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Tim Nieukirk’s “victory” speech

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

BOOM-Shakalaka!


The Get Nieuked ticket got 16 write-in votes in the City of Peoria alone.

It’s not too late to help retire the Get Nieuked campaign debt by buying a t-shirt, button or trucker cap at their CafePress page. Go help them out.

  16 Comments      


Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Dillard-Watson; Bond-Simpson-Geo; Frerichs-Myers; Local carnage; Reboletti-Vosicky; Downstate-Chicago; Veto-proof; Guns; Court; Target feed (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

First, a little setup:

Former GOP primary candidate Jim Oberweis says Gov. Rod Blagojevich was ripe for the picking, but the Republicans had the wrong candidate in Tuesday’s election.

Instead of looking back, like Mr. Oberweis did, let’s look forward. What should the Republican Party do now?

  135 Comments      


The Stroger beat goes on… for at least four more years

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

If you missed the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning fireworks when Tony Peraica led a crowd of angry party-goers to the Cook County Building to demand that the votes be counted in his race, you should definitely check out these Pioneer Press videos:

Follow Republican candidate for Cook County board president Tony Peraica on election day, from a final push for votes to a march on the County Administration Building.

* Part 1
* Part 2

Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown has some good anecdotes about the evening. Brown was a Peraica supporter, but he was clearly shocked at the candidate’s election night antics.

While Peraica had every right to be angry about the performance of the clerk’s office and the right to be present with a competent team to oversee the returns and demand answers, there was no need for the over-the-top hysteria that nearly created a mini-riot. You don’t call out a group of people who have been drinking for hours to help you solve a problem unless you’re spoiling for a fight.

It was a foolish, ill-advised performance on Peraica’s part, one that left more than a few people who voted for him feeling less disappointed by his loss.

I’m on record here as not being a big fan of new Cook County Board President-elect Todd Stroger, but we certainly benefitted that night from his laid-back style.

Peraica ended up losing the race by about a hundred thousand votes, which is much better than the 470,000 votes that Judy Baar Topinka lost it by, but it wasn’t close enough to claim that vote fraud was responsible.

There was a consolation prize, however narrow the margin.

Peraica… appeared to be hanging on to his County Board commissioner’s seat representing the western suburbs.

Peraica’s loss, or, rather, the sight of the Chicago machine hauling first John and then Todd Stroger across the finish line undoubtedly contributed to the decision by Congressmen Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Luis Gutierrez not to run for mayor next year, no matter what they say. If the machine can nominate a stroke victim and elect his not exactly over-qualified son, then doze guys can do just about anything… Except evade the feds.

A federal grand jury is demanding records from City Hall regarding injury claims of city workers, a move that comes two weeks after the Sun-Times reported Chicago patronage workers claim to be hurt at a rate that exceeds the nation’s most dangerous jobs.

  68 Comments      


The ever-present feds

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

Either out of intentional irony or not, the Sun-Times sent crime writer Frank Main to cover Gov. Blagojevich’s victory party Tuesday night.

Political victories don’t make the feds go away, and they apparently don’t stop the news stories, either.

The latest story is about a lawsuit filed last week, just before the election. Maybe that’s why nobody wrote about it.

A state employee who says he was wrongly passed over for a promotion claims in a federal lawsuit that a political power broker decided who was hired at two agencies under Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

John Gnutek alleges William Cellini, a Republican campaign cash cow, agreed to support Blagojevich with about $86,000 in contributions in 2002 for extraordinary influence over hiring decisions at the Gaming Board and State Police.

Way down in the very last paragraph, however, is the most interesting part.

The suit also claims Cellini helped get Gaming Board jobs for two people he knew would do no work for their paychecks. The Gaming Board’s former interim director, Jeannette Tamayo, raised the same concern in a lawsuit against the board she filed in June.

Hope is not a plan, and the Republican hope that Rod Blagojevich is eventually indicted is a really stupid way to waste the next four years. Still, jokes from columnists can be fun. Pat Gauen:

The hovering threat could make Tuesday’s the most important election of a lieutenant governor in Illinois history. I once wrote that the only real duty of the job is to wait for a call from the governor’s coroner. That neglected the possibility of a call from the governor’s jailer.

Unless and until that happens, the corruption schtick is not a good issue for the severely damaged Illinois Republicans. At least not yet.

More than 85 percent of Illinois voters were concerned about corruption and ethics in state government, but half of those voters chose Blagojevich, 40 percent went with Repbulican challenger and 10 percent opted for Green Party candidate Rich Whitney, according to exit polls conducted for the Associated Press and the TV networks.

  38 Comments      


Morning shorts

Thursday, Nov 9, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

* A coalition of eight reform organizations challenged Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday to work as hard at passing sweeping campaign reforms as he did at winning reelection.

* Some suburban business leaders warned Wednesday that the state could face economic trouble with anti-business policies after Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich secured a second term.

* What’s next for Birkett? Future is up in the air

* Green Party breaks through

* Despite loss, Green Party big winner

* How Green is our valley - The third-party candidate for governor received nearly a fourth of Rockford area votes.

* Editorial: By winning more than 10 percent of the gubernatorial vote, the Green Party has won a role in the state’s political process that could bring new and worthwhile ideas into future elections.

* Hinz: To the victors Tuesday go the challenges

* McQueary: Losers from Election Day include Tony Peraica, who not only lost the Cook County Board presidential race but nearly got tossed from his seat on the board. Storming Cook County Clerk David Orr’s office at 1 a.m., wild-eyed and enraged, with a campaign contingent of well-liquored supporters, probably was ill-advised.

* AP: Women cast just over half of the votes Tuesday, and they clearly favored Blagojevich. He got 53 percent of the women’s vote, compared to 36 percent for Topinka.

* Blagojevich: ‘We’ve got a lot more work’

* Editorial: Governor is right; there’s ‘a lot more work to do’

* Blagojevich earns mediocre support in central Illinois - Governor wins only four counties in 18-county region

* Eaton: Illinois should be the first to promote chromosone-based gender identity

* ‘Accidental Speaker’ calls it quits

  9 Comments      


Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Results and News Feed (Use all CAPS in password)

Wednesday, Nov 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Election results analysis thread - The morning after

Wednesday, Nov 8, 2006 - Posted by Rich Miller

If I can take my eyes off this bizarre, late night TV coverage of the Cook County president’s race, I’ll be heading to bed soon and won’t be posting until later this morning because I have to do a long Capitol Fax first.

In the meantime, click on one of the election results links at the bottom of this post and take a look at how the vote went statewide then talk about it below.

To the Topinka/Duckworth/Radogno/Watson/Seals/etc. supporters out there, please try to avoid too much bitterness. You had ample opportunity to vent last night. The people have spoken. You gotta come to terms with it, so you might as well start now - even though the end of a losing campaign has all the subtlety of a speeding freight train slamming into a mountainside.

Besides, after I’m done working on other things I’ll just delete the over-the-top invective anyway. So deal with it or take it elsewhere.

*** UPDATE *** People. The title says “analysis thread,” not “whining thread.” If you still feel the urge to vent, go here so we can wall it off.

*** UPDATE 2 *** From the Sun-Times website:

  199 Comments      


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