four Horsemen/Some of the people around here like to remind us that the four horsemen were not positive attributes.

The bible only names death-but the other three have come to be known as conquest, war and famine.

Regardless, the name stuck.

More important, for the first time, there was a voting block that threatened the president's power.

And as it is when people compete for power-it was only a matter of time before war a broke out.

MONTAGE: You know, you're not going to get new taxes, so-f-f-dazzle us!/President Stroger is stuck in the government of 1950's/We're trying to negotiate with him and unfortunately he's not used to ever/I'm going to definitely respect you and honor you I respect you too mister president, you just made a scurrilous remark What's a scurrilous remark?/You don't have the votes, you want to sit here Sunday night, Monday night, hoping that Tuesday doesn't come.

The first big showdown came in December 2003... over Stroger's budget. The budget called for tax increases.

SUFFREDIN: which was the traditional way county budgets were before we got here.

The Four Horsemen stayed together.

They sided with the board's Republicans.

Then they united with Democrat Earlean Collins-who gave them the vote they needed to block Stroger.

Claypool and Suffredin say they'll never forget the newspapers the next day.
 
CLAYPOOL/SUFFREDIN: The Sun-Times front-page headline was "Hell Freezes Over"/Hell Has Frozen Over: The Cook County Board Stood Up to the Cook County President.

It was the first time in more than 30 years that commissioners stopped the president's budget.

But Quigley says the message was bigger than a single vote.

QUIGLEY: We could defeat tax hikes, we could defeat a budget, and force the president into changing things.

But the last year in county politics has been a stormy one.

And there are signs the very alliance of the Four Horsemen is starting to fracture.

They even admit it. Here's Tony Peraica.

PERAICA: The chemistry between the four people-Quigley, Suffredin, Claypool and myself has changed over time due to a lot of factors including the campaigns that Claypool and I ran.

Those were campaigns in last year's race for county board president.

About a year ago John Stroger suffered a debilitating stroke, but beat Claypool in the primary.

The party swapped John Stroger off the ballot and replaced him with his son, Todd.

The younger Stroger beat Peraica in the November general election.

The election split the reformers in several different ways.

MONTAGE: I decided not to run and support Forrest Claypool for president/Mike kept thinking he could be a candidate, but unfortunately Mike's personality is much more divisive/Others were shocked and dismayed that I wouldn't support Tony Peraica/My lack of support for Tony was not personal, but it's a reflection of my/It has eliminated some of the initial collegiality and cooperation that existed

These days some wounds are healing better than others.

Commissioner Peraica still seems hurt that the three other Horsemen didn't cross party lines to support him.

Last year's election was rift one... rift two was this year's budget

That's current County Board President Todd Stroger's budget.

The four horsemen had forged a block of 12 commissioners with an alternative budget--and were trying to leverage the president.

But Peraica, Claypool and Suffredin say-Quigley caught them off guard.

MONTAGE: Larry Suffredin and Tony Peraica and myself stood together-and until the very end, so did Mike Quigley/Something happened/Ultimately what happened is he broke off/He flipped on the last day and went over to Stroger's side on the budget.

Quigley defends what he did, and says he's as committed as ever to implementing reform.

QUIGLEY: I think it's always helpful that you have a group that's consistently supporting reform-like ideas. I think what's a mistake is they feel like they have to agree with each other all the time. And if anyone disagrees with them, then they're to be shunned or called some sort of traitor.

Quigley, Suffredin, Peraica and Claypool all say they're still mostly on the same page.

But they also all admit the last year has put some distance between them.

And that's a big change.

It was the group's unity that made them powerful enough to reshape county politics.

Some say the rift isn't too deep.

Others, like Suffredin, say the reform block has just evolved.

SUFFREDIN: Actually I think that Quigley's been replaced by Tim Schneider-so that the four horsemen are Schneider, Peraica, Suffredin and Claypool.

What the four horsemen agree on-the original four horsemen, that is--is that they're all still committed to reform.

And they'll vote together a lot of the time, even if it's not all the time.

QUIGLEY: You know, I don't think any of the group goes bowling. So I don't think they're bested buddies. But in the end it worked, it was very effective. It was never intended to be a blood oath.

Politicians don't usually show a lot of emotion-anger sometimes, but even that's the exception.

But I asked each one of the horsemen how he feels about the new distance between them-and to a person, they showed two emotions.

Each one seemed a little sad the group's not as close as it used to be.

But, to a person, each also seems genuinely proud of what they've accomplished--that they've turned the county board into a real legislative body.
 
Something all of them say, they could not have done alone.