October 8, 2008
U.S. ATTORNEY SUCCESSION AFFECTS STATE'S ATTY. RACE

ANALYSIS & OPINION BY RUSS STEWART

If voters truly want a "change" in the culture of corruption, cronyism and favoritism that infuses Chicago, Cook County and state government, they should fervently hope Republican John McCain is elected president.

McCain has promised to retain Patrick Fitzgerald as U.S. attorney for another 4 years, and Fitzgerald is methodically working his way up the tainted food chain of wrongdoing in government entities under Democratic control.

If, however, so-called "reformer" Barack Obama is the next president, Fitzgerald is history. Fitzgerald serves at the discretion of the U.S. Department of Justice, and a new president has the prerogative to re-appoint him or not. According to Democratic sources, the leading candidate to replace Fitzgerald, should Obama win, is Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a product of Chicago's clout-heavy Southwest Side 19th Ward and an ally of Mayor Rich Daley. Dart has a personal tie to Obama, having served with him in the Illinois General Assembly, and he is not unacceptable to black Chicago politicians.

"That would be an abomination, an unmitigated disaster," said Tony Peraica, the 2008 Republican candidate for Cook County state's attorney. "It would give the 19th Ward control of the two top prosecutorial offices, and it would give a free pass to every corrupt politician in Chicago and Cook County."

In the contest to succeed retiring Democratic incumbent Dick Devine, Peraica faces chief deputy state's attorney Anita Alvarez, who holds the number three job in the office, where she has worked for 23 years. Alvarez ran as an "outsider" and a "professional prosecutor" in the February Democratic primary, and she scored a huge upset, getting 25.8 percent of the vote in a field of six candidates. Alvarez topped Alderman Tom Allen (38th), who was backed by the labor unions, by 9,946 votes.

The Democratic primary was supposed to be "open," meaning that each ward and township organization could endorse whom they wished. Devine endorsed his first assistant, Bob Milan, but at the last moment South Side white committeemen abandoned Allen and embraced Alvarez.

The 19th Ward Democratic Organization, long run by former county assessor Tom Hynes, supported Milan, and delivered 3,611 votes to him, but Allen had 6,924 votes in the ward, and Alvarez had 2,352. In other South Side wards, Alvarez finished first in Daley's 11th Ward, Mike Madigan's 13th Ward and Ed Burke's 14th Ward, and second in Bill Lipinski's 23rd Ward.

"They (the South Siders) didn't want Allen, and they can live with (Alvarez)," Peraica said. He said that the 19th Ward crew that ran Dart's 2006 race for sheriff, many of whom had jobs during Sheriff Mike Sheahan's long tenure (from 1990 to 2006), are now running Alvarez' campaign. That includes Sheahan's brother, James "Skinny" Sheahan, as her chief strategist, Sally Daly for media, 19th Ward lawyer Dan Kirk as campaign manager and Paul O'Grady, the former director of operations for the sheriff, and attorney Dan Gallagher, a special assistant state's attorney who handles sheriff's issues, as strategists.

Interestingly, rumors are rampant that, should Dart become U.S. attorney, Allen would be the next sheriff. That choice would be made by the 17-member Cook County Board. However, the board's five black, two Hispanic, three white liberal and five white Republican commissioners might resist. Allen is no cinch to be chosen.

As the federal prosecutor, Dart would be in a splendid position to run for mayor in 2011 or later, when Daley retires, and he'd be able to set an agenda that would affect the 2010 election, such as ramping up the investigation of Governor Rod Blagojevich and perhaps pushing an indictment, which would immeasurably aid the gubernatorial primary candidacy of Madigan's daughter Lisa. If Chicago corruption suddenly vanishes from the U.S. attorney's radar, Daley would be safe in 2011, or he could hand off the job to another white South Sider such as Dart.

The likely candidate to replace Madigan as state attorney general is none other than Hynes' son, state Comptroller Dan Hynes. That would give the 19th Ward control of yet another key prosecutorial office. "A dangerous triumvirate," Peraica said.

The state's attorney's office employs 1,700 people, of whom 890 are assistant state's attorneys, the courtroom prosecutors. In 2008 the county board eliminated 43 of those positions. The annual budget is $127 million, of which $96 million is budgeted by the county, with the remainder from various federal grants.

Peraica and Alvarez disagree on the "core mission" of the office.

Alvarez said that it is combating violent crime. "It's about public safety," she said. "It's about getting guns off the streets and out of the hands of gangs. It's about prosecuting criminals."

At one time Alvarez was the chief of the office's Public Integrity Unit, but she had few scalps. "She was like the Maytag repairman," Peraica said. "She did nothing." That unit has now been combined with the financial crimes unit, and Alvarez said she would hire more investigators and auditors and focus on mortgage and auto sales fraud, as well as official corruption.

"But that's not our priority," Alvarez said, deferring to the feds, noting that they spent $25 million to prosecute George Ryan. "That's their job. Our priority is to get criminals off the street."

Alvarez pledged to keep at least three prosecutors in every criminal courtroom and to improve domestic violence prosecutions by requiring all 911 tapes to be directly remitted to the prosecutors. She also wants to re-open at least six "community prosecution" offices, where the public can seek advice and remedies. The county board closed the offices.

Alvarez insists that she won the primary because voters "are tired of the same old politicians," but she dances around her connection to Devine. Is not her boss, Devine, a "same old politician"? And, having come into the office in 1985, when Daley was state's attorney, hasn't Alvarez been working for the "same old politicians" for over two decades?

"It's a ludicrous situation," Peraica said. "She's the status quo. I'm for change." He added that just 6 percent of the office's employees are black and 4 percent are Hispanic. "She runs that office," he said. "She should explain why there's not more minority hiring."

The criminal courts are "clogged with self-abusing drug users," Peraica said. "They comprise over 80 percent of all cases." Peraica wants to "refocus" from prosecution to diversion and mandate either faith-based or community-based treatment, with the criminal paying the cost. "Instead of $100 per day for prison, make the accused pay $20 per day for counseling and job training," he said.

Peraica, a Cook County commissioner who narrowly lost a race for board president in 2006 to Todd Stroger, pledged to cut the state's attorney's office budget by 2.5 percent annually. "(Cook County) is over-taxed," he said. "We have the highest sales and property taxes in the region. I will eliminate perks if elected. (The office) has 300 cars, too many outside counsel, too many publicists, too many supervisors." Peraica pledged to initiate a "desk audit" of all 1,700 jobs if elected. "Every unnecessary or duplicative job will be eliminated," he said.

And, added Peraica, his "core mission" will be twofold: fighting both crime and official corruption. Peraica will mandate only two prosecutors per criminal courtroom, and he proposed creating a special unit to ferret out city and county corruption. The unit would consist of accountants, auditors, financial investigators and prosecutors. "We need to send a message," Peraica said. "Corruption will not be tolerated -- as it has been by Devine's office."

With the election just weeks away, Peraica has three huge problems.

First, Cook County is overwhelmingly and habitually Democratic. A Democrat has won 11 of  the 16 elections for state's attorney since 1948. When Republicans have been victorious (in 1956, 1972, 1976, 1990 and 1992), it has been against a seriously flawed Democrat. The 2004 Republican candidate for state's attorney against Devine got an anemic 20.6 percent of the vote, losing Chicago by 701,582 votes and the suburbs by 397,616 votes.  In 2004 John Kerry won the county by 842,319 votes. Obama will win it in November by a million votes.

Second, Alvarez is not Todd Stroger. She's not reviled. She's not black. In fact, she's barely known. But she is a Democrat and a woman, she has a Hispanic name, she is qualified, and she is not flawed.

Third, Peraica is reviled by the Daley Democratic establishment, by blacks, by liberals and by most of the news media. They don't want him to be state's attorney.

My prediction: Peraica got 47 percent of the vote against Stroger in 2006. He'll get 39 percent against Alvarez in 2008, but that won't dissuade him from running for county board president again in 2010.