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.

What Do the Tea Parties Want to Accomplish

In response to a Hot Air story, a reader asked this cynical question.

In reality, though. These tea parties are pointless. They have no direction. What do they want to accomplish with them?”

That is a cynical question but it is a fair one. The Tea Party movement in many ways is no different than any budding grassroots movement. It's goals are to mobilize, to demand change, and then with mobilizing power to demand politicians that live up to the ideal of these ideas.

The ideas of the movement are simple concepts that have gone out of political style. They are the ideals of fiscal conservatism, smaller government, lower taxes, and less government intervention.

It's a movement that was fueled by the now famous Rick Santelli rant. In my opinion, its apex is not the stimulus bill or even the election of President Obama. Instead, its apex is the mortgage bailout. There was a visceral reaction to the idea that responsible people should be on the hook to bailout those that are irresponsible. So, this movement has one of the most important elements of any successful grassroots movements: raw emotion.

In the beginning, the key to the movement is to grow. On Friday, the tea parties numbered several hundred in each city. Here is how Eric Odom, who was instrumental in organizing the one here, put it.

While some in the media are trying to belittle the Tea Party events that happened today, they seemed to have missed the part where we only spent a week in planning, and only 3 days ago many of us were wondering if anyone would even show up!

In other words, it's a start, but it's only a start. The movement got a fair amount of coverage on local news broadcasts where the parties were held. It received some national media and Rush just mentioned in the parties in his speech to CPAC. From here, it must grow exponentially.

That's where the wonders of media and modern technology come in. The movement is already on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. In fact, the movement itself is starting its own site. So, to answer the cynics, the key to the movement in the short term is to grow. The key in the short term is to organize many more tea parties and see thousands at them rather than hundreds. The next round of nationwide coordinated rallies is set for April 15th. (for obvious reasons) If we see thousands at the next set of rallies, the nation will know it is serious.

Once the movement is mobilized it will have power and reach to demand action. The movement will back and support only those politicians that have a philosophy congruent with it: fiscal conservatism, small government, low taxes, and less intervention. Here in Illinois its natural political leader is Tony Peraica. He was the only politician to speak at the rally in Chicago. Here is how Peraica described the absence of other pols.

I mean, there were 400 grassroots activisits … TV news cameras … what could’ve kept the politicians away?

Could it have been the message of lower taxes and limited government? But wouldn’t that message have been a no-brainer for at least a Republican elected official?

Here in the Chicagoland area there is not only an apathy toward bloated and corrupt government, but also, there is an assumption that things won't change. This movement has an opportunity to change all that. As the movement grows locally, it will demand more politicians like Peraica. Of course, Peraica will be the main beneficiary of its movement locally.

In fact, don't be surprised if many of the local organizing leaders run for some sort of office themselves. As it evolves, it will take on a life of its own. It will, however, be built on mobilization, unity of principle, and will use those two in order to change the political process.

Reporting From Chicago's Chicago Tea Party Rally

As I walked up to Richard J. Daley Plaza, I was initially underwhelmed by the size of the crowd. I arrived only a couple minutes prior to 11 AM. The crowd looked initially no more than 75. I found a few folks that I knew and after speaking with them for a few minutes, I suddenly realized that the crowd had grown. By just after 11, the crowd was now roughly a few hundred. The media was well represented with cameras from everyone from NPR to the local Fox affiliate on site. The best sight was this young and budding protester.

The unexpected star of the rally emerged when it appeared that a veteran of the original tea party came to join us.

After about twenty minutes, the protest moved. The protestors began marching through downtown up Wacker Drive until our final destination in front of the Tribune Building on Michigan Avenue. The symbolism of it all was stark. The protest grew and as we made our way up the Chicago River the protesters were taking up more than a city block. The group had grown to something near a thousand. We chanted things like "No more Bailouts!!" and "Socialism Sucks". Car horns honked and we cheered back. We were all moving through the center of capitalism in Chicago. We started only blocks from the Sears Tower, the MERC, the Board of Trade, and the Chicago Stock Exchange. Our route took us through all of the major areas where big business congregates. This protest, at its heart, is an affirmation of capitalism, free markets, low taxes, and personal responsibility. It is a repudiation of big government, government intervention, and new regulations. As such, on that level, the route was perfectly appropriate.

As we arrived at the Tribune Building, there was more spontaneous symbolism. The pitchfork

from this new statue made after that famous painting, American Gothic, seemed a perfect backdrop to several hundred protesters. We were all standing with our figurative pitch forks demanding to take the government back.

The first speaker was local political power broker, Dan Proft. Proft's message was emblematic of the march, fiscal responsibility, low taxes, and smaller government. Proft made a mistake. He said that one in nine mortgages are in foreclosure. In fact, it is more like one in eleven. Proft asked with all the bailouts who will stand up for the other eight (actually ten). Then, the neo revolutionary decided to milk his fifteen minutes. He grabbed the bull horn and in a rather crude British accent began chanting, "No Taxation Without Deliberation".

Then, the real star of the march took to the bullhorn, Tony Peraica. (for full disclosure Tony Peraica is my favorite politician on any level, and my hope for the next Governor of Illinois)

Peraica is a remarkable politician. He is a real small government conservative. Everytime he speaks its about waste, corruption, high taxes, and how to make government smaller. If Peraica had made his home is say Mississippi, he would likely be Governor now. Yet, he has made his political home in Cook County. So, while his small government conservative message often falls on deaf ears in the bastion of liberalism in Cook County, on this day, at this rally, he was among those that wanted to hear it.

Peraica knows what every politician knows and that is that all politics is local. Peraica drew the thread between the never ending bailouts, stimuli, and bloated budgets in D.C. and what we hear in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois already know. Peraica immediately said "yesterday in D.C. we saw what we already know here in Cook County...that's that politicians know how really well how to spend other people's money".

Peraica drew the thread from the massive budget announced by President Obama. He drew the link between President Obama, Todd Stroger, and Mayor Daley himself. He said what everyone in the crowd already believed that massive spending and deficits eventually lead to higher taxes on everyone. On the local, county and state level that's already true because budgets have to be balanced. On the national level slick politicians like President Obama can claim to not raise taxes while running up massive deficits because they need not balance budgets. Of course, this crowd wasn't buying it. The crowd was never as fired up as when Mr. Peraica was leading it.

The President should be afraid the tea party movement because it has all the elements. First, it is now relatively small, but it's growing. Each of the sponsors had their email sign up sheets out and they all likely just bulked up their membership by several hundred. It also has really emotion behind. There is a visceral rejection of bailouts and bloated government spending. More than that, it is a movement that can't be demonized. It is at the grass roots, full of ordinary citizens, and they all reject the entire philosophy of the Obama administration. Finally, it uses all of the modern resources: blogs, talk radio, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to grow.

Today, there were several hundred but this will continue to grow. The next protest, I predict will have several thousand and then tens of thousands, and then it will be too late for the Obama administration.

If President Obama's march toward big government is to be stopped, it will be stopped by this movement. It will start as a movement of protest but it must grow to a movement of action.
President Obama had better watch over his shoulder because this small but very passionate movement is coming for him.

Now, here are some more random photos.

Forrest Claypool for Illinois Governor

Two days ago, I suggested that the Republicans nominate Tony Peraica for Governor. I believe that Peraica is the right man at the right time for this job because he has an impeccable record in confronting and fighting corruption. The next Governor of Illinois must be a crusader against corruption. There are very few politicians in Illinois with any credentials in fighting corruption. Peraica is one, and the only Democrat I can think of is Forrest Claypool. Claypool is currently on the Cook County Board along with Peraica. In fact, Claypool became Peraica's chief deputy in fighting John Stroger in the story I referenced in supporting Peraica. Claypool has a history and a record in fighting wasteful spending that causes corruption.

Claypool has voted against funding breast cancer screenings, against a prescription drug program for seniors, against funding jail guards. Which is all true, technically, because Claypool voted against (John) Stroger’s ridiculously oversized 2006 budget proposal.

It is no small feat that Claypool became one of John Stroger's chief political opponents during his tenure as a member of Cook County board. That's because Stroger for years controlled the entire Cook County apparatus. In order for a politician to move up through the ranks in Cook County they would need to gain the favor of Stroger. Yet, Stroger was also one of the most crooked politicians around. He routinely passed bloated budgets, passed out sweetheart contracts, and created patronage. All of this, Claypool vigorously opposed throughout his career.





Trying to move through the political system outside of the political machine is very difficult and it takes a fair amount of political courage. That's exactly how Claypool has risen through the ranks. It means that Claypool is not tainted by the political machine out of Cook County. In fact, if the next Gubernatorial election was between Tony Peraica and Forrest Claypool it would show that both parties in Illinois were serious about tackling the corruption that infects our state.

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.

Some Context on Jon Burge, the Chicago Media, and Election 2008

In yesterday's election for Cook County State's Attorney, Anita Alvarez trounced Tony Peraica. The only time that the race became a story in the press in the area was a bruhaha over an advertisement created by Tony Peraica. Tony Peraica used an advertisement that invoked the U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked Republican Cook County state's attorney candidate Tony Peraica to stop passing out a campaign flier that looks to Fitzgerald like Peraica is claiming his endorsement.

The flier shows side-by-side photos of Fitzgerald and Peraica and says, "U.S. Attorney's Office Needs Help Fighting Corruption in Cook County."

Fitzgerald said in his letter he had never even met Peraica. "The flier creates the misleading assumption that I have endorsed your candidacy. . . . That is by no means the case. I have never endorsed any candidate in any race for anything (much less someone I do not believe I have yet had occasion to meet.)"

Peraica's advertisement made the claim that if he (Tony Peraica) were elected, then Peraica would help Fitzgerald in rooting out corruption in Cook County. Alvarez cried foul because the advertisement was construed as an endorsement of Peraica by Fitzgerald, which Fitzgerald never did. While the advertisement was a bit misleading, the entire issue was rather trivial. Yet, this is the only thing that the media in the Cook County area focused on regarding the race.

At the same time, only weeks before the election Jon Burge was indicted by the same U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Burge is a former police commander in Chicago that committed systematic torture for almost twenty years before finally being removed in the early 1990's.

The Burge story should have been explored long before the campaign, but it should have especially been explored following the indictment. The Cook County State's Attorney's office didn't merely look the other way while this torture went on. In fact, they were often willing participants. It was in fact often Cook County State's Attorneys prosecutors that often took statements of suspects after being beaten for hours, electricuted, and other torture. The Cook County State's Attorney's office knew what happened and they participated for years actively in the torture.

Anita Alvarez is a twenty plus year veteran of the Cook County State's Attorney's office. Some of those years were spent in the office while Burge and his crew were committing systematic torture. Both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times endorsed Alvarez. Both cited her "experience" as a main reason for their endorsement. In fact, the Cook County State's Attorney's race was a mirror of the Presidential campaign, with Peraica, the Republican, as the agent of change, and Alvarez, the Democrat, the agent of experience. As much as the folks at both the Sun Times and Tribune ate up Obama's message of change, they just as quickly dismissed the exact same message from Peraica.

The Cook County government is in need of far more significant reform than the govenrment in D.C., and that is coming from someone who knows full well how broken D.C. is. The Burge story only starts here as well. First, Burge was again indicted by the U.S. Attorney not the Cook County State's Attorney. Second, he was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice not torture. That's because his acts of torture have now passed the statute of limitations. That's likely because the powers that be in places just like the Cook County State's Attorney's office protected Burge until the statute of limitations ran out.

All of this should have made the entire office toxic. Had the media given the Burge story and the overall corruption surrounding the proper coverage of a story of this magnitude, the entire Cook County State's Attorney's office would have become toxic. Had the media covered this story with the vigor that it finally deserves, Alvarez' 20 plus year connection to the office would have been as toxic as McCain's connection to Bush.

The State's Attorney's office almost never indicts a politician in the very crooked County of Cook. One of the reasons that the County is as corrupt as it is, is exactly because the Cook County State's Attorney's office does nearly nothing to be a watchdog. The other reason is because the major news organizations are just as ignorant.

Instead, the major media in the Chicagoland area focused on a silly advertisement. They made experience the important issue in the race, and as such, the apathetic voters voted in the ultimate insider to oversea one of the most corrupt political governments in the country.