Chicago Daily Observer

All the polling this year suggests that a Democrat-to-be-named-later will handily defeat a similarly generic Republican in the popular vote. But—as we learned in 2000—the electoral vote is what really counts.

This time, however, the changing electoral map strongly reinforces Democratic hopes.

In 2000, all eyes were on Florida’s 25 electoral votes. Tense weeks passed until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush won the state and therefore the election, though he trailed Al Gore by a half-million votes nationally.

Anita Alvarez, I learned at a 7 a.m. breakfast a couple of months ago, isn’t much of a morning person. Nor does she drink coffee, preferring hot chocolate. Neither fact should lull her November opponent into the belief that she is either soft or unready for the battle ahead.

Alvarez is the 48-year-old career county prosecutor who made history Feb. 5 by becoming the first woman and the first Hispanic to win a primary for Cook County state’s attorney. She beat five guys who were seasoned veterans of past political races. But that primary, however heated it got, was political patty-cake compared to what’s to come when Alvarez faces off against Republican Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica in November. Consider what the Sun-Times’ Steve Patterson reported after her victory: