Could Toni P. someday be head of local regular Democratic organization?

It was just one week ago that some people were convinced that Toni Preckwinkle was a political has-been.

PRECKWINKLE: Soon to be the new boss?

The Cook County Board president, after all, was the woman whom the electorate was going to revolt because of the “pop tax” – that penny-per-ounce fee on sweetened beverages that she lobbied for, but that the county commissioners eventually repealed.

IT SEEMS THAT Cook County residents weren’t as worked up about that tax as some ideologues wanted to believe. Either that, or the fact that she ran against a political mediocrity like Robert Fioretti gave her a victory in last week’s Democratic primary.

With her fate assured for the next four years (there isn’t a serious Republican challenger for the Nov. 6 general election), the long-time alderman from Hyde Park turned eight-years-and-running county president wants to strengthen her post.

Such as her public statement Friday that she wants to become the new chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party – a post that some local political watchers believe is more significant than that of the Illinois Democratic Party chairman (because local is ALWAYS more important than state).

The post is open because of another electoral result from Tuesday – the defeat of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios. He’s the man who has been county Democratic boss since 2007.

BERRIOS: Will Toni friendship last?

BUT HIS DEFEAT as assessor undermines his ability to keep the Democratic Party post. Why should the Democratic Party’s local organization keep as its boss a guy who couldn’t even win re-election?

Which has Preckwinkle publicly saying she’s willing to challenge Berrios for the position that enhances his political party.

Consider Richard J. Daley, who may have committed many significant acts toward the long-term future of Chicago as mayor. But it was the fact that he doubled as the Democratic Chairman that gave him the power to keep getting re-elected as mayor, and also to have an influence that caused national Democrats to care what he thought.

In short, it wasn’t the “Mayor of Chicago” that John F. Kennedy sought out when he ran for the presidency in 1960 – it was the “Democratic chairman” who turned out all those hundreds of thousands of votes that resulted in Illinois’ electoral college going into the JFK column, rather than for Richard Nixon.

Would JFK have sought Daley if he weren't chair

HECK, IT CAN be argued that it was the fact that Edward R. Vrdolyak served as Democratic chairman from 1982-87 that gave him the power to influence a council majority to openly defy Harold Washington during much of his mayoral term.

Other significant names to serve as Democratic chairman for Cook County include George Dunne, Jacob Arvey, Edward J. Kelly and Anton Cermak – the latter of whom used the party chairman post to rise to being Chicago mayor.

This will be the class of politicos that Preckwinkle would elevate herself to – IF she can become the Democratic chairwoman for the county of Cook.

She’d be the first woman to hold the post, although she’d be replacing the man who was the first Latino to ever hold the post. Depending on how strongly Berrios would want to hang onto political power, this could become an ethnically-inspired political brawl.

ALTHOUGH IT COULD wind up that the political elements wishing to elevate the number of women holding political posts could rise up to fight for Preckwinkle. It would be something of an achievement if the el jefe of Cook County Democrats became a la jefa.

CERMAK: Used post to become mayor

Kind of odd, since Preckwinkle herself was a Berrios backer. She constantly spoke out on behalf of retaining Joe as county assessor; even when others were bashing him about for all the family members on his government payroll and allegations that he gave tax breaks to his political donors.

So now, by saying she wants to replace Joe Berrios, Toni Preckwinkle is turning on him at his lowest moment. Which may illustrate a reality of electoral politics.

Political allies are friends so long as they can do something for your – and no longer! Not bad for somebody who some people wanted to believe would be political history by now.

  -30-

Is Chicago’s political “Machine” dead? Evidence leans in both directions

“The ‘Machine’ is dead!” Or is it, “Long live the ‘Machine’!”

BERRIOS: Off to political retirement?

For those people who like to rant about Chicago politics and the dreaded “Machine” (a.k.a., the regular Democratic Party organization) that runs it, there was superficial evidence from Tuesday’s primary election to indicate both stances.

IT’S HARD TO say the “Machine” is alive and thriving when the Cook County Democratic Party chairman can’t even get himself re-elected to his own government post.

Sure enough, Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios is out – having lost his primary bid to a political amateur. Albeit one with University of Chicago academia experience. Although in many ways, that qualifies as the ultimate “nobody nobody sent” that the old school says is completely undesirable.

Of course, Berrios had so many people singling him out for a political demise. He had built up throughout the years a massive list of people who had nothing but contempt for his political existence. He was counting on the Democratic organization to turn out the votes to lead to his electoral success.

What is it that made Berrios so many electoral enemies? The fact he liked to have family members on his government office payroll didn’t help his image. Nor did the perception that he was using his office to give significant property tax breaks to business interests who contributed financially to his campaign fund.

HENCE, WE HAD a lot of voters who went to their polling place Tuesday (or an Early Voting center during previous weeks) with two goals in mind – a choice for governor, and ANYBODY except Berrios!

Which is why we now have Fritz Kaegi as the Democratic nominee, and likely the eventual Assessor for the next four years.

Unless Andrea Raila, a third candidate whose campaign got seriously hemmed in by Kaegi-backer antics to keep her off the ballot, succeeds in forcing the election results to be tossed out and a special election to be held.

LIPINSKI: Returning to D.C.

If the ‘Machine’ still had significant life, that might be a possibility. But since there aren’t “re-dos” in electoral politics (just as “there’s no crying in baseball), we’re likely stuck with Tuesday night’s election results.

BUT BEFORE WE say the ‘Machine’ is a relic of the past, keep in mind the apparent victory of Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill.

He’s the Congressman from Southwest Side Chicago and surrounding suburbs whose Democratic partisan leanings are due to his support for organized labor and unions. On many of the social issues that a new generation of Democrats think are all important, he’s hostile – particularly abortion.

Lipinski, the son of Bill Lipinski who also served in the City Council and later in Congress back when the ‘Machine’ was a reality of political life, always gets people claiming he’s “too conservative” to be a Chicago congressman. But this election cycle, he got a challenger in the form of Marie Newman and the many national Democratic support groups willing to prop up her campaign financially.

But according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, the 56.58 percent of votes Lipinski got in the city portion of the congressional district far exceeded the 51.59 percent support the Cook County Clerk’s office says Newman got in the suburbs.

THE DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATION can be said to have done its part to send Lipinski back to Capitol Hill and ensure that the Democratic caucus has people representing various points of view on issues within its membership. Although the people who always make this argument don’t seem the least bit concerned that the Republican caucus is overwhelmingly dominated by conservative ideologues.

But back to Berrios for a bit. I suspect there are some people whose objections include a tinge of ethnic hostility. I remember when his daughter, Toni, lost her re-election bid to an Illinois House seat in 2014, with some voters saying they didn’t want Latino political representation for an area with a gentrifying population.

BURKE: 

But before anybody thinks I’m saying Joe Berrios was picked upon for his ethnic origins (he’s Puerto Rican), I’d have to acknowledge the political victory the very same night for Aaron Ortiz – who defeated Dan Burke for his Illinois House seat.

Burke most definitely would have won yet another term (he’s been at the Statehouse since 1991) if the ‘Machine’ were truly thriving. Now, he’s probably wondering what’s the world come to when Ed Burke, the City Council’s long-time Finance chairman, can’t even get his own brother re-elected to office.

  -30-

Electoral gamesmanship: It’s not just a matter of voting for the best candidate

I once covered a mayoral election cycle in the suburbs where we didn’t learn until the day before Election Day that the challenger was definitely off the ballot and that the unpopular incumbent truly was running unopposed for re-election.

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.

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.

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.”

  -30-

EXTRA: Oops! I almost skipped casting my vote for Toni Preckwinkle

I went to an Early Voting Center on Monday to cast my ballot for the upcoming March 20 primaries and I almost made a gaffe.

When I thought I had completed my ballot, I was informed that I managed to skip over one post – I somehow had left the position of Cook County Board president blank!

I WENT BACK and filled in the blank, making it for the record that I support the re-election of Toni Preckwinkle to a third term in the position. Even though her support of the pop tax last year was supposedly going to be the issue of outrage that would cause Chicago and the inner suburbs to revolt against her.

Remember all that?!?

People were so worked up over the sweetened beverage tax that they were making significantly-inconvenient trips to Lake County (either the Illinois or Indiana versions) to buy their cases of pop and avoid paying the penny per ounce tax rate.

Perhaps it’s because the gubernatorial primaries of both major political parties have caused enough scandal and outrage that people are focusing their attention on those issues.

MAYBE THE OUTRAGE of the electorate is more focused these days on the re-election chances of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios and trying to dump the political insider in favor of a governmental amateur. Or maybe it’s just because Preckwinkle’s opponent, former Chicago alderman Robert Fioretti, is one step above a fringe candidate like gubernatorial dreamer Robert Marshall.

But when was the last time you heard anyone rant or rage about the pop tax; except for maybe the political crackpot-types who are determined to complain about something no matter what happens.

Is our political attention-span that limited? Most likely!

  -30-

Does Kennedy have right to make same ol’ accusations against Joe Berrios?

I comprehend why Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Chris Kennedy feels compelled to do something to jump-start his campaign this electoral cycle.

KENNEDY: Will he gain from Berrios bashing?

The man who early on was supposed to be the one legitimate challenger to J.B. Pritzker and his millions is fizzling out to the point where he maybe as much a fringe candidate as Daniel Biss – who likely will win the vote in his home suburb of Evanston but will be unknown elsewhere in Illinois.

HE NEEDS TO do something drastic to draw attention to himself, although perhaps not as drastic as 2008 presidential hopeful John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate. That was just politically suicidal.

Although I’m wondering if Kennedy’s attempt at an attention-grabber this week is going to have a similar backfiring effect – did the man who can claim a senator for a father and a president and senator as uncles come across as some out-of-town goof who has the nerve to criticize our local political people?

I wonder if Kennedy’s attempt to call for the resignation of Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios will offend the local types who would figure this Kennedy kid (who has never held elective office before) ought to mind his own business.

Even though, to be honest, the accusations he made against Berrios are the same exact bad things that many local people say about Joe – he operates his office that assesses property tax rates for the benefit of people who make prominent financial donations to Democratic candidates. Oh yeah, he also stocks his government payroll with every relative and political friend he can find.

BERRIOS: Always under fire politically

KENNEDY, AFTER ALL, is a Boston-born type who was raised in the suburbs of the District of Columbia. He’s not native Midwestern by any means, let alone a life-long Chicagoan.

He did eventually get an MBA from Northwestern University, but his local tie is because of the fact the Kennedy family for many years owned the Merchandise Mart property. The family has since sold it, but during the time in the 1990s and 2000s that they owned it, Chris Kennedy was the family member they sent to Chicago to run it for them.

During those years, Chris Kennedy became the Chicago connection to the Kennedy political family and also a fairly solid financial contributor to our local politicos. He often talked about running for higher office himself, but always managed to find excuses for which to drop out.

MADIGAN: Will he back Berrios?

Giving some the impression of a political dreamer who doesn’t actually have the nerve to put his own name on the ballot for voter scrutiny.

HECK, THERE ARE some people who are still convinced he’ll find a reason to drop out of this election cycle – even though by filing nominating petitions, he’s already carried out more of a campaign than he’s ever done previously.

The point is I can envision local politically-interested types who will agree with Kennedy’s comments about Berrios running a “racket” in the way property values are assessed in Cook County. But perhaps by being a candidate for governor, it is questionable whether he’s the one who should be saying such things.

For the record, Kennedy responded to a report by the ProPublica.com study of the assessor’s office (which the Chicago Tribune says it will publish in the Sunday paper whose early editions will be for sale come Saturday) by issuing a critical statement.

“Berrios has used the property tax system that is defunding our public schools, defunding our social safety net, and defunding efforts to end gun violence as means to keep the political machine in power and enrich the entitled, politically connected few at everyone’s expense,” Kennedy said.

THOSE ARE FIGHTIN’ words, to some. Particularly to Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, who in his day job as a tax attorney downtown often gets his name dragged into any criticism of Berrios.

BISS: Has he become stronger fringe candidate?

After all, it is likely that Madigan’s support is the reason Berrios has been able to survive years of similar criticisms from local people. Now instead of inspiring Berrios critics to support him, Kennedy may have merely offended the powers-that-be (most of whom already are lining up behind Pritzker’s campaign) to make a special point of defeating him come the March 20 primary.

That is, if they don’t get all politically vindictive and try to have him knocked off the ballot before that date.

Because in the end, Chris Kennedy may well have a legitimate point to make. But he may not be strong-enough politically to be the one to make it.

  -30-

EXTRA: Merely a pol power shift?

The Illinois General Assembly isn’t making any progress toward approving a state budget, yet it seems the legislators are trying to keep themselves busy. That could be the most dangerous aspect of this political stalemate!

Will these people in Springfield really try to dictate ...

How else to explain the portion of the Chicago delegation in Springfield who want the General Assembly to change state law requiring that the board of education for the Chicago Public Schools be elected by the voters?

CURRENTLY, WE HAVE school board members who get appointed by the mayor. Richard M. Daley went through two decades as mayor being able to dictate who ran the school system, and Rahm Emanuel has had the same power during his time in office.

Yet the people who were desperate to dump Rahm as mayor in this year’s election cycle have also been vocal in their desire to reduce what authority he has.

Leading to the bill that could come up for some sort of vote during the November veto session, or may linger around through next spring. Or maybe it will become one of those perennial issues that causes much debate, but little activity, in the General Assembly.

I don’t doubt the sincerity of the legislators – Reps. Robert Martwick, Elgie Sims, Art Turner, Mary Flowers, LaShawn Ford and Jaime Andrade – in introducing this bill. Which calls for 13 people from across four sections of Chicago to be elected. They may think they're doing the right thing.

THEY MAY EVEN believe their rhetoric that they can advance this bill in the legislative process during upcoming weeks – the time when the Legislature returns to Springfield on the off-chance they will do something budget-related, but wind up doing this instead.

Yet I remain skeptical of the idea that an elected school board makes any real difference. To me, it sounds like a power shift.

... who gets to serve here in Chicago Board of Education?

Instead of having Emanuel in control of who runs the local school system, it will wind up being the party chairmen – the ones who often dictate which candidates for political office wind up being taken seriously by voters and which ones are the fringe kooks who get disregarded.

It would create a whole new round of political posts for the party chairmen to fill, which would mean more government officials who would be indebted to them.

I’M NOT NECESSARILY out to blast state party Chairman Michael Madigan or Cook County party Chair Joe Berrios. But does it really make much of a difference who has the influence to pick the school board members?

I think the people eager to make the change to an elected school board overestimate the difference that it would make. It has been my own experience in dealing with some of the suburban school boards that are elected that the quality of people who wind up serving doesn’t really get bolstered.

They wind up being the local politicos who, for whatever reason, fall short of getting elected to the aldermanic or trustee post they’d prefer.

Is that what we really want for the Chicago Public Schools – the people who got squeezed out of a seat on the Chicago City Council?

  -30-

Claypool for chief of staff – how circumstances change with time!!!

Mayor Rahm Emanuel turned to an experienced political hand in choosing a new chief of staff; shifting Forrest Claypool away from his CTA post and putting him in charge of running the staff that does the actual work that the mayor gets to take credit for.

         

Not that I think Claypool is incompetent. He did hold the very same position twice under Mayor Richard M. Daley. He’s been around a number of local government positions. He knows how things operate.

IT’S JUST THAT the circumstances under which Claypool was picked by Emanuel actually amuse me.

Let’s not forget that Emanuel is now the guy whom all the good-government types demonize. He’s the ultimate political hack, as far as they’re concerned. They desperately wanted to dump him in this month’s municipal elections.

Except that Emanuel was the candidate with the big bucks that allowed him to spend the living daylights out of opponent Jesus Garcia – who had become a darling of those people who like to think they’re the good-government types.

Now Emanuel turns to Claypool to make sure things get done the way he wants them to.

YET I CAN remember back in 2010 when Claypool ran for Cook County assessor, ultimately losing to Joe Berrios.

Berrios managed to win that election cycle despite being demonized for being a political hack – a walking ball of conflicts of interest. The guy who conducted himself in ruling on tax appeal cases in ways that made it clear he was getting some sort of benefit (if not quite criminal in nature) that enriched himself.

Claypool’s election as assessor was supposed to be the move that would save us from the political hack days of old – the days when now-corrupt behavior was commonly accepted as standard practice.

The fact that a majority of voters picked Berrios in that election was supposed to be some sort of sign of our political stupidity – just as some, I’m sure, think the fact that Rahm Emanuel took 56 percent of the vote (not far off from those pre-season polls that said he’d take 58 percent) is a sign that we STILL haven’t learned any better.

DOES THIS MEAN that Claypool, who also ran the park district once and also served on the board of appeals that handled tax cases, has gone from being the goo-goo to being the guy who’s going to keep “politics as usual” operating in local government?

It’s probably more a piece of evidence that the people who were ready to anoint Claypool to political sainthood some five years ago were seriously over-exaggerating his good government sensibilities.

If he’s able to work with Emanuel – who actually was the guy who got him into the CTA position that he’s held in recent years after he lost that assessor election – then he’s probably got a practical politics streak. Although it could also mean that some of those practical political people also have a touch of government altruism flowing in their veins.

Although I do find one bit of irony. Berrios managed to get re-elected despite all the goo-goo griping because his Puerto Rican ethnic origins made him attractive to the Latino segment of the electorate.

THE SAME SEGMENT that this time around was the hard-core base of the Anybody But Rahm voters. Which amounted to all of 44 percent of the vote this month!

And which is what can make the Latino electorate unpredictable – because it often splits between those who want to be practical and back the winner and those who have an ideological streak for what they perceive to be the right thing.

Let us hope that Claypool, in trying to run Emanuel’s city government operation in a professional manner, can strike some sort of balance. That ultimately is what would benefit Chicago as a whole.

  -30-

Fire the family?!? Those are ‘fighting words’ to some Chicago politicos

“If a man can’t put his arms around his sons and help them, then what’s the world coming to?” – Richard J. Daley

  -0-



DALEY: You know what he said!



Of course, there was another part of that exchange involving Richard Joseph and his attempt toward the end of his mayoral stint to direct some city insurance business to a firm run by the one son of his who didn’t get into electoral politics.

And I’m sure that part, which we’re all thinking about in our heads, is what Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios wishes he could spout off these days without creating a further stink.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED. We have come a long way since those early 1970s days when Mayor Daley, the first, questioned why he couldn’t use his government influence to benefit his family.

After all, if the insurance firm being developed back then by his son, Michael, had provided legitimate service to the city government, then where’s the problem? Somebody had to benefit financially from getting the city business?

Why not keep it within his family, within people he believes he can trust? I’m sure that back then, there were some people who would have accepted that line of logic. For all I know, there may still be a couple.

But I’ll bet that even those couple of people are disgusted with Berrios these days, who is getting national attention after the Associated Press picked up on a Chicago Sun-Times story about Berrios’ hiring practices.

FOR A COOK County ethics board has found that not only were a couple of Berrios hires within his office ethics violations, they may well also be fiduciary violations as well. Meaning the county may be losing money because of these deals.

BERRIOS: Not the whole problem

For the record, that ethics board wants Berrios to fire his son, Joey, and his sister, Carmen. The former is a residential assistant, while the latter is director of taxpayer services.

Joe Berrios, the former county Board of Review member who in 2010 got elected to the post of Cook County assessor, has become the face of political nepotism in Chicago.

Which really is a joke, when you think about it. In a city where families named “Daley,” “Cullerton,” “Madigan,” “Stroger” and “Jackson” (just to name a few, there are many more) have developed political influence that spans generations, it’s la familia Berrios that is “the problem.”

WHICH IS WHY I really wonder if Berrios wishes he could channel Richard J. Daley in responding to the Cook County ethics board request. He really is just doing things the way they have long been done.

The “Chicago Way,” if you want to be flippant about it, with your lamest attempt at a Sean Connery Scottish accent.

Personally, I think some of the Berrios babble is a bit much, particularly since none of us should be the least bit shocked he would operate in such a manner. This was the man who won his 2010 campaign despite the best efforts of the goo-goo element of our society to demonize him as a political hack.

Should we really be surprised to learn that he would see his election as an upholding, of sorts, by the voters of his way of doing things? He probably figures that if voters really cared about such things, we’d have Assessor Forrest Claypool these days.

I JUST CAN’T be “shocked, shocked” to learn that nepotism is taking place within the assessor’s office. Anybody who is shocked is seriously naïve, or else faking indignation to cover up some other hang-up.

Yes, a part of me wonders if some people think that nepotism is acceptable if the name is “Daley,” but not someone who appears much more ethnic. Although I don’t believe that’s the only (or even dominant) factor at work here.

I am curious to see how this situation plays out. Because I expect an act of defiance on the part of papa Joe before he ultimately has to kick his son and sister off their current spots on the payroll.

Only, in all likelihood, to have them turn up on someone else’s part of the payroll – someone who owed Joe a favor. That, if anything, is the real “Chicago Way” of doing things!

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, I voted for Joe Berrios in that last election cycle. I stand by my line of reasoning.

Joe Berrios gets at least 1 vote

Joe Berrios, the Democratic Party chairman who wants to be Cook County assessor, got at least one vote – mine.

As much as I respect the sincerity of those people who are eager to campaign against Berrios on the grounds that he represents everything that is wrong with the “machine” politics of old, I just found it too hard to take some of their claims seriously when I walked into an Early Voting Center on Monday to cast my ballot for the upcoming elections.

YES, BERRIOS IS a walking ball of conflicts-of-interest. He is one of those political people who conducted himself on property tax issues while serving on the county Board of Appeals in the old-school manner that we’d like to think we have moved beyond in our political structure.

He probably is way too comfortable with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and state Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, who also are tax attorneys who argue their clients’ cases before Berrios.

But I sense too much self-righteous indignation when it comes to people complaining about Berrios – almost as though they think that by dumping Joe, they have somehow magically “cleaned up” our local political scene.

That statement is so absurd that I giggled while writing it.

WHICH MEANS I think too many people are looking to make a token gesture toward reform, while doing nothing to go after the larger structure. Berrios didn’t give us the set-up we now have, and it won’t go away if he is forced to depart electoral politics following the Nov. 2 elections.

So I don’t see the point of the Anybody But Berrios vote – particularly since I don’t see the primary alternative as being that much better.

I don’t have a personal problem with Forrest Claypool – who is running a campaign independent of the Democratic Party, even though he is a long-time Democrat.

But we’re talking about a former Chicago Park District superintendent, a one-time deputy commissioner of the same Board of Appeals that Berrios now serves on, and a former chief of staff to Mayor Richard M. Daley.

YOU DON’T GET that kind of resume in the Chicago political structure by being a legitimate reformer. People who think Claypool will bring about significant change are kidding themselves.

I don’t want to kid myself. Which is why I just went ahead and voted for Joe.

That kind of sentiment also made me vote “no” on whether to not to bring the concept of recall elections to Illinois. I have great respect for an election’s outcome, and don’t like the idea of anything that tries to undo them.

Besides, I also believe that if we’re stupid enough to vote for someone, we probably should be forced to live with the results of our mistake until the next election cycle – which will come soon enough.

  -30-

Joe Berrios to turn to Latino vote to beat back goo-goo backing for Claypool

I have been wondering how long it would be before Democratic county assessor nominee Joe Berrios would turn himself into Josè.

Not that he literally has gone through the process of changing his name. But the candidate who seems to be the focus this election cycle of all the hostility by good-government types toward establishment politicians seems to be evolving himself into the Latino candidate – in hopes that the significant Latino population of Chicago will provide him with a solid base that will result in his election come Nov. 2.

BERRIOS ON MONDAY is planning an event by which he will claim the endorsements of just about every significant Latino politico – including Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., state Sen. Iris Martinez, D-Chicago (the first Latina to serve in the Illinois Senate) and 31^st Ward Alderman Ray Suarez.

They will be gathering at the politically old-school Hotel Allegro (which I still think of as the Bismarck Hotel) to try to create the impression that Latinos in Chicago (who comprise just over one-quarter of the city’s population) want “one of our own” running the office that handles tax collection for Cook County.

I don’t know if this tactic will work.

It could well be that a significant share of Latinos also have problems with the notion of yet another political hack being elected assessor. And it’s not like any of the Berrios opponents – not even the independent candidacy of Forrest Claypool – has any significant appeal to Latinos.

BUT WHAT I have noticed about the Berrios campaign in this election cycle is that it has barely touched on his ethnic background. At least not until now, when it looks like Claypool may make some dents in the voter turnout.

That shouldn’t be a surprise. Berrios, after all, is the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party. As in the whole party. Theoretically, people should be coming to him seeking help getting themselves elected to various political posts.

Instead, it is Berrios himself who needs help, and he is turning to his ethnic roots (he’s of Puerto Rican background) to try to get it. Perhaps he figures that Latinos won’t get caught up in “goo-goo” talk. Which is what the Berrios opposition is about.

These activists realize they’re not about to take down all of government in Chicago and Cook County (that Tea Party-type tripe doesn’t play here, where people have a little more sense than those rural communities where such talk might get taken seriously).

SO, THEY’RE FOCUSING on one candidate – which seems to be Berrios. Dump the party chairman for the political post that he wants, and it will be a significant symbolic victory for the cause of good government.

Now if this reads like I’m trying to defend Berrios, I’m not. I will be the first to concede that the county Board of Review, which oversees tax appeals, is as closed a panel as can exist within our local government.

Berrios’ presence within local government is perfect proof that not every ethnic or racial minority who holds office is some sort of radical. Berrios during his 22 years on the board has been as establishment as they come.

That is evidenced by the fact that he also works as a lobbyist to the Illinois Legislature in Springfield, and he has his close ties with the Democratic legislative leaders – both of whom also work as attorneys who specialize in tax law and whose clients often have cases that must appear before the Board of Review.

IF IT SOUNDS like an incestuous relationship, it probably is. Although I doubt that Berrios is the worst practitioner of “Chicago-style” politics.

What inspires the people who want to dump Berrios largely is his challenger. Officially, he has a Republican and a Green to run against – neither of which is worth mentioning by name. If they were the only factors, then Berrios would be a shoo-in for re-election.

Yet we’re talking about Claypool, who caught the imagination of good-government types as a so-called “reformer” when he tried running in 2006 against John Stroger for county board President. Stroger won, only to turn the nomination over to son Todd when it became apparent that father Stroger’s health was declining.

Which is why for four years, all those people who never got over their distaste for Todd Stroger have been thinking of Claypool as the guy who “should have been” county board president. Which means those people are eager to vote him into some political post. If they can take down a political veteran like Berrios in the process, I’m sure they will be very happy on Nov. 3.

I’M NOT ATTACKING Claypool. I understand that as a county board member he has supported some good-government measures. Yet I have a hard time thinking of Claypool as a real live goo-goo, mainly because he has been so allied throughout the years with Richard M. Daley (a mayoral chief of staff and Daley’s pick to run the Chicago Park District, among other ties).

Which is why when Berrios has started making claims that he thinks his ethnicity factors into peoples’ distaste for him, I’m not going to totally dismiss it. Although I figure it is merely one of many factors, and not the sole reason people will vote against him.

I’m not sure how this election will turn out, because I have noticed that many of the establishment candidates in Cook County are making a point of endorsing Berrios (including county board President nominee Toni Preckwinkle, who said that as county Dem chairman, the party has been supportive of the political aspirations of all people – not just white guys).

But I’m presuming that since Berrios himself plans to reach out to the Latino voter bloc, he sees something of a gap in support – one that he intends to plug.

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