Looking back at last week's election

Looking back at last week's election
For the first time in a long time, Orland Park seemed to have one political spirit. It seemed like everyone had come together for the betterment of Orland Park.
I moved to Orland Park back in 1985 and it was still filled with prairies and vacant lots that soon after were filled with new homes. I knew the elected officials back then, Mayor Fred Owens and then trustee Dan McLaughlin and Tom Charnagorsky were great friends. Tinley Park, where I lived before moving to Orland Park, was the big political pond back then where another great leader, Ed Zabrocki was building his base.
It all made for great columns at the Daily Southtown, when that was a great community newspaper, and then the Chicago Sun-Times, another newspaper that has since fallen on hard ethical, skilled and financial times.
This last election, for some reason, reminded me of the good old days of Southwest Suburban politics where everyone had the same goal, to build this area up and make it better.
For the most part, the election went smoothly. John Fotopoulos, who has run unsuccessfully for office several times before, fell short. It seemed like he was a guaranteed winner. I told him that before the election. He was first on the ballot. He was also the only independent to file, which was important because the last time he ran, he took votes away from the slate of challengers trying to unseat controversial Village Trustee Pat Gira.
This time, though, Fotopoulos had no impact on the election.
Fotopoulos told Orland Patch editor Ben Feldheim, a good young reporter, that the low turnout caused his loss. He then took a shot at Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman who is also the Republican Committeeman arguing that Liz failed to slate someone against McLaughlin.
That was kind of a dumb comment. Sometimes, it's better to acknowledge that you lost because you failed to get your message out. And what was Fotopoulos' message? I don't know. He says he didn't have the money to reach voters, but he is an attorney and I drive by his name in big letters on his law firm every morning when I head out to work. Was it the money, or the lack of a message?
Bashing Gorman is certainly a big mistake. Liz Gorman has done so much for taxpayers. Remember, I used to be one of her critics, a long time ago. It was all politics then. But since then, Gorman proved she is a courageous and creative leader. She was fearless, too. I remember when she attended the Taxpayer Protest meeting I organized many years ago, while I was criticizing her politics, and that impressed me. I thought wow, you can hit her but she won't back down?
And then she led the fight against rising taxes, which was the very purpose of the meeting I organized. More than 100 people attended at the time. Gorman was responsible for a lot of great changes, including forcing the Cook County Board to repeal the excessive sales tax hike imposed by former Cook County Board Chairman Todd Stroger. She didn't have to do that. But she did.
She defended her seat against a formidable challenge from the 19th Ward and their candidate Pat Maher, the son of the former Village Clerk, and she has probably done more to make voting count in Orland Township and the suburbs, too, for that matter.
Bashing Gorman was a mistake by Fotopoulos. Unjustified. And maybe a major part of the reason why he lost and did so badly this time is his failure to work with Gorman and other leaders in the region.
It didn't help that someone sent out a very ugly attack against Brad O'Halloran, another elected official I respect a lot. The robo-call was vicious and offensive. Fotopoulos was blamed by his political foes in a mailer and I think everyone believed he was behind it. That robo-call may have cost him the election.
The robo-caller voice was that of a woman, with a fake name, and ended saying "This call is paid for by ..." and then it just ended.
Ironically, O'Halloran was the only elected official to join Gorman in challenging the financing of the Ninety 7 Fifty development near 143rd and LaGrange Road. O'Halloran came under vicious attack from Gira, who has been a big disappointment.
Rather than attack others, elected officials and candidates for elective office should instead spend their time telling people why they should be elected and detail their creative ideas to make this a better community. Voters tend to respond more to a clearly defined vision than to balls-out mudslinging.
Criticism is ok, but what we have seen in the past hasn't been criticism. It's been vicious and way beyond the line of doing any good. Voters are smart. They can see that.
The voter turnout was low, only 5,629 people voted. But the vote was decisive. It wasn't even close. 
I believe that contrary to popular belief, people who don't won't are not protesting "bad government leadership," but rather many are satisfied with the way government is working. They are happy with what government does and they recognize that taxes do increase and must. Who else is going to pay to upgrade our roads and provide services?
Remember, they implemented early voting to help bring out more voters, but the reality is that all that happened was that people who always vote ended up voting early and people who never vote but can, didn't. Nothing will make those people vote, it seems.
Outside of the Fotopoulos debacle and the ugly robo-call, the election went pretty smoothly and it suggests maybe a new era of our leaders working together for the betterment of the community. Gorman and McLaughlin are both strong leaders. They can do a lot more together than they can apart.
-- Ray Hanania

Peraica refuses to distance himself from Thompson's mudslinging

Peraica insists he is not obsessed with Liz Gorman

By Ray Hanania

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica says he is too busy working on other election campaigns than to bother himself with complaints from his colleague Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman.

The two commissioners have been rivals since the very first time they said hello to each other.

And Peraica emphatically denies any role in the mudslinging candidacy of his friend, Mark Thompson, who challenged Gorman in the February 2, 2010 Republican Primary for the 17^th District seat. Peraica also says he doesn’t know Pat Maher, the dynasty poster-child in the Hynes and 19^th Ward family clan who faces-off with Gorman in November.

(I have included Peraica’s email response to this column at the bottom of this blog with my commentary where necessary.)

Yet, in a report issued by an examiner of the Illinois Election Board detailing possible unethical and illegal misconduct in the reporting of election campaign disclosures by the Thompson campaign, Peraica’s name is cited seven times.

Peraica called to take issue with my blog (Click HERE to read) and column (Click HERE to read) addressing all this. I detailed the examiner’s report and included it in full on the blog posting (Click HERE to read).

It raised serious questions about Peraica’s role in the Thompson campaign. Money changed hands and, according to the examiner, was not properly disclosed. That is a serious violation. The Election Board will review the examiner’s report at its meeting on July 19, this week.

“All I ever gave Thompson was a $100 donation. I attended a breakfast that he had. He was on our sample ballot but that’s because he won the endorsement of the Lyons Township Republican Organization. I did endorse Thompson because I am a part of the Lyons Republican Organization. That was decided by the members and Gorman was also considered for endorsement,” Peraica insisted.

“We did things for Thompson that we did for other endorsed candidates.”

Peraica said that a $1,000 payment to GOP Media was actually payment to Tom Swiss, Thompson’s campaign manager, who also runs a direct-mail operation that handled Peraica’s primary election materials.

“I can’t be blamed for what Swiss did with the money,” Peraica insisted. “I paid him for doing my direct mail $2,000.”

Peraica also said to me in referring to the report, “I think you are reading too much between the lines … I bought a set of emails from Swiss for Republican Voters in the 16^th District where I was running two races at the time. That’s what I used it for, for my races not for Mark Thompson. I paid for that data that Swiss generated for me. What he does with it is not my business.

But the examiner’s report directly challenges Peraica’s claims. In fact, the examiner’s report states flatly that the money Peraica donated was intended to help Thompson, a clear contradiction to what Peraica insisted when he spoke to me.

The report explains Peraica’s involvement with Thompson differently:

“This check was a contribution from Stephen Bolton, which was reported on the Respondent's December 2009 Semi Annual Report as a contribution for $2,000, even though $1000 of this contribution was not received until after January 1, 2010. The second item was a check dated January 20, 2010 from Citizens for Peraica payable to GOP Media in the amount of $1,000. Mr. Swiss testified that this check was given to GOP Media for the benefit of the Respondent/Committee as part of a $2000 "Transfer In" that was previously reported as received by the Respondent/Committee on December 15, 2009.”

The examiner’s report continues:

“Clearly the $1000 check from Citizens for Peraica to GOP Media was made for the benefit of Mark Thompson and therefore violates this statute.”

This happens in politics all the time. One politician wants to help someone else and they often disguise their role intentionally to avoid being associated with mudslinging. But the report pulls the veil off the Thompson campaign and Peraica is clearly there.

“There is a fixation [by Hanania] on this Gorman-Peraica thing. There is an obsession but it is with her, not me. She continues to take swipes at me every time she sees me at a board meeting. She supports my candidate against me in the Democratic primary. She is attacking me. I don’t have a fixation with her. She has a fixation with me. I am happy to have my record speak for itself,” Peraica said, not hesitating to slam her husband Gerry Gorman and to question their past financial dealings with an auto dealership they owned.

If Peraica really didn’t have anything to do with Thompson running against Gorman and if he doesn’t care about Gorman, then he should publicly repudiate Thompson and his campaign and publicly point a finger at Thompson and Swiss and blame them for the mess.

I don’t think that is going to happen.

PERAICA’S EMAIL IN RESPONSE TO HIS SEEING
THIS COLUMN BEFORE IT WAS PUBLISHED:

Thanks for the call back and discussion.

First:

The title and premise of this piece is wrong.  The purpose of my call was to challenge your assertion that "Peraica always makes an enemy of a friend," not to "obsess over Cmr. Gorman."

Liz Gorman is a non-issue, as far as I am concerned.  She has her record to run her race on, and I have mine.  She has her associations and supporters, and I have mine.  I do not wish to engage with her or you in that kind of back and forth.

Second:

These are the facts regarding the Thompson v. Gorman primary race.

The State Board of Election examiner's report is filled with innuendo, speculation and fiction concocted by Gerry and Liz Gorman, and advanced by Todd Stroger's attorney, Burt Odelson.

Thompson decided to challenge Gorman in the primary for commissioner position, while running for re-election as GOP committeeman.

I had two opponents in the primary, recruited, endorsed and financially supported by Liz Gorman: Mr. Pittacora, who ran as a GOP committeeman candidate against me, and, Mr.  Sloan who ran against me for commissioner.  Ms Gorman, and her husband Gerry Gorman, actively and diligently worked on behalf of both Mr. Pittacora and Mr. Sloan, along with Stroger's supporters: Cmr. Joseph Mario Moreno, Ron Serpico and Larry Dominick (all democrats) in order to try to defeat me.

[HANANIA COMMENTS: This assertion is typical of Peraica’s exaggerations for political benefit. Dominick is an independent not a Democrat and was a Republican all his life. So the name-calling is unjustified. Though Moreno is a Democrat and Serpico may be, the fact is they were UNINVOLVED in the Gorman race.]

We defeated both of our opponents by roughly a 75%-25% margin.

When both Mr. Thompson and Ms. Gorman appeared in front of Republican Organization of Lyons Township (ROLT), they were both given a chance to address the assembled members.  Mr. Thompson was almost unanimously endorsed over Liz Gorman for commissioner position.  Both ROLT and I, therefore, put Mr. Thompson on our sample ballot, put up some of his signs and did what we normally do for all of our endorsed GOP candidates.

Since both Cmr. Gorman, Cmr. Moreno and other democrats circulated petitions for and supported my opponents Pittacora and Sloan, I attended a Mark Thompson fundraiser and donated $250 to him on November 30, 2009.  This is the only donation that I made to Mr. Thompson.  I endorsed and supported Mark Thompson in his races for commissioner and committeeman.

Due to the vigorous opposition from Mr Pittacora and Sloan against me, financed and directed largely by Gormans, I had to expend substantial effort and money to run my own races in the primary and did not focus at all on the Thompson/Gorman contest.

In January 2010, I purchased a current list of all emails from GOP Media owned by Tom Swiss in order to get my information out via email to all GOP voters in the 16th district.  I paid $1000 to GOP Media for the compilation and transmission of the list.  What GOP Media or Mr. Swiss did with the $1000 thereafter, I do not know, or care.  GOP Media provided a service to our campaign and we paid GOP Media an agreed price of $1,000.  This was not a "disguised" donation to anyone else.

Ms Gorman and Mr. Moreno bought and paid for Pittacora and Sloan signs, postage and literature against me, but I simply wrote it off as a political campaign move, acknowledged it, and did not file frivolous State Board of Election charges that do nothing but cost taxpayers unnecessary expense.

Third:

Commissioners Moreno and Gorman chose to file these frivolous charges against Thompson in order to drag my name through the mud, not with expectation of doing anything to Thompson.

[HANANIA RESPONDS: Peraica is secondary in the examiner’s report and I urge everyone to read it fully. Peraica is mentioned towards the bottom.]

As a journalist, you should always consider both sides, and not simply accept one sided allegations and accusations of political opponents.

The State Board of Election will have a fact finding hearing sometime later this year and all of this will be fleshed out in a contested adversarial hearing where both sides will have a chance to present their evidence and arguments via their respective counsels. 

It will not be a one-sided conclusion by a politically appointed state "examiner", a non-attorney, who took only one-sided allegations presented by Todd Stroger's/Com Gorman's attorney Burt Odelson.

Finally:

I will not denounce Thompson or any other candidate who chooses to run in a open, free, democratic primary races.  That is called democracy.  I support good-government candidates, and oppose those who are not.  Mr. Thompson is a good-government candidate, and Cmrs. Gorman and Moreno are not.

[HANANIA RESPONDS: That’s why Peraica is so way off base, defending Thompson’s mudslinging viciousness and asserting it is “good government.”]

How candidates choose to run their campaigns is their business and they must be held accountable for what they do or say.  I will not be held responsible for other candidates or their workers.

From what I remember, everything that Thompson said about Cmr. Gorman was true and accurate.  In fact, there was a lot more that he could have said.  But, that was his choice and he and his campaign should be held responsible. Not I.

It is interesting to note that Cmr. Moreno lost his race to his opponent Mr. Garcia as he obsessed over my races, while Cmr. Gorman barely beat Mr. Thompson in a very close race.

Both of my Moreno/Stroger/Gorman backed opponents, Pittacora and Sloan, were defeated overwhelmingly.

I hope that this clarifies some of the facts, and that you include them in the story as appropriate.

Tony Peraica

[HANANIA RESPONDS: It doesn’t. But in fairness to you, something you blogging pals do not offer themselves, I am willing to share your points.]

Southtown endorses Liz Gorman over her mudslinging foe Mark Thompson

The Southtown/Star came out with a powerful endorsement of Liz Gorman in today's editorial:

Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R-Orland Park) is a strong, consistent, dutiful voice on the Cook County Board for her constituents.

She earns our endorsement as the candidate for Republican primary voters in the 17th District.

She faces Mark Thompson, of Des Plaines.

On the board, Gorman repeatedly has shown her loyalty lies with a district that encompasses much of the southwest suburbs. She also has shown an independent streak, working well with both Democrats and Republicans to accomplish what's good for Cook County.

She fought President Todd Stroger over his 1 percent sales tax.

She voted against the hiring of Stroger cousin Donna Dunnings as the county's chief financial officer.

She sponsored and worked to pass legislation that requires county contractors to disclose any family times to Cook County government.

She lead the push to remove disgraced Cook County schools Supt. Charles Flowers from office, even though Republicans created the office a decade earlier so folks such as Flowers could exist. Gorman, in fact, was the only commissioner to vote against extending a $190,000 loan to Flowers back in 2008 - a loan he eventually defaulted on.

She spearheaded efforts to get more south suburban representation on the Metra board.

For all of those reasons, Gorman deserves another shot at continuing what she's started on the board

END

Things I have learned about suburban elections

Today is suburban election day: Here are some things I have learned over the years as a political reporter about suburban elections:

Early voting or absentee voting usually is an indicator of how many "activists" are actually out there working, mixed in with who will be on vacation during the election. Especially now with early voting, the candidates and their precinct workers will get the voting out of the way so they can concentrate on placing signs at polling places (some will be out there ripping down signs. Tsk! Tsk!).

Signs don't vote. No matter how many signs you see, it's rarely an indicator by itself of a candidate's ability to win or to lose. The signs on the parkways and mainstreets are usually a turnoff to most voters. The public really hates to see candidate signs on the side of a major road, empty prairie or shuttered business lined up like an endless advertisement.

Signs on a front lawn usually do suggest a real-live voter. Although the voter is usually either a candidate, a relative of a candidate, or a worker for a candidate. Sometimes, they are voters who just don't want to argue with the people bringing the signs.

Lots of strangers will be walking through the neighborhood on election day. Be kind. When they come up to ask you for directions, help them get back to their Chicago-based Machine Ward havens. There are outside forces from Chicago's Tax-the-hell-outta-ya Machine battling to take control of several suburbs, and some like Orland Park, Oak Lawn and a few others will have Chicago precinct captains crawling over them like ants.

Suburban turnout is always low. One thing that happens when you run from Chicago -- either as a result of White Flight in the late 1960s; Black Flight in the late 1980s; or Fireman and Policeman flight (ever since the residency rules were created to keep mostly White residents int he city) -- you lose the motivation to vote or participate in local elections. In fact, suburban elections usually have the lowest voter turnouts.

No matter how technologically advanced we become as a society, politicians are usually the last to get on the train. You can tell which candidates use technology (and reach a growing audience in the public) and which rely on the old fashioned, and increasingly ineffective, direct mail.

Newspapers are losing more and more of their clout. Instead of leading, they are back-patting. Instead of criticizing -- an integral part of an accountable government-public system -- they are always praising. No substance. Just a lot of blah!

Although you couldn't convince the incumbents of this, the fact is the more controversy there is in an election, the more the people become aware and motivated to vote. Controversy is what stimulates people to think, not blah articles that so obviously pat some politician's ass or strokes a candidate's ego. Controversy usually means that issues are being debated and discussed. Happy talk means people are sleeping. It's one reason why the print newspaper business is dying.

Being challenged is not only good for a community, it is good for the incumbent politicians. But I stress, elections where offices are challenged are good for the community, the public, the homeowners and the taxpayers. Those communities where incumbent bullies have kicked challengers off ballots are where most of the corruption residue and scum settle each year. Where the taxes are the highest. Where the corruption is the greatest. Where the politicians have denied their publics the ability to participate.

If you have a contested election in your community, you are lucky. It means candidates and media care -- willingly or by force -- about what you think.

Despite the loopholes, hassles, mud, namecalling, anger -- some politicians need to go to anger management classes -- you have to give credit to everyone who runs for office. Those in office and those out. And, you must give credit to the registered voters who will take the time to vote today (or who voted at early voting).

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.radiochicagoland.com/