Cook County Board President

[JoDog]

I'm looking for anyone who caught the debate for Cook County Board president last night. It was on too late for me. While I don't live in Cook, I have a lot of friends who do--even one who works for one of the campaigns. And I'm curious about what may have gone down. And I don't entirely trust the Trib or Sun Times to give me an accurate impression of what happened. Besides, my own county races are pretty much moot at this point. Might as well watch one that could get interesting.

[Kira]

1. What's the story with Peraica

Everyone in my town has his signs on their lawn. I just don't get it. I'm not a big fan of Stroger but I am not voting Repub.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. This is the way I look at Peraica.

He's absolutely no different from Todd Stroger. Being President of the Cook County Board is all about patronage and always has been.

The only difference between Peraica and Stroger is this: Peraica will replace all of Stroger's patronage people with his own, meaning they'll be overwhelmingly white and from Berwyn, Cicero, LaGrange, etc.

I voted today and I didn't vote for either one of them.

Bottom line, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss".

Edited to add: Just saw a good Stroger commercial about Tony. Makes the point that he's just another Bush Republican....

[Kira]

3. I was just wondering

because my neighbor who just built this huge house in our neighborhood hasn't even put in her new grass but has a giant Peraica sign. I wonder if she is voting for him because of local taxes or because she is a Repuke. (If I see her I'll ask) I just thought I would vote for Stroger because he is the dem.

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. I am thinking of doing the same thing....and probably will.

We have a choice between bad and badder.

I HATE the way the Stroger family handled the primary. They HAD to know had badly disabled John Stroger was, yet never spoke up. Kept silent for months. So the family succession could continue. Had the Strogers spoken up, Forrest Claypool might have had a chance at winning. He was the county commissioner in the area where I work, and I know that people out there liked him a lot.

BTW, did you vote on a Sequoia system, which I hear is what the county purchased for the suburbs? My primary vote in the spring was still at the old location and I chose the optical scan. I got to fill out a paper ballot. It was wonderful. :D

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

5. Sheila, the only way to vote early in Cook County is on the

touch-screen machines and I believe they're ES&S.

I asked the woman working at the Oak Lawn Village Hall yesterday if I could get an optical scan ballot and she said no. When I pressed her on it, she started stuttering and one of the men who obviously worked for either the Village of Oak Lawn or David Orr's office came to her rescue.

He explained to me that the reason the County is using the touch-screen machines at all the early voting sites is because these machines are the only ones they could "load" all the candidates on.

Basically what he said is this: if you live in Schaumburg and worked in Oak Lawn, you could vote early in Oak Lawn because the touch-screen machines would pull up all the candidates in your Congressional district, State Senate district, etc. He also said it would be physically impossible to have "all" the correct optical scan ballots available at all the early voting sites in Cook County. When I asked him who made this decision, he said that David Orr did.

I was sorely tempted to cast a write-in for Forrest Claypool, but I decided not to. My reason for this is the fact that I wasn't sure that Claypool had filed a "declaration of intent" with the Clerk's office and was listed on Form 106.

According to page 103 of the "Election Judge Manual" issued by Orr's office for the Nov. 7th election: "Only write-in votes cast for candidates who have filed a declaration of intent with the Cook County Clerk's Office and are listed on Form 106 may be counted."

Because I questioned these officials about the optical scan ballot and they weren't exactly thrilled that I did, I didn't want to get them even more upset asking if I did write-in a vote for Forrest Claypool, would it count.

What I'd love to know is who decided I couldn't cast a vote for Donald Duck for President of the Cook County Board and it wouldn't be counted.

To be quite honest IMHO, Donald Duck would be a far better choice than the two clowns that are running.

[greatauntoftriplets]

6. Thanks for the warning.....

I hope they have optical scan here on election day. The option seems much better to me.

And "clowns" is a great definition of the two candidates in this race.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

7. On Nov. 7th, both machines will be available

for voting, so you shouldn't have a problem.

BTW, the touch screen machine does have a paper printout that you can doublecheck to make sure that you voted the way you want. You can't take the printout with you, it stays with the voting machine, but at least there is some sort of a paper record that will be kept by the BOE.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. That is good to know....

I suppose going to touch screen was inevitable, but Andy and I had WAY too many conversations about voting irregularities and their possibilities for me to trust the systems. Plus, I saw "Man of the Year" a couple of weeks ago. While corporate greed rather than voter fraud was the cause of machine problems there, it hit really close to home.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

9. Here's an article on Mr. Peraica that I found on Google.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/theworks/060804/

Looks to me that Tony is not what he seems to be.....

[JoDog]

10. Thank you for your thoughts

Someday, we all must meet up in the Lounge and discuss how being a Bears fan is fun again...

I've got to tell you guys though, straight out, if I lived in Cook, there is no way I would be voting for Stroger. It would simply be reinforcing bad, slimy and sneaky behavior on the part of the Stroger family and the Cook County Democrat organization.

Firstly, I think that the Stroger family knew before the primary that the elder Stroger wasn't going to be able to wage the general election. The rumors I've heard were that he was on feeding tubes, and unable to sign his own name. Rather than bow out, he was kept in the campaign with an aim to insert his son Todd on the ballot in his place.

Second, the county Dems had a chance to do the rational thing when the elder Stroger's name finally was removed from the ballot: Put on Forest Claypool. He only narrowly lost the primary and in his time on the county council he has shown a tast for reform. But instead, they pick the inexperienced Todd Stroger. Why? I suspect somebody cut a deal, perhaps someone who has a lot invested in the status quo. Just a hunch. Which leads me to think that Todd Stroger is not interested in reforming the government and making it leaner and more effective.

I agree that Tony Peraica is a little more socially conservative than I normally like. However, a good friend of mine, "Auntie M", an FDR dem (who actually remembers the FDR administration!) pointed out that the leader of the county board is not an island. A good hunk (if not most) of the board seats will be remain in Dem hands. More than enough to temper any one (or several) Republican(s). Even if one of them is the board president.

It seems the choice is this: A candidate who didn't even contend in the primary, whose very prescence on the ballot is questionable, or take a gamble on some one who would probably only hold the office for 1 term anyway because of the political forces in the county. Not a great choice.

[mopinko]

11. one factoid, for what it is worth, and the dropoff from other

races to the county board race will be pretty obvious, i think. everyone i talk to says they are just going to skip the race. it won't change anything but it will send a message.
i am told that state law prohibits replacing a candidate with a person that ran in the primary and lost. so, claypool is not eligable. but really, if there is anything worse than a hack, it is the son of a hack.

[Monty_]

12. Peraica

Read what Time Out has to say about Peraica and you'll vote for Stroger in a heartbeat even if you don't like him at all.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

13. JoDog, I don't mean to nitpick or sound bitchy, but please

stop referring to "the Cook County Democrat organization". The proper name is "the Cook County Democratic organization".

Here's a link to article in the New Yorker about the use of this:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060807ta_talk_hertzberg

Not using the "ic" on the end of Democrat is like hearing fingernails on a blackboard for me. It drives me completely insane....

[JoDog]

14. Nah, I don't take it that way

I'm all about accuracy, and you're right, I screwed it up. Thanks for calling me on it!