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If there is one thing you can say about Tony Peraica, it's that he doesn't take it lying down. In one of the most closely contested, and divisive, races in recent local history, Peraica and Stroger have all but come to blows out on the street.
Chicagoist is fascinated by the race for Cook County Board President, for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is its potential to punch a hole in a piece of the old machine's patronage armor, and to consolidate a power base for an unusual coalition of reformers right in Daley's back yard. The polls have shown all kinds of possibilities, with Stroger taking the lead among independents, and Peraica running ahead of Stroger. Peraica has played his hand well, letting other groups sling the mud for him, while he has remained largely above the fray. Stroger has taken a different approach, letting his cronies' South Side machine work its magic.
With the race as close as it is, we're not so surprised with Stroger's latest volley against Peraica's self-styled reformer image. You may have seen the creepy ad playing on local TV, accusing Peraica of wanting to gut the County's health care system. As soon as Peraica found out about it, he came back swinging, holding a press conference, renewing his vow to cut patronage and consolidate jobs to eliminate waste in the County. The Stroger campaign has backed off their earlier claims that Peraica would shutter the South Side's Provident Hospital
It makes us wonder what they're thinking inside of Stroger's campaign. On the one hand, the kid from the block in us recognizes a cheap shot for what it is. And we're not against that. Hell, we've taken a few of our own. Stroger can solidify his base with a rumor about a white Republican attacking the only healthcare system that many poor people in the county have. But when you are playing that fast and loose with the truth, you have to wonder what their strategy is, or if they even have one.
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What's up with that photo of Peraica with Pat Buchanan on his website? Nice ’stache.
If Peraica is Mr. Reform, why feature one of the biggest racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay demagougues on his campaign website?
Forget his stand on Provident Hospital, does Peraica agree with Buchanan that Martin Luther King was "the Devil incarnate?" Or maybe he agrees that Hitler was "an individual of great courage?"
http://www.votetony06.com/photo/photoview.asp?p=520
What's up with that photo of Peraica with Pat Buchanan on his website? Nice ’stache.
If Peraica is Mr. Reform, why feature one of the biggest racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay demagougues on his campaign website?
Forget his stand on Provident Hospital, does Peraica agree with Buchanan that Martin Luther King was "the Devil incarnate?" Or maybe he agrees that Hitler was "an individual of great courage?"
http://www.votetony06.com/photo/photoview.asp?p=520
Who are these "unusual coalition of reformers right in Daley's back yard", that you speak of? Forrest Claypool, the mayors former chief of staff? Please.
What's up with that photo of Peraica with Pat Buchanan on his website? Nice ’stache.
If Peraica is Mr. Reform, why feature one of the biggest racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay demagougues on his campaign website?
Forget his stand on Provident Hospital, does Peraica agree with Buchanan that Martin Luther King was "the Devil incarnate?" Or maybe he agrees that Hitler was "an individual of great courage?"
http://www.votetony06.com/photo/photoview.asp?p=520
chicagoist said:
Stroger has taken a different approach, letting his cronies' South Side machine work its magic.
Peraica is no different, just another wolf in sheeps clothing. Sure he won't get help from the south side machine, but the west side machine is elated at the opportunity to work some majic of their own. Melrose Park, Stone Park, Cicero, and of course, Eddy V all have Peraica's back, this makes me nervous.
Ok hmmm and Dunno; besides having an identity crisis, you are obviously a shill for the Beavers camp. This is the best you can do? Ad hominem attacks against Peraica? Trying to put words denigrating Dr. King into the mouth of Peraica isn't just wrong, it's insulting to the memory of what King stood for.
It seems that neither Stroger campaign has been able to run on the issues. When will we talk about the Juvinile Detention Center, and the gross abuse of the children incaracerated there? Or the dangerous and dirty conditions in the County's Forest Preserve System?
MAF: Claypool is a reformer, and although he came out of the Daley camp, he made significant changes in the City's Park District, and has worked with Peraica, Mike Quigley, and many other independant-minded reformers around the area, including Harold Washington.
Stroger seems like a complete and utter buffoon so with much reservation regarding some of his creepy right wing views this 'dirty liberal' will be voting for Peraica. I hope I don't regret it. What awesome choices we get!
those 'yony peraica is a george bush republican' ads are as insulting to anyone's intelligence as the 'vote for liberal politician melissa/tammy, et al, and you're voting for nancy pelosi and her ''san francisco' values." and anyone who says 'ha ha ha claypool is no reformer, he was daley's chief of staff,' has just been reading too much kass.
i know, it's tony, not yony. it's still early ffor me.
Peraica is worse that a george bush republican... He is a cook county republican, his peers include George Ryan and Betty Loren Maltese
Cook County may need reform, but not in the manner that an ultra-right winger like Peraica would bring. Reform can only come from within, which kind of sucks given the choices you have.
Peraica put the photo of himself with Buchanan on his own website. What is the message that is sent by that? Is he appealing to Buchanan supporters or is it an endorsement by Buchanan?
Suppose Stroger put a pic up of him with Al Sharpton. Are you saying Peraica wouldn't be all over that?
Don't like the guilt by association game? That's too bad. When you bring up Beavers or when Tony talks about people from John Stroger's administration it's the same thing. Good for the goose, good for the gander.
Again, what does Peraica putting that photo on HIS website mean?
While I'm not crazy about Peraica, and had vowed never to vote for him after hearing him speak just before Claypool and Quigly both announced their candidacies, I am so repulsed not only by the behavior and arrogance of the Stroger/Beavers/Daley trinity, but also by how much actual *people* are being hurt by the Cook County government's corruption. The hopelessness in the healthcare system, both from the employees AND the patients, and the dead-end that the Juvenile Detention Center brings to poor families. Again, making blanket statements about Peraica, like he is "an ultra-right winger" don't help. The reality is that Peraica will have to work with the rest of the board to accomplish anything. And you better believe Beavers is going to fight him every inch of the way.
The cynicism exhibited by Beavers' gang, claiming to protect the poor while damning more poor people to a lifetime of bad choices makes me so mad I could spit. So yeah, I'm gonna hold my nose and vote for Peraica. And I'm gonna do everything I can to back Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley up so that Tony *does* have to tow the line if he does win.
Labels like "ultra right winger" are, admittedly a clumsy shorthand. But when you listen to Peraica's rhetoric and he is spouting the same talking points that we've heard on the national stage from the likes of Gingrich, Bush, Norquist, et. al and you know what kind of mess you get yourself into when you elect people to run your government who don't believe in government at all then I honestly don't see how Peraica's "ideas" will be any better for Cook County residents than the Machine's? In fact, if New Orleans and FEMA have taught us anything, they're likely to make a bad situation even worse.
Here's Peraica's photo with Jack Abramoff money-launderer Grover Norquist.
From his website of course!
WAKE UP PEOPLE! Peraica's a real right-winger!
Hold your nose and explain this one away too
More than 20 % of the 27,000 Cook County jobs are in John Stroger's (Todd Stroger's) 8th ward. Hmmm. Stroger claims he worked for SBK-Brooks Investment Corporation, www.sbkbrooks.com (with that always powerful degree in history - investment banks just love those). Would you use an investment bank that has a website that does not work? The whole Todd Stroger thing is hinky.
Left wing democrat here voting for Peraica.
Funny you say that... (AKA hmmm AKA dunno): I'd accuse you of being Wow, the other Stroger shill, but other than your tone and content, I lack the evidence.
My reply to you remains the same: That's the best you can do? Until Todd Stroger, or whomever is pulling the strings behind him has an answer for the horrifying level of abuse and neglect being perpetrated against children in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, you're damn right I am going to hold my nose.
Do what you must. You might clear your conscience of Todd Stroger, but you'd be sleepless for four years watching Peraica attack the government you hold dear.
Peraica doesn't even think there's a deficit. He thinks it's made up. He won't do layoffs. He says he'll do "attrition." He won't raise taxes, but has plans for new spending that go into the millions.
He thinks homeowners pay too little in property taxes and that corporations pay too much and he wants to fix it. He says he'll "abide by the law" on choice at Stroger Hospital, but the "law" was in effect when Phelan signed the executive order implenting choice. In other words, it's all up to him.
Of course, he says all this is a "smear." But if you feel comfy voting for a guy who will abandon his personal convictions to get you to vote for him, vaya con dios.
The photo and information on Peraica’s pledge to Norquist can be found at Peraica’s website http://www.votetony06.com/photo/photoview.asp?p=779
Damn, Wow! You just can't let it go!? You really must be from the Stroger campaign if you're only response to the charges that children are being abused by County patronage workers at the Juvenile Detention Center is that Peraica once hung out with Grover Norquist.
That's just pathetic ....
I'm yet another left-wing Democrat considering voting for Peraica. He's likely the only Republican I'll vote for-- I'd write in Claypool if I thought it might make a difference. I'm still fairly new to Chicago politics, but I can't escape the idea that the cronyism in Cook County is rampant and wasteful... the maneuvering for Todd Stroger left a bad taste in my mouth. Democrats can and should do better, so if I have to, yes, "hold my nose" and vote for the Republican in hopes of a shakeup that may bring future reforms, that's what I'll do.
Kudos to Chicagoist for providing this forum. If anyone can convince me that the younger Stroger could do anything to clean up this mess, without all the knee-jerk invective (and the Buchanan or Norquist associations--I'm aware of their shortcomings, to put it lightly), I'm listening.
Last I checked, Stroger said he was firing everyone at the JTDC. I don't recall Peraica ever saying that.
What about the other issues? Talk about not letting go, if the guy says he's going to do something, and in fact, the current president has made some changes, what are you holding on so tight for?
Or are you just so upset that you put yourself out on a limb for Peraica that you're credibility is lost otherwise?
If you read the last post there were plenty of things for a thinking Democrat to have pause about.
So, by your silence, you must think Peraica not committing to layoffs, only "attrition," is enough. Or not believing there's a deficit at all is enough. Or that raising property taxes on homeowners to lower them for corporations is enough. Or that lie he tells that the County Board President has nothing to do with abortion.
Go beyond the headlines, my left-wing brother. Just getting your news from Red Eye before writing yor blog is not exactly research.