Previewing Illinois

Finally, the political world revolves around the state of Illinois for one day. Illinois is the first in the nation to hold its primaries and so the nation will have its electoral eyes on Illinois. Nationally, the two big races will be for the U.S. Senate and Governor. Republicans have a realistic chance of winning both in November.

The Democrats are putting up Dan Hynes and current Governor Pat Quinn. For self interest, all Republicans should be rooting for Pat Quinn to win. Quinn's first act as Governor was to raise that state's income tax about 50%. As the former Lt. Governor to Blago, that taint will likely stay with Quinn. Meanwhile, Hynes, the state's current Comptroller, has been surging in the polls.

Both are Springfield insiders in a year when that's a very bad place to be. On the Republican side, three candidates have been playing whack a mole with each other. Those candidates are Andy McKenna, Kirk Dillard, and Jim Ryan. Each would have the insider's label attached to them. Because each has waged a bloody commercial battle against each other. Dillard appeard in an ad in favor of then candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 election cycle. Both Dillard and Ryan are attached to tax increases. Meanwhile, McKenna has been attached to corruption as head of the Illinois GOP.

I believe that all three will knock each other out. Meanwhile, Adam Andrzejewski and Dan Proft were both vying for the candidate of the outsider. Recently, Andrzejewski has surged after being endorsed by Lech Walesa. That endorsement has lead to an endorsement by stalwart Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck yesterday. That race remains wide open but my pick is Andrzejewski.
In the Senate side, Alexi Giannoulias, the state's current Treasurer, has been dogged recently by his connection to his family's bank, Broadway Bank. He's facing David Hoffman, the recently former IG in Chicago and Chicago Urban League President Cheryle Jackson. Hoffman has gained traction attacking Giannoulias' big stock withdrawals over the last couple years. This has all happened while Broadway Bank has been losing tens of millions and is on the verge of being taken over by regulators. Meanwhile, Giannoulias was a loan officer at Broadway when he worked there. In fact, when he ran for the State's Treasurer office in 2006 he was dogged by loans made by the bank made to reputed mob boss in the area. Meanwhile, Hoffman has gained a reputation as corruption fighter. He was initially supposed to be a typical IG in Chicago but then waged several high profile battles with officials close to Daley. Hoffman has been dogged by what has been characterized as a terribly negative campaign including several retraction.

Once again, self interest would mean that Republicans are rooting for Giannoulias. Giannoulias was ahead as of the last set of polls but the race has taken on national significance and further exposure in the last week. That race remains up in the air. The last time the Democrats elected a true anti corruption fighter it was Mike Quigley to represent the 5th District in the U.S. House. He then cruised to victory in the special election. Hoffman would be a much tougher candidate in November. Meanwhile, Giannoulias would be tainted and bruised coming out of the primary. Jackson's campaign has been running third throughout.

On the Republican side, North Shore Congressman Mark Kirk has been leading throughout. His opponent, Patrick Hughes, is another favorite of the Tea Party movement. Kirk became its scourge following his vote in favor of cap and trade. He's also socially moderate. Still, while Hughes has been gaining recently, Kirk is the overwhelming favorite. He'd also be a favorite against Giannoulias. Against, Hoffman it would be a toss up.

While those two races will have national intrigue, the most compelling race is for the Cook County Board President. The current incumbent, Todd Stroger, has been an also ran throughout. The favorite originally, Dorothy Brown, has been dogged by some new ethics revelations recently. She's the current Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. She instituted a policy which laid a $5 fee for any employee that wore jeans to work. She's been unable to account for that money. There's been other questions about her employees contributions.

Questions about jeans day follow previous stories about Brown raising money for pet causes from workers in her office, which has more than 2,100 employees. She's also raised campaign money through her employees and they've been asked to contribute to gifts for her.

Today, Brown's staff acknowledged that there's no comprehensive accounting of the jeans day cash contributions that reach the tens of thousands of dollars each year. She said the office tries to verify that the number of permission stickers issued equals the number of contributions. Employees also are supposed to write their names on envelopes when they contribute for jeans day, she said. The comptroller in her office tracks the money, Brown added.

With corruption a main topic in Cook County, Brown has become vulnerable. That leaves the race open for Chicago Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and the head of the water reclamation district Terry O'Brien. That race also remains wide open.

On the Republican side, Roger Keats is facing off against John Garrido. Keats is the Candidate of the Republican Party in Cook County and he's being backed by Cook County Republican stalwart Tony Peraica. Keats remains the frontrunner in that race.

Meanwhile, the Green Party has been able to field no less than 19 candidates for offices in the Chicagoland area. This includes three candidates for the new head of the Water Reclamation District, Jack Ailey, Diana Horton, and Nadine Bopp. This includes a candidate for Governor, Senator, every Congressional district in the area, and about 70% of the Cook County offices.

Patronage Pays off For Stroger Cronies

The Chicago Sun Times has the latest in a string political corruption revelation in an area in which this appears common place.

Patronage workers with the Cook County Forest Preserve District are seeing more green these days -- in their paychecks.

With people everywhere facing tough financial times, the 28 forest preserve patronage workers who've been on the payroll since 2006 all got hefty raises in the following two years, an analysis by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Better Government Association has found. They're among 38 forest preserve workers who are exempt from the Shakman court order that bans political political hiring in city and county government.

On average, the exempt employees were paid $98,071 last year. Nine of them saw their salaries increase 19 percent or more between 2006 and 2008.

Between the fiasco surrounding former Governor Blagojevich, the scandal at the University of Illinois, and the growing scandal surrounding the Olympics, we might all forget that the Cook County government challenges all in the area for sustained and brazen corruption.

This story is remarkable not only for its brazen corruption, after all "patronage" is used in the story as though its expected, but by how the culture of corruption in the area has allowed it to happen.

In 1970, Michael Shakman became an independent delegate to the Illinois Constitutional convention. He became a champion against one of the many corrupt political practices in the state, political patronage. He then engaged in a nearly fifteen year battle against the powers that be in the political system and won. In 1983, the Shakman Decree was created. The Shakman Decree made it illegal to hire and fire city, county and state workers based on political factors. (excluded were those in a position of policy making and anything else where political ideology is important to the job) As such, about 40 city, county, and state offices disallow the practice of political patronage.

As it turns out, the victory was short lived. For the last twenty five years, the city, county and state have systematically assaulted the Shakman Decree and made more and more offices "exempt" from it. Mayor Daley is at the top of the list of those that try and muddy the waters on Shakman so that cronies can get cushy jobs.

The settlement is the result of the "Shakman case," first brought by attorney Michael Shakman in 1969.

Shakman challenged the city's legendarily corrupt patronage hiring system and won, but the city has been shown to have engaged in massive politically sponsored hiring despite court rulings to end the practice and assurances from city officials that the federal court decrees have been followed.

Daley has spent most of his administration fighting the federal Shakman decrees and continued the fight even after federal prosecutors last year won the convictions of four aides who allegedly rigged hiring to favor pro-Daley political workers.

Daley has managed to avoid being directly linked to corrupt hiring practices that have benefited his political campaigns and political allies.

The Cook County Board President, Todd Stroger, is also no stranger to this very assault.

So, just what exactly is it that 500 political employees hired by Cook County Board President Todd Stroger do all day?

For two years, a court-appointed watchdog has been asking Stroger that question. For two years, she has not gotten an answer.

Cook County Compliance Administrator Julia Nowicki, a former Cook County judge herself, made public Tuesday in a resignation letter that, as part of her quest to root out patronage abuses, she asked Stroger's administration to provide a job description for each of the 500 so-called "Shakman exempt" political employees Stroger can hire.

This brings us back to the latest scandal. The workers in question work for theCook County Forest Preserve District. The Cook County Forest Preserve, for unclear reasons, was given an exemption from Shakman and so it hired these 24 and likely more "patronage" employees. As the Sun Times reports, most of these folks are consistent contributors to the campaign of Todd Stroger or the 8th Ward Regular Democratic Organization which Todd's dad, John, controlled when he was alive. For their exercise of their first "first amendment" right (since a political contribution is your first amendment right), they were rewarded with a cushy raise of an average of near 20%. Well, I should clear up. There's no proof that these raises were the result of their contributions. All we know is that they just happened to occur all at about the same time period.

It's important to note that the county of Cook has one of the nation's highest sales taxes after Stroger pushed through a massive sales tax increase. (it's currently north of 10%) The sales tax increase came in response to a budget crunch and was passed in the summer of last year. It goes without saying that the budget crunch didn't affect these particular salary increases.

Why I Have Hope for Chicago, Cook County, and Springfield in Light of the Blagojevich Scandal

I have in the last year plus of blogging done many reports on a lot of corruption. There is one common thread in all habitual corruption. That is that the media is either incompetent or corrupt or both. In covering the scandal surrounding Grady and Emory I saw an utter lack of ability and or willingness by the local media like the AJC and the national media like the New York Times to connect the dots on all of the corruption that continues to go on there. In the latest reincarnation of corruption at Emory University, once again the media can't seem to figure out how to connect the dots to all the other corruption that surrounds that University. In covering the corruption of Dr. Mark Blotcky in Dallas, there was almost no coverage of his reign of terror besides what I wrote. The corruption at the Texas Medical Board gets scant coverage at any of the Texas area media outlets.

The same is true of the corruption in Chicago, Cook County, and Springfield. That our state is one of the most corrupt in the nation speaks for itself in damning the media here. Let's take the case of Jon Burge for instance. This was a police commander that for about twenty years lead a reign of terror in which hundreds of suspects had confessions tortured out of them. In fact, it got so bad that George Ryan had to put a moratorium on the death penalty. That's because far too many folks on death row got there because of tortured confessions. In fact, it is a matter of public record that prosecutors from the Cook County State's Attorney's office took confessions routinely from suspects they knew were just tortured. Yet, the newspaper that did the most coverage on this story was not either the Tribune or the Sun Times, but the Chicago Reader, the local artsy newspaper with one tenth the circulation of either the Tribune or the Sun Times.

For far too long, corrupt business as usual has gone on in Chicago and the media has turned a blind eye. For instance, we see all of this flurry of activity from the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Yet, the Cook County State's Attorney's office has in the last twenty years convicted exactly one politician of corruption charges. Is that something you would hear in the local media? Of course not. In fact, our current mayor was previously the Cook County State's Attorney and he was in charge while Burge was committing much of his torture, and he did nothing. Is that something you would ever read in either the Tribune or the Sun Times, very unlikely?

In 2006, John Stroger, then President of Cook County, suddenly slipped into a coma. It was unclear if he would survive let alone run for another term. In the worst kind of back room deal, his son, Todd, usurped the office and annoited himself the candidate of the Democratic Party in the next election. Prior to this, Todd was a city councilman in Chicago. Since then, Stroger has increased the County's sales tax to the highest levels in the country, cut funding to Cook County Hospital (also called John Stroger Hospital), and as this local CBS affiliate report shows put multiple political allies and friends on the County's payroll with cushy six figure jobs. Yet, outside of the report I linked, you will find scant coverage of Stroger's consistent and uncontrolled corruption.

Then, there is mayor Richard M. Daley. He is a walking talking pile of corruption. Every once in a while the media will report on a scandal like the hired truck scandal, but in reality, Daley's obscene corruption is really nothing more than an open secret that the media only attempts pay lip service to when it goes overboard, like the hired truck scandal. That his entire government is run as nothing more than a patronage, political machine full of favors, bribes, and back room deals is something that in Chicago only John Kass seems willing to address with any seriousness.

So, why am I so hopeful that this scandal will lead to real reform? There are several reasons. First, the brazenness and hubris that Blagojevich exhibited has created a visceral reaction not only in Illinois but in the nation. This is no longer a local or state story, but a national story. I believe that one of the reasons that the two newspapers cover up the corruption is access. They want to be able to speak to the mayor, the Cook County President and the governor. Now, the national media has descended upon Illinois. Some investigative journalist from Portland, Oregon isn't going to be concerned if he burns bridges with the Mayor's office in Chicago. As such, they are a lot less likely to be afraid to report the whole truth than most of the corrupted Chicago media establishment.

Second, Patrick Fitzgerald is an uncorruptable federal prosecutor that clearly has a visceraly hate for corruption himself. He will take these investigations wherever they lead and spare no one that is guilty. Now, with the visceral reaction of the nation to this corruption, he has the mandate of the entire nation to follow through on each and every lead. Unlike the standard operating procedure of the Chicago political establishment, this investigation won't be swept under the rug. Fitzgerald will follow through until he catches each and every person involved. The only potential road block is President Obama himself. If he were to fire Fitzgerald, even as part of a so called house cleaning, it would be his way of continuing the so called Chicago Way. If that happened, then this investigation would stop in its tracks. Of course, if President Obama were to do this, it would be at the expense of his Presidency. This brazen attempt to subvert an investigation into many of his political allies would not go unnoticed now that the entire nation's media has descended upon Fitzgerald, Chicago, and the state.

Third, this has the this has the to really damage the President Elect, but he also has the chance to turn this into a huge victory. If you read any Obama apologist they will defend him by proclaiming that this is guilt by association. The problem is that Obama rose through the ranks of the very guilty political machine that brought us this scandal. Obama is guilty by association because he didn't swear off the likes of Daley, Blagojevich, and Stroger, but rather he made them ALL his political allies. He's guilty by association because all his associations are guilty. Yet, he has a chance to turn all of this in his favor. He now has the bully pulpit and the resources, and he can demand that every investigation into every bit of Illinois corruption will reach its conclusion while he is President. If he does this, he will be viewed as the reformer he claims to be. It remains to be seen if Obama will show the kind of political courage necessary to do this, but if he is who he claims to be, corruption in Illinois will be taken on head on. If he does it, he will also lead the charge to break the grip of corruption that has had a hold on Chicago, Cook County and Springfield for as long as the governments here have been around.

Tony Peraica for Illinois Governor

This would definitely be a very controversial endorsement because Peraica just got his clock cleaned in the most recent Cook County State's Attorney's race in 2008. Yet, if the Illinois Republican Party wants to show that they are serious about ending corrupt business as usual, then the best candidate is Tony Peraica. I have known and supported Peraica for several years now, and Peraica is one of the very few Illinois politician that makes fighting corruption his platform.

The best way to describe Peraica's dedication to fighting corruption is through this story. Peraica is currently on the Board of Cook County. He was on this same board when John Stroger, the father of the current Cook County Board President, was the President. Several years ago a contract came up before the Board. Stroger was attempting to move the contract past the board in 72 business hours when the rules stated clearly that it was supposed to be no less than 96. Peraica investigated the contract and realized that one of Stroger's buddies was the recipient. Peraica rallied the entire board and the board voted 15-2 against Stroger's motion to move the contract forward. Then, with cameras rolling, despite actually losing 15-2, Stroger smacked the gavel and said the motion passed. Peraica fought Stroger all the way through the federal courts system until a federal judge finally sided with Peraica and said a 15-2 loss is in fact a loss, and the motion had no business passing.

This story is not only emblematic of the sort of ingrained corruption in Illinois but also in Peraica's dogged determination in fighting it. Here is how local political writer Dick Simpson describes Peraica's credentials as a crusader against corruption.

"[Peraica] opposes political corruption and has promised not to accept campaign contributions from county employees or vendors who do business with the county. He pledges not to raise taxes and to cut the budget, and he proposes a referendum to consolidate four tax-collecting agencies to save taxpayers' money. But can a Republican be elected on the platform of a smaller government, eliminating corruption and lower taxes?

"Peraica says 97 departments of county government can be cut to 35. He supports the 7 percent property tax cap pending in Springfield and would work for fundamental property tax reform later. He would cut the size of county government. Because 1,300 to 1,500 of the county's 27,000 employees leave each year, unnecessary jobs could be eliminated without having to fire large numbers.

Peraica is the only Illinois Republican that I can think of with a clear pedigree as a crusader against corruption. If the Republicans are to use this moment to wrestle power back in this state, they must make it clear that we aren't going to replace one corrupt regime with another. The history of politics in Illinois is that one party rules until the corruption gets to be too much and then the other party rules. The pattern never stops and we replace one form of corruption with another. The story of the indictment of REPUBLICAN power broker William Cellini shows that this state isn't run on ideology or parties, but rather it is run by corruption. It is run with a few power players sitting behind the scenes calling the shots.

If that is to stop, the state needs someone not tainted by the corruption. The reality is that this state has very few politicians like this. In 2001, Peter Fitzgerald lost his political career because he dared to nominate Patrick Fitzgerald, no relation, as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. The powers that be in Illinois were none too happy that an outsider was chosen to oversea their political business. The powers that be were looking for a consummate insider, someone eyeing a cushy lawyer gig later. In other words, the powers that be wanted someone they could control. They couldn't control Fitzgerald. As such, powerful Illinois legislator Bob Kjellander and House Speaker Denny Hastert lead an effort to strip Peter Fitzgerald of all Republican support in the party in Illinois. His political career was over.

That is the politics in Illinois and if the Republican Party nominates the typical candidate they will likely get someone that wants to play the same game that Blagojevich played. The Republican Party has one player that I can think of that will have credibility when they say that the era of corruption in Illinois is over. That person is Tony Peraica and he is my recommedation for Governor of Illinois.