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| RAILA: Back on the ballot, for now! |
I
mention that because it’s still six days away from Election Day, meaning there’s
still time for electoral antics to occur with regards to the election being
held for Cook County Assessor.
THAT’S
THE ONE where incumbent Joe Berrios, most definitely an old-school politico of
the Cook County mold, is trying to retain his post. But we don’t know exactly
who he faces for opposition in Tuesday’s primary election.
Two
people filed nominating petitions to get on the Democratic ballot to challenge
him, and the one who has managed to get himself some airtime and political
advertising is Fritz Kaegi – who’s been portraying himself as an honest guy
businessman who wants to undo the ways of the political hack Berrios.
If it
were a one-on-one political campaign, he might very well get enough voter
support from all the people who are determined to view Berrios as venal in
order to win the primary; which amounts to winning the election, since the Cook
County Republican slate of candidates is weak and not likely to put up much of
a challenge come the Nov. 6 general election.
But
then, there’s Andrea Raila. She’s a tax appeal consultant. She has her own
firm. She’s billing herself as one of the few women seeking a significant
government post.
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| BERRIOS: Does Raila boost his chances of victory? |
WHICH
MEANS FOR those people who think Kaegi is too much of a political amateur to
hold a countywide office but don’t want to vote for Berrios, there’s an
alternative choice.
Yet
Raila has been fighting for the right to even have her name on the ballot.
Kaegi supporters say her nominating petitions were flawed and she didn’t
qualify to even be a selection. Last month, she was removed from the ballot by
a Cook County judge, who admitted ballots already had been printed with her
name on them.
Which
resulted in the situation I, and other Early Voting Center users, faced last
week – I was handed a slip of paper before picking a touch-screen to vote with;
informing me that if I voted for Andrea, I’d be spoiling my ballot.
It
wouldn’t count.
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| KAEGI: A nobody after March 21, or a victor? |
THAT IS,
UNTIL Wednesday. When an Illinois appellate court overruled the circuit court.
She’s back on the ballot, and anybody who cast votes for her instead of Berrios
or Kaegi will now know that their votes will count, after all.
That is,
unless another layer of courts manages to issue a ruling overturning the
appeals court. This could get rushed through to the Supreme Court of Illinois.
We may not know until Election Day whether Raila is a legitimate option for the
post of Cook County assessor.
A post
that usually doesn’t get much attention, but got actor Dan Ackroyd to recall
his Elwood Blues character and take pot-shots at Berrios (while also endorsing
Chris Kennedy for governor) in an Internet-only campaign ad. Now, it’s the
focus of political chaos.
For what
it’s worth, Raila has had to focus so much of her attention and money to a
legal fight just to get her name on the ballot, it’s not likely she could
actually win the primary.
SOME ARE
CONVINCED she is a political front, of sorts, to steal votes away from a Kaegi
campaign – thereby bolstering the chances that Berrios wins re-election.
Could
she have been a credible candidate – the first Democratic woman to run for the
post since the office was created in 1932 (that’s her self-important claim)?
Perhaps. She might have been worth considering for a vote, since I’m not
impressed with the Kaegi credentials. A political amateur, is what I fear.
Which
means I was in line with many other Democratic Party establishment-types who
wound up casting my ballot for Berrios. More of the same.
It would
have been intriguing to consider a candidate like Raila; who turns to the late
pundit Studs Terkel in saying, “You should be prime minister of taxes.”
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