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Peraica to Fitz: Fuhgetaboutit

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Illinois

* I’m not sure that dissing Fitz is such a great campaign idea…

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has asked Republican Cook County state’s attorney candidate Tony Peraica to stop passing out a campaign flier that looks to Fitzgerald like Peraica is claiming his endorsement.

The flier shows side-by-side photos of Fitzgerald and Peraica and says, “U.S. Attorney’s Office Needs Help Fighting Corruption in Cook County.”

Fitzgerald said in his letter he had never even met Peraica. “The flier creates the misleading assumption that I have endorsed your candidacy. . . . That is by no means the case. I have never endorsed any candidate in any race for anything (much less someone I do not believe I have yet had occasion to meet.)”

Fitzgerald’s letter asks Peraica how many of the fliers he has sent out “and where they have been distributed and what efforts have been made to retrieve them.”

Peraica said he will make no efforts to retrieve them.

“I don’t think the flier is inappropriate,” Peraica said. “I think any objective examination of that door-hanger piece would show that no endorsement is stated or implied.”

* The flier in question….

* US Attorney Fitzgerald’s letter can be read by clicking here.

* More…

Peraica, of Riverside, said he had the campaign piece vetted by an attorney and that there is nothing wrong with it. He said he intends to continue using the flier despite receiving Fitzgerald’s letter.

A spokesman for Democratic candidate Anita Alvarez said Peraica is trying to mislead voters into thinking he has received Fitzgerald’s backing.

“This is a race for chief legal officer of Cook County. I think it raises questions about the judgment Mr. Peraica has,” spokeswoman Sally Daly said. “It’s a reckless thing to do for a political candidate, potentially one who is running to become the next state’s attorney.”

Peraica disputed that allegation.

“There’s nothing inappropriate in that particular flier,” he said. “I have the utmost respect for U.S. Atty. Fitzgerald. I think he’s one of the few public officials who is trying to root out corruption here in Cook County, which leads to higher taxes.”

Thoughts?

* Related…

* Convicted businessman alleges scheme to give money to Bolingbrook mayor’s campaign

* Inspector general pick likely has 2 key foes

* County hiring reform needed

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:30 am

Comments

In case there was anybody out there who thought Peraica had any brain cells left, he does this. Why would you thumb your nose at the US Atty? I sincerely hope that Peraica doesnt have any skelatons in his closet that would be of interest to Mr. Fitzgerald. This may just make him angry enough to take a look.

Comment by Anon Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:36 am
By the way, Cook County Repubs need to find a better standard bearer than Mr. Peraica. Isnt there a sane, credible repuiblican out there to be the face of the party in Cook County?

Comment by Anon Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:37 am
===Isnt there a sane, credible repuiblican out there to be the face of the party in Cook County?===

No!

Comment by Bill Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:45 am
Peraica is going to get so crushed in November it’s not even funny. Come to think of it, it is actually pretty funny.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:53 am
Yeah he might want to respect the US Attorney on this. I don’t see anything wrong with the mailer, but he should just pull it out of respect. If the man needs help with fighting corruption no need to alienate his potential ally.

Comment by Levois Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:54 am
The bar has been raised after Denver - there would have to be a picture of the two of them hugging to cause a stir.

Comment by The Unlicensed Hand Surgeon Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 9:55 am
Plain and simple: if an officeholder or anyone in the public eye - community leader, celebrity, etc. - asks to be taken off of an ad or our of a mailer, you do it.

I think Peraica turned a dark corner the night of the 2006 elections. None of us who were in Chicago that night could believe the hooliganism we were witnessing on WGN.

Comment by Team Sleep Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:05 am
If nothing else, Peraica has entertainment value. And I think Fitz has got a bit of a thin skin.

I would fault Peraica for not having the initiative to somehow having gotten his picture taken with Fitz (maybe at the Millennium Park taping of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” the only Fitz public appearance I’m aware of). That way, he could follow in the long line of hacks who have campaign literature of them shaking hands with the Pope, presidents, Nelson Mandela, movie stars, etc.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:08 am
Any float that Peraica may have received from his unauthorized photo snatch has been sunk by the response and media coverage. Perhaps it is true that bad coverage is better than no coverage.

Comment by Jake from Elwood Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:13 am
I’m not totally convinced that it implies an endorsement, and I think Anita Alvarez is just taking the opportunity to criticize Peraica. But… in most circumstances, if a public figure asks for their picture not to be included in a mailing, then the campaign should oblige… of course their are exceptions to this rule.

Comment by Just Observing Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:19 am
“I think Peraica turned a dark corner…”

Actually, Tony has always operated in the shadows. His true colors were exposed during his march on the election board in ‘06. The guy is a political opportunist who surrounds himself with thugs (as we saw on TV that night Team Sleep mentioned.) For his name to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word “reformer” is a joke.

Comment by R.A. Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:36 am
This is so amateur, so clodden, so badly done. I simply cannot imagine paying anyone for work this bad. I can’t imagine printing it out, handing it out, or having anything to do with it.

Blagojevich has done some pretty stupid things with campaign flyers, masking them as from some other source, knowing how stupid they were.

But to put your name on it? What stupidity!

Comment by VanillaMan Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:38 am
All its doing is giving Peraica press time, which, frankly, if i’m in Alvarez’s camp, i wouldn’t want him getting this much free publicity time.

Comment by Pickles!! Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:40 am
To say Peraica is like a bull in a china shop would be disrespectful to livestock.

Good grief, if you tell Pat Fitz anything other than “yes sir” as you salute, you’re nuts, especially when you say you want to be the county’s chief law enforcement officer.

Maybe he’ll now get some drunken supporters together and do a midnight raid on the U.S. Attorney’s office. (No Tony, that wasn’t a serious suggestion.)

It’s one case of awful judgment after another with this guy. Remember the thug he had on his Board President campaign staff who had a prior conviction for slashing the tires of cars belonging to nuns? A guy Tony had represented as a lawyer?

Peraica’s done. He had sorta one shot against Todd Stroger, a guy with lots of other baggage.

But no one takes Tony Peraica seriously anymore. The fact that he heads the Cook County GOP’s slate this year shows just what a disaster the Cook County GOP remains.

Comment by GOP'er Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 10:49 am
RA, I think Peraica showed his true colors that night when he and his goons walked out of the InterContinental and initially marched NORTH on Michigan Avenue before figuring out the Board of Elections was on the other side of the river.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 11:03 am
Oh come on folks, have a little sympathy for Tony. After all, it was going to be really hard to surpass the level of boneheadedness shown during the 2006 election. Good grief, we’re still talking about the march (and snickering). It has entered the oral tradition of Chicago politics and become legend. So far, we’ve resisted the temptation to embroider it too much, I guess because it really doesn’t need any further refining. So, what can he do to top that?

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 11:17 am
Since when is it news that a politician has his own goons?

Tony Peraica is only a laughing stock to many you because he is not aligned with you political party.

I can easily think of names to call those most closely surrounding Mayor Daley and Chairman Stroger. In many case the phrase ‘convicted felon’ works well

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 11:55 am
Plutocrat03, there are Republicans and Democrats and Greens and independents and even Libertarians posting on this blog.

Take a breath.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 11:56 am
Peraica has great Judgment. He is running a campaign to clean up government using a decpetive mailert and then refusing to follow the reuqest of the US attorney to dump the flier.

After all a campaign built upon decpetive and misleading ad’s, just screams refrom.

Comment by Ghost Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 12:26 pm
I can’t wait for the “Peraica refuses to cooperate with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald” ad.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 12:53 pm
Rich.

I was trying to make the point that many of those criticizing Mr. Pereika are doing so solely from a political standpoint. I have no horse in any Cook county contest, but you have to admit that in order to play political ball in there you have to be tougher and meaner than the other guy.

When you get involved in a barn fight, you get muddy.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 1:18 pm
Although I agree that the flyer may not be illegal,refusing to honor the request of Patrick Fitzgerald to discontinue circulation of the flyer effectively illustrates that Peraica is an unprincipled sleazebag of the highest order.

Peraica is asking for trouble by failing to comply with the U.S. Attorney’s request, and I hope he gets his wish. There’s a significant difference between being tough and being stupid.

The “beer haul putsch” march on Cook County Clerk’s office was great political theater and would make a great anti-Peraica ad if anyone needed to take his candidacy seriously - which Alvarez doesn’t.

I take solace from the fact that Tony Peraica’s political career effectively will be endied when he gets slaughtered by Anita Alvarez.

RIP, Tony Peraica.

Viva, Anita Alvarez!

Comment by Captain America Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 1:35 pm
I think Peraica can make his point without using the picture or name of Patrick Fitzgerald.

It would probably be more effective if Peraica showed a list of political criminals convicted by the U.S. Attorney and made the case that the Cook County State’s Attorney had jurisdiction over the crimes in question, but chose not to prosecute.

I don’t think Patrick Fitzgerald is known by enough low-attention voters to be effective in this piece anyway.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 1:52 pm
Just because Peraica had the campaign piece vetted by an attorney does not impress me. 99% of the attorneys make the other 1% look bad.

Comment by Little Egypt Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 5:39 pm
[…] Misleading flier in Cook County implies US Attorney endorsement Republican Cook County state’s attorney candidate Tony Peraica is taking some heat from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for a misleading flier that sure looks like it was intended to imply Fitzgerald is endorsing him. Check out the Sun Times coverage or the write up on Capitol Fax (a fantastic blog on Illinois politics). Explore posts in the same categories: Tactics […]

Pingback by Misleading flier in Cook County implies US Attorney endorsement « Votejacked Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 6:07 pm
lol, Yellow Dog! That one was too good to give away for free!

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Sep 8, 08 @ 8:18 pm
Fitzgerald is doing good things, but he is wrong about this. In no way does it imply an endorsement. Peraica should continue to use the piece. Fitzgerald should stick to his investigations and not get involved in politics.

Comment by Burt Odelson Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 12:21 am
Great. Peraica loses and we get four more years, if not eight, of Alvarez maintaining the Dick Devine “see no evil” approach.

“Waddaya mean, kerrup-shin?”

If a Mafia don announced that “there is no Cosa Nostra”, and the local prosector agreed, would we respect that prosecutor?

The office should no longer be called the Cook County State’s Attorney. The Cook County Machine’s Lackey is far more accurate.

Comment by Bubs Tuesday, Sep 9, 08 @ 2:08 am