Dan Patlak's mud-flinging campaign against Sean Morrison

Why is Dan Patlak throwing mud on himself? Oh he is. Just look at his latest mailer that spammed my mail box last night.

Picture from Patlak's own mailer this week

He's throwing mud on himself to make himself look like a victim.

Dan Patlak is in trouble. He's running for the "Board of Whatever," sometimes more commonly called the "Board of Review," which previously was better known as the Board of Tax Appeals. It's an easy job. You basically go around Cook County telling homeowners who are voters that you can help them reduce their property taxes by reviewing their assessments.
It's a fun charade where taxpayers, just before the election, are almost promised that their property taxes will go down if they just come to one of their seminars and fill out a few forms. But the truth is that the average tax reduction on a home is only a few hundred dollars, about $20 a month. The big breaks go to the commercial properties and big businesses who can afford the real estate lawyers who happen to make the biggest contributions to the campaigns of the Board of Review incumbents.
So when a Republican rival decides that he wants the one single Republican in County Wide office to be accountable to the people, Sean Morrison, Patlak attacks Morrison saying that Morrison is "throwing mud."
Yes, using the big bucks he got from a lot of campaign contributors including some of the lawyers who appear before the Board, Patlak mailed out one of the most stupid mailers I've seen. He splotched his own picture with mud, printed a photo of the beloved Republican Icon Ronald Reagan, and threw some mud spots on him too, and then told everyone -- "Waaaaa! Waaaaaa! My rival is throwing mud at me." Patlak isn't a candidate. He's a baby.
Morrison has been challenging Patlak to be accountable. Patlak says that's throwing mud.
The only mud is coming from the pigfest that has surrounded Patlak, a handful of questionable writers and PR people including one associated with the biased and one-sided "Illinois Review." They might as well call that "Illinois Mud Central."
I don't know Patlak. He seems like a nice guy. But I do know Morrison and I know that Morrison wants whomever holds the Board of Review seat to actually do something for the taxpayers. He wants that one Republican to be accountable to the voters and the homeowners. He wants that one Republican to talk about the issues instead of throwing mud on himself, as Patlak is doing in his own expensive full-color mailers, to make it seem like he is a victim.
No, Dan. You're not the victim. The taxpayers and the homeowners are the victim. And if you can't even answer a few basic questions about your performance in office, maybe you should pack up and get out of the trough, er, kitchen!
Morrison isn't a baby. Morrison isn't whining about Patlak criticizing him. Morrison is talking about the issues. Unlike Patlak, Morrison isn't handing out pictures of himself splattered with mud. He's talking about the issues that taxpayers want discussed. But instead, all the voters and Morrison are getting is the mud being thrown by Patlak's pals in the mud-pit of Cook County politics. Yes, Patlak's muddied up cronies are the ones throwing the mud at Morrison!
The "Why are they throwing mud at me" mailer is one of the oldest tricks in the book. The fact that Patlak uses that instead of showcasing his own achievements begs the voters to ask the question, "What's Patlak's problem?"
The problem is that Morrison is a better candidate than Patlak. And Patlak's pals in the mud pit are afraid that if Morrison wins, their mudfest is going to come to a mud--filled end.
How about addressing the issues, Dan? Instead of trying to win votes by making yourself look like a victim. The responsibility of every elected official is to take the heat and answer the criticism and questions, not brush off legitimate questions by describing them as "mud."
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com