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From CBS 2:
A former state lawmaker convicted of election fraud is not going to prison.
CBS 2’s Joanie Lum reports on the sentence for Patricia Bailey and why the South Side politician is saying she did nothing wrong.
Patricia Bailey walks free on probation after being sentenced for perjury and forgery. She still believes she was a good representative for the state’s sixth district.
“Anybody who knows me knows I fought hard and worked hard. I been shot at in Englewood, vandalized and I still ran the course,” Bailey said.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Dec 21, 05 @ 9:39 pm
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This, along with the fact that she lost her seat and her County probation office job seems like a fair punishment for her crime. Adding prison to that would be excessive. Maybe a fine of a few thousand would be appropriate, but whatever.
Comment by Black Libertarian Wednesday, Dec 21, 05 @ 10:10 pm
Her quote just confirms that she really is crazy….
Comment by PJ Wednesday, Dec 21, 05 @ 10:24 pm
Pat Bailey, your fifteen minutes of fame is now - mercifully - over. Please leave the stage. Now.
Comment by Anon Wednesday, Dec 21, 05 @ 10:47 pm
The Chicago political scene has been so corrupt for so long, slime like this sees nothing wrong and makes no apology.
A sad, sad commentary.
Comment by Aunt Glabby Wednesday, Dec 21, 05 @ 11:29 pm
The last few comments seem to be rather mean spirited. I have worked with Patty Bailey. While we are from opposite political spectrums, I know that she would give the shirt off her back if it would help you out. The judge ruled what she did was wrong. She has to pay the price of no longer having a job and probably losing her pension. Not a good predicament going into Christmas. Maybe we can all dispense with the personal attacks and keep this thread open to a professional dialog.
Comment by Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr. Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 8:50 am
Ms. Bailey is a poster child for what happens when voters (she represented Englewood, I believe)
don’t pay enough attention to the quality of their candidates. And she was running against former Death Row inmate Aaron Patterson in the primary! I know it’s a democracy, and the Dems
share responsibility for letting her run, but
aren’t there any inquiring minds in Englewood?
It’s also interesting that apparently one can hold a civil service (county) job and a state (legislator)job at the same time. How did Ms. Bailey manage these presumably conflicting time
pressures. Did she use vacation time when the
Legislature was in session? Aren’t the taxpayers getting ripped off here? Oh yes, but it’s Chicago.
Ripping off the taxpayers is the way it’s done.
Happy to hear Ms. Bailey will lose BOTH her salaries which add up to $104k a year. I wonder if that will really happen or if the Dems will find some way to give her taxpayer cash in some other form. A city job, maybe?
All lawmakers and other government employees should lose their seats and government jobs if convicted of a felony. One wonders if there are others in the Legislature and the Daley and Blago administrations who haven’t been “found” yet.
Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 9:07 am
Rich-
The story you want to link to is in the Sun-Times, where Bailey also accuses the judge of having a bad hair day and “I think the judge did what she was told to do.” Not a graceful departure.
Comment by No name, please Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 9:11 am
Bailey should be grateful that she did not receive jail time. She should just be quiet and hope the Daleys find her some job with one of their cronies in the private sector.
Comment by Randall Sherman Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 9:17 am
Anyone know who will be replacing Ms. Bailey? I’m sure the 11th Ward machine will help get her on her feet, assuming she doesn’t concoct any more conspiracy theories.
Comment by Curious Southsider Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 10:01 am
Spare us, Rep. Sullivan. If the legislature would do a better job policing itself, perhaps they might be held in higher public esteem. Your colleague was caught lying and defrauding the People of Illinois - not by the legislature which is tasked with enforcing the rules against its members, but by the Chicago Board of Elections and the Illinois Attorney General. Yet you defend her. Shame on you.
Comment by Phocion Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 11:05 am
Phocion,
For the record I am not defending her actions. I beleive you might want to go back and re-read my earlier comment. All I am asking for is a professional dialoge on the subject. Calling someone “slime” and “crazy” does nothing to further the discussion on why it happened or more importantly what can be done to stop this from happening in the future. Maybe this thread should focus on the issue of how to stop this from happening in the future. Certainly we have seen some bad things from both sides of the isle happen even in my short time in the legislature. This blog and others like it are a way for politicians to here what people have to say in regard to a subject. All I am asking for is an intelligent, professional dscussion.
Comment by Rep. Ed Sullivan Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 12:05 pm
Cassandra -
Over half of Bailey’s votes in her first election (2002) came from the 11th Ward. In Englewood, they were paying attention to the quality of their candidates.
That’s the terrible irony here - this plays in the media as a poor, black neighborhood that elected a woman who says crazy stuff and doesn’t even live there. But it was really Daley’s sophisticated political machine that harmed the community by installing her into the seat with thousands of 11th Ward votes.
Comment by Progressive FP Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 12:53 pm
Rep. Sullivan: Thank you for commenting publicly. That takes courage. However, some people have known Pat Bailey from other experiencesa and run-ins and she wasn’t as gracious as she seemed to you. In my experience, she was always abrupt, conceited and rude. I know others who think of her the same way. As has been noted, she was elected by the 11th Ward and ignored many of her constituents.
And just when it seemed appropriate for her to leave graciously and with humility, thankful that she did not go to jail for her transgressions, she criticizes the judge and others and downplays the seriousness of her actions. This not someone who we should feel sorry for. Pity possibly, but not regret.
Comment by Anon Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 3:23 pm
Is anyone really that surprised that Pat Bailey flaunted the law so egregiously, then badmouthed the judge who gave her what, at 26th and Cal, is typically considered the minimum sentence for a felony of this nature?
Look where her real juice comes from: 11th Ward, sure, on the face of it. But dig deeper. Pat’s mom, Janie, is a 20-plus year veteran of the City of Chicago and a 15-plus year veteran of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Janie’s rumored to have been the nanny for Rich, Bill, John and the others as children. In fact, Janie still refers to the Mayor as “Richie.” Also, in the old days, Pat’s dad delivered African-American votes to the senior Mayor Daley.
Pat and her mother’s county jobs and Pat’s public office are simply patronage rewards for decades-old loyalty. She never was a public servant, just a patronage sponge.
Comment by AgentOrange Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 5:04 pm
Ed — you clearly are part of the PROBLEM in Illinois, and not the answer.
Comment by Aunt Glabby Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 5:16 pm
Having served as a politician in Chicago, I am sure that Pat feels that she did do nothing wrong. I feel the same way when I am driving 90 m.p.h on the Dan Ryan expressway with the other drivers passing me by. Do I feel like I am speeding? Heck no! I just want to be “one of the boys” and blend in so I don’t get run over by them. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
Comment by Beowulf Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 8:31 pm
Aunt Glabby,
If by being part of the “PROBLEM” you mean trying to have a civil dialog on a issue that clearly has plagued this state then color me guilty. I don’t know what you are reading in my previous comments, but I think I have clearly called for a dialog on this issue that is absent of personal attacks. Thats all.
Certainly by a previous post there are people out there that have a view of Patty Bailey different from mine. Just because my interactions with her have been typically positive, that does not mean I condone her actions that led to her convictions or the comments she made in an interview after her sentencing. My ONLY point here is that a true dialog on a new media that we call a blog should be without the personal attacks that seem to frequent this new media.
Comment by Rep. Ed Sullivan, Jr. Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 9:12 pm
Who else does the 11th ward put into office without any consideration for that Representatives competence? I’m just curious. Is the 11th ward really that dismissive towards the good of the commonwealth? Wow, it really is a corrupt machine down there.
Comment by nosweat Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 11:36 pm
Ed: It’s foolish to expect civility and respect from anonymous bloggers. One reason people like blogs is they can bash someone and not be accountable.
Comment by respectful Thursday, Dec 22, 05 @ 11:55 pm