Tony Peraica blasted out this e-mail yesterday…

Dear Friends:

In recent days, you may have read some troubling stories in the newspaper about harassing phone calls made to Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman by an individual who formerly volunteered on our Cook County Board President campaign.

It’s important that you know the full story - and hear the facts from me.

First, this individual has had a troubled past, and I once represented him in my capacity as an attorney. Afterward, he committed to cleaning up his act. I believe in second chances, so when he asked to volunteer on our campaign, I allowed him to do so. We paid him a small twice-monthly stipend as reimbursement for his mileage. In October of 2006, he was unable to control his behavior and we required him to leave our campaign.

In February 2007 - long after he was a volunteer with our campaign - this individual was working with another Republican organization. During that time, he made harassing phone calls to Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman.

Let me be clear - these actions were reprehensible. This individual made these calls without my knowledge or approval.

Ms. Gorman, who has long been an ally of the Cook County Democratic Machine, knows I had nothing to do with this individual’s actions - yet she has sought to blame his actions on me.

Why has she gone public with this issue seven months after this individual made the phone calls? Why is she falsely accusing me of having anything to do with this situation? Is an employer to be held responsible for the actions of a former employee (or, in this case, a volunteer)?

The answer to the above questions is simple: the Democrats are fearful of our campaign for reform. They know that we are a real threat to win the State’s Attorney’s office and restore accountability to the top law enforcement office in the county. Because of this fear, they have enlisted the help of their ally, Liz Gorman, to smear and attack me.

The record of Liz Gorman speaks for itself. She has proven herself to be a committed ally of the Democrats - a close associate of indicted political insider Ed Vrdolyak and the disgraced Shaw brothers.

Gorman also has been a staunch ally of Todd Stroger - recruiting Stroger’s former spokesperson, Sean Howard (who was arrested last year for harassing a woman) to join her public relations team at the Cook County GOP. She supported Todd Stroger’s disastrous budget. She has supported the Stroger position against numerous and even bi-partisan reform efforts. She has gone out of her way to oust good Republicans from Cook County GOP committeeman positions - in favor of Democrat shills that will toe her “party line.”

Liz Gorman’s motives are clear: she is smearing me now to provide herself a reason to slate a primary opponent against me for State’s Attorney. Rest assured that any Liz Gorman-backed candidate will be an enemy of reform, and a friend of the corrupt, Democratic machine.

There is a long road ahead before Election Day in November of 2008. The Democrats and Gorman allies will spend the next 13-plus months slinging mud at us … because they fear us. And fear us they should - because our campaign for honest reform will win and put them out of business.

We will not be bowed. We, and now you, know the truth, and we will continue our campaign for honest reform.

I appreciate your continued support. Together, we will reform Cook County.

Sincerely,

Tony Peraica

It’s nice that Peraica has finally distanced himself from Fred Ichniowski, but since my column appeared about the Peraica situation, I’ve received some calls about other alleged strong-arm tactics from Peraica’s campaign and at least one more nasty phone call allegedly from Ichniowski to a different committeeman. Perhaps we’ll be seeing more about this soon.

Also, to the heart of the matter, it wasn’t Liz Gorman who blamed Peraica. Fred Ichniowski told the cops after he was busted that Peraica had encouraged volunteers to call Gorman’s office.

Meanwhile, House GOP Leader Tom Cross was at a Downstate function over the weekend and talked about Demcratic disunity, but added…

Cross encouraged Republicans to seize the chance to work together as a party among all the squabbling. He said the keys to success will be repairing the GOP image, team building and encouraging the involvement of young people in government to lead the future.

“We fight too much. We fight among ourselves too much. We can’t give up,” Cross said.

Thoughts?