February 5, 2010 Southwest News-Herald - City & Suburban
Primary Election Lessons and Losers
I’ve never been good at predicting election results, but in 33 years I’ve watched enough elections closely to see patterns of problems that candidates should, but never, do avoid.
It’s hard to make any real substantive conclusions when the voter turnout is so pathetically low. Next time the politicians raise your taxes, look in a mirror, folks, and blame yourself before you start with your bellyaching.
Let’s put the race issue to bed right off the bat. Cook County Board President Todd Stroger was wiped off the political map Tuesday, running one of the poorest campaigns I have ever seen. He played the race card trying to tell voters that Terrence O’Brien, the white candidate, would split the black vote among the three black candidates. But in fact, a black candidate did win, reformer Toni Preckwinkle, a reformer whose appeal crossed racial lines that Stroger tried hard to draw.
On the other hand, those pundits who said O’Brien’s only credential is his white race are utterly disgusting.
No matter how bad the tax issue was on the countywide race, it apparently meant nothing to most voters who didn’t vote and allowed incumbents like Joan Patricia Murphy in the 6th District to defeat noble taxpayer champion Nick Valadez. Watch for Murphy to propose raising the sales tax again. Why not? By failing to vote, you told her to do it.
In another race, Terrence Collins put up a noble fight against Michael Zalewski in the 21st legislative State Representative District. Zalewski is the son of power-driven Alderman and Committeeman Mike Zalewski of the 23rd Ward. It’s tragic the Zalewski campaign felt it necessary to break the law and download Collins’ photo from a suburban village police LEADS system to challenge his petitions.
What were they so afraid of? When you have to stoop that low to defeat a challenger, it suggests you simply have no confidence in yourself. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez have done nothing about the abuse, maybe because it involves the brother of Oak Lawn trustee and Zalewski’s ally Jerry Hurckes.
Mudslinging is sadly a fact of Illinois elections. It’s not the same as criticism, which is fair.
The worst mudslinging campaign wasn’t in the race for governor between Pat Quinn and 19th Ward Machine prodigy Dan Hynes, but by a north suburban committeeman, Mark Thompson, who challenged Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman in the 17th County District.
Gorman, as everyone knows, made her mark by defining the battle to roll back the 1 percent sales tax that cost poor Todd Stroger his hand-me-down job as County Board President. That achievement sparked envy from colleague Tony Peraica, who was tied to Thompson’s crash-and-burn strategy of mudslinging. It’s a battle that is helping to erode Republican strength in Cook County.
Hynes brought the late Mayor Harold Washington back from the grave to blast Quinn’s selfish, me-me-me politics. Quinn is a showboater who, as we all know, stood next to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich when it suited his own career and blasted Blagojevich when it didn’t.
Quinn blamed Hynes for the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal, which was simply dumb. Although Hynes’ office oversees cemetery trust funds, the issue shocked people but did not connect with most voters.
Taxpayers get what they deserve, of course. So the next time a politician tries to raise your taxes, don’t complain. Just write the check. Your apathy as voters who failed to vote has resulted in returning many of the mini-Strogers back to office.
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(Ray Hanania is a Palestinian American Arab columnist, author and Chicago Radio Talk Show host. He can be reached at rayhanania@comcast.net. Listen to Mornings with Ray Hanania
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