Chicago Daily Observer

Arguably the biggest local election this fall will be for Cook County state’s attorney, where Democrat Anita Alvarez will try to hold off Republican Tony Peraica. If you think about it, Alvarez is kind of a Peraica Bizarro (if it’s not the other way around). Peraica, a former precinct captain for Bill Lipinski, lost a couple runs for office as a Democrat before switching parties and winning a suburban seat on the Cook County board in 2002. Now he encounters the stench of Democratic Party corruption everywhere he turns, and without fail finds it loathsome and campaign-worthy—he just can’t find enough opportunities to talk to the press about problems with the county jail, the county sales tax, or the county board president.

Cook County voters could be forgiven for not remembering they’re supposed to elect a new top prosecutor this fall.

Since her solid win in the nasty, expensive Democratic primary for state’s attorney, career prosecutor Anita Alvarez has kept a pretty low public profile. That’s because she’s been playing it safe and smart, traveling the county to meet with party committeemen and raise money. After all, if she gets the Democratic organization behind her she’ll win handily, especially with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.

I heard Tony Peraica’s presentation at the City Club of Chicago earlier this week. Inured to campaign speeches since I first started covering them in 1953, fifty-five years ago, I thought I’d load up on good Italian food and meet some old friends while Tony would recite a list of campaign truisms.

But what I heard was jaw-droppingly good. After years of watching this county shrug off misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and incompetence with widespread waste of taxpayers’ money, for the first time in many years I heard one who knows the ins and outs of county government, is articulate, forthright and energetic. He is far better than the most recent Republicans to run for state’s attorney. Ben Adamowski was determined to get even with Richard J. Daley for a feud they had when both were in the legislature. In fact if there was any vote-fraud of consequence in the 1960 ... Read More...

While Hillary Clinton and her strategists may publicly insist that it ain’t over until it’s over, her campaign is over.
Clinton must concoct an “exit strategy,” so as to minimize personal political damage, generate a modicum of goodwill, and maximize future political opportunity. In short, she must hope that Barack Obama loses the presidency, while avoiding blame for his loss.
So, too, must two prominent Illinois politicians who are poised on the brink of defeat and departure, respectively: Tony Peraica and Rod Blagojevich.
Peraica, Cook County commissioner and 2008 Republican candidate for state’s attorney, will not beat Democrat Anita Alvarez. If he expects to be a viable candidate for county board president in 2010, he can’t be obliterated in a landslide. In fact, he’ll be fortunate to get 35 percent. But the belligerent Peraica got into the race to win, so an exit strategy – and pre-election ... Read More...

Remember Tony Peraica?

He’s the Republican nominee for state’s attorney who waited about four seconds after first-time candidate Anita Alvarez won the Democratic primary before he began attacking her, charging that she’s a product of the Machine and a big reason the county’s criminal justice system has been “turning a blind eye to corruption and putting politics over public safety.”

It ranks with Alderman Pat Levar’s (45th) disastrous bid for Clerk of the Circuit Court in 2000, and county Treasurer Maria Pappas’s fizzled campaign for U.S. Senator in 2004. Add to that Alderman Howard Brookins’ (21st) embarrassingly inept bid for state’s attorney on Feb. 5.

We now have a triumvirate: Dumb, dumber and dumbest.

The 2008 Democratic primary was supposed to be the Big Black Blowout, with black Democrats sweeping every county office in the wake of a Barack Obama lovefest for president. Indeed, Obama crushed Hillary Clinton in Cook County, amassing 708,276 votes (70.7 percent) to her 301,747. But the city and county black vote was not, as expected, monolithic. Brookins garnered an astounding 542,492 fewer votes than did Obama.

“He didn’t show his face,” said one Democratic observer. “He had lots of yard signs – Obama and Brookins. He had lots of ads on black radio. But he ... Read More...

Her last name helped, but her first name won the election.

Prosecutor Anita Alvarez came out of nowhere to win a six-way Democratic primary race for Cook County States Attorney—which is tantamount winning in November, when she will become the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the job. (No, kiddies, Republican Tony Peraica has absolutely no chance of coming close this fall.)

She won with a small but solid base in the Latino communities, a push from some Machine committeemen and a huge women’s vote—a pattern that applied in both the city and suburbs. The female vote was stimulated largely by her self-financed, pitch-perfect, gender-oriented ad campaign.

But the hidden story involves the breakup of the—until now—solid black voting bloc that was expected to give Ald. Howard Brookins at least 30 and likely 35–40 percent of the total vote. Instead, he got only 22.11 percent, while Alvarez squeaked ... Read More...

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: