Chicago Daily Observer

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.”

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:

The term “ecumenical,” defined as “tending to support and encourage unity between the various types of the Christian religion,” has often been applied to governance. After all, government tends to work best when ecumenical principles at least season its processes.

Cook County Republican Party Chairman Elizabeth “Liz” Gorman appears more than willing to routinely accommodate Democrats. If only she would spare some of that ecumenical fervor for her own political party. It certainly could use more unity.

With the debacle in the Democratic controlled state house and Governor’s mansion, the exposure of gross mismanagement of the CTA and other agencies under Mayor Richard Daley, and Todd Stroger exhibiting a stunning amalgam of ineptness and arrogance as he shafts taxpayers for the benefit of his inner circle at the Cook County building, you’d think that county Republicans would see a chance to finally begin breaking the hammerlock Democrats have developed ... Read More...