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Stroger “defines” himself, Peraica attacks

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Illinois

The candidate roll-out begins.

In his first major attempt at defining himself and his opponent in the race for Cook County Board president, Ald. Todd Stroger (8th) said the contest was a choice between “a Bill Clinton Democrat who will fight to protect people or a George Bush Republican who wants to take a sledgehammer to the values we share.”

Stroger, the Democratic nominee for board president, called for the county’s inspector general to be granted more independence and given the power to investigate all aspects of the government, including other elected officials. It was the first of what he promised would be a series of policy proposals over the next several weeks.

“The primary mission of this office will be to provide for fairness in Cook County’s hiring and firing process, to rid the county of unethical business practices, and to address all other concerns of the citizens of Cook County,” Stroger said in a luncheon speech today before the Chicago Rotary Club. […]

In anticipation of Stroger’s speech, County Commissioner Tony Peraica earlier today said Todd Stroger lacks standing to speak out against corruption given the number of people tied to his and his father’s 8th Ward organization who have been caught up in scandals over the years.

Read the whole thing.

Not mentioned in the Trib story, however, was this press release from Peraica:

…Last week, Fox News Chicago asked Todd Stroger what happened to approximately $640,000 in campaign funds that were in his 8th Ward organization’s campaign committee as of the end of last year.

His end of 2005 report showed $737,000 and change on hand. But then his committee filed an amendment to that report on July 3 showing only $98,000 on hand, leading to the 8th Ward fund showing a $144,000 deficit as of their June 30 report. Then the campaign filed an amendment on August 18 showing the same thing. Then the campaign filed another amendment on August 18-and lo and behold-the money had returned, giving the 8th Ward fund a balance of $737,000 to the positive again. Then the campaign filed another amendment on August 18 showing the fund really only had $495,000 on hand as of the close of the June 30 reporting period. Finally, on September 1, the campaign committee filed yet another amendment, this one reporting $503,000 on hand as of the close of the June 30 reporting period.

The full press release, which is quite long and slightly odd, is here. [txt file]

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 2:45 pm

Comments

Tony Peraica will attempt to take a page from his bloody campaign against Ronnie Serpico in the 16th District race four years ago. He spent close to a million bucks beating Ronnie over the head and tried to paint Ronnie as a two-bit hoodlum. The only problem is that 1) Todd is not Ronnie 2) Any person attack on Todd will embolden the African American community against Tony.

Lastly, if Mike Manzo is involved with Tony’s campaign, three things will play out to be true: 1) Tony will be negative, 2) Tony will spend himself into the poor house, 3) Tony will lose.

It’s that simple.

Comment by Chick McGann Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 3:04 pm
Rich:

Did you write that the Peraica press release was “slightly odd”? Shocking!

Comment by John Lee Pettimore Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 3:08 pm
Peraica has a slim chance at winning this. He should hire someone who knows how to write a release. Not a big fan of Tony, but this Dem has nothing good to say about little Todd.

Comment by Niles Township Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 3:29 pm
Chick,
Shouldn’t you be working on replying to all that mail coming in to Tom Cross?

Comment by Chick Watch Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 3:33 pm
Iâ€™m not a political expert, but I donâ€™t think it takes one to call this race. I have a funny feeling that about the second week of October, Team Rod and Team Todd are going to team up. Money and manpower wins every time.

Both will be declared winners early in the evening.

Comment by B Hicks Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 3:39 pm
Todd Stroger contends that he’ll “rid the county of unethical business practices[.]” What a joke! His candidacy is directly attributable to such unethical business practices.

I don’t know much about Peraica, but I’d vote for a Cook County Forest Preserve tree stump before casting in favor of Todd Stroger. Even the tree stump would do a better job at rooting-out (pun intended) corruption than Todd Stroger.

Unfortunately, the prior blogger B.Hicks is probably right when he says money and mapower wins every time. But if you believe Cook County Government is in need of reform (that is, if you have eyes, ears, and don’t live in the 8th Ward), then please don’t waste your vote on Stroger.

Todd Stroger knows no more about reform than his father. On the upside, if Stroger gets elected, there’ll surely be an increase in federal hiring. The G will need all the help it can get in trying to keep track of all the scandals.

Comment by "Fed" Up in Cook County Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 4:23 pm
Todd has no credibility on reform, especially in light of Gerald Nichols, Bruce Washington, and all those 8th warders working for his campaign.

I think most voters will say “I’ve had enough” to this corruption.

Ashur Odishoo
Candidate
State Representative 11th District

Comment by Ashur Odishoo Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 4:24 pm
Rich, you can view her new commercial on her web page. Why is it protected here?

Comment by B Hicks Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 5:32 pm
Todd Stroger is as incompetent of a representative as the County of Cook will ever see. This from people close to Todd, who before his father had a stroke had nothing good to say about young Todd and have even less to say now.
He’ll find it just too tempting and will be on the fed’s radar screen immediately.

Comment by Friend of Figs Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 5:43 pm
What I have noticed about Tony Peraica’s fans is that they employ the “3 D” defense of their guy: distract, dismiss, discredit. This is a tiresome approach, especially since Tony needs what someone posted earlier about Tony, a circus atmosphere. A clown is only interesting for his antics. Then the antics get tired Tony. Or we get tired of you.

Comment by Jefferson Smith, Jr. Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 6:36 pm
I am voting for her because she has her dogs in the ad! RUFF RUFF

Comment by Dog Lover Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 9:23 pm
off topic - Hey Ashur, what’s going on with your campaign?

Comment by Just asking Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 10:00 pm
All Stroger has to do is remind people that the same people who ran Alan Keyes’ campaign are running Tony Peraica’s campaign. Not only ran Keyes’ campaign, were instrumental in bringing Keyes into the state.

It’s all over at that point.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 10:11 pm
Pity the young man. A horrible bargain–

Emancipatus perjoratus: Pater denuntio pro machina latronis.

Emancipation gone bad: Denounce your father for this criminal machine.

Comment by Ignatius J. Reily Tuesday, Sep 5, 06 @ 10:28 pm
One wonders who the “inspector general” Todd Stroger plans to appoint will be.

Will it be someone from US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s staff, or even someone with that same mindset?

Is he willing to have transparency in the process, and release each report from this “inspector general” to the public and US Attorney’s office?

I think not.

Under “Junior” the best we could hope for is someone who has never been CONVICTED of a felony, and at least has some prosecutorial experience and KNOWS the corruption laws, RICO, and case law.

IF Todd’s serious about this,BEFORE the election he’ll find someone with impeccable credentials, and get him to declare he’ll take the job if Todd’s elected.

Like that’s going to happen……

Comment by PalosParkBob Wednesday, Sep 6, 06 @ 8:27 am
Name Jon Burge the IG, he could get the corruption out of anyone
there might be an increase in the electric bill

Comment by Kunkle Wednesday, Sep 6, 06 @ 11:45 am