How Alvarez Came About
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...
