January 27, 2021
FUBARs AND SNAFUs APLENTY IN 2021 SUBURBAN MUNICIPAL AND TOWNSHIP RACES

The forthcoming elections on April 6 in suburban Cook County townships and municipalities are essentially a SNAFU, a military term containing the F-word, but hey, it is in the dictionary so it cannot be THAT offensive. SNAFU means Situation-Normal-All-(Expletive)-Up. Since this column strives to be inoffensive, let us just pretend that the “F” means “fouled.” SNAFU is in Webster’s Dictionary, and it applies to some political, governmental, military and/or bureaucratic screw-up, like the COVID-19 vaccine distribution for example. It is defined as characteristic disorder, confusion, mix-up and foul-up. Is that possible? 2021 is the election cycle for Cook County’s 30 suburban townships and 120 municipalities. The election is on April 6 and the primary on Feb. 27. Full Article...


January 20, 2021
MADIGAN MAY BE GONE, BUT HE'S TAKING $17.8 MILLION WITH HIM

I recall a song by The Who which had prophetic anti-authoritarian lyrics such as "And the parting on the left is now parting on the right" and "meet the new boss, same as the old boss," concluding with the admonition "don't be fooled again." That's exactly what happened during Springfield's manufactured drama over the Jan. 6 to 13 period. Illinoisans got fooled again. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D) was dumped, but he is not going away. He has $17.9 million stashed away in four campaign accounts, and that money is portable. It follows him. New Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D) was chosen because he was the pick of the 22-member Black Caucus, which has clout. Welch has been a state representative since 2013 but I think he is now in over his head. Full Article...


January 13, 2021
CAPPARELLI'S CAREER ENTWINED WITH NORTHWEST SIDE POLITICAL HISTORY

It is often said that youth is wasted on the young. So, too, is history. Most youngsters do not care about what happened a generation ago let alone what happened last night unless you factor in "Cancel Culture." So nostalgia remains the exclusive province and comfort zone of the old and the aging, who either do not remember what they did last night, or they did nothing remotely worth remembering. The Dec. 31 passing of longtime Chicago Northwest Side political fixture Ralph Capparelli (D) at age 96 evokes a whole lot of nostalgia. Capparelli's political career spanned almost 60 years, from the late 1940's when he was a gym teacher and wrestling coach at Taft High School to the 2000s, when he was unseated at age 80 as state representative (2004) after 34 years and as 41st Ward Democratic committeeman (2008) after 16 years. Full Article...


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