Results tagged “statesattorney”

Anita Alvarez was sworn in as Cook County State’s Attorney this afternoon at a reception at the G.A.R. Memorial Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center. She is the first female and first Hispanic to hold the position. Alvarez has worked in the state’s attorney’s office for 22 years, and she most recently held the No. 3 job as Chief Deputy State's Attorney. She is also a native of Pilsen and graduate of Loyola and the Chicago-Kent College of Law. In February she beat five other candidates for the Democratic nomination, and in November she beat Republican candidate Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica for the position.

While the big party was in Grant Park, another historic win went down in Cook County last night as Pilsen native Anita Alvarez became not only the first female state's attorney in the county's history, but is also the first Hispanic state's attorney. With 93 percent of the results in, Alvarez garnered 69 percent of the vote to Republican challenger Tony Peraica's 26 percent; Green Party candidate Tom O'Brien had five percent.

There may never be a presidential race quite like the current one (proof enough), but don’t let that fool you into blowing off important local races (and yes, voting for judges is important so don’t even take the easy way out by voting “no” for all of them). The long list of candidates and offices, some of which you may never have heard of, can be intimidating, but we at Chicagoist have come up with a quick guide highlighting some of the important races. We've also included other resources that might come in handy on Election Day, which should just happen already.

As Mayor Daley continues to try to play the "Not My Fault" game in the Burge torture case, he's decided to kick things up a notch and get all sassy on us. Originally, the Mayor said earlier this week:

I was not the mayor. Wait. Wait. There's nothing in the indictment. You're mixing apples and oranges...you're doing a great disservice. I'm very proud of my role as prosecutor. I was not the mayor. I was not the police chief. I did not promote this man in the '80s. Let's put everything in perspective.

He later added, "You can't hold me responsible. It would be like holding anyone responsible." All of this in spite of the well-known letter from then-Police Supt. Richard Brzeczek to then-State's Attorney Daley regarding medical findings on accused cop killer Andrew Wilson. In 2007, when running for re-election (as if there was ever any doubt), Daley went so far as to call the alleged torture a "shameful episode in our history." He added, "I'll take responsibility for it. I'll apologize to anyone. It should never have happened. Everybody should be held accountable. The system could have broken down."

Congressman and mayoral wannabe Jesse Jackson Jr made some strange bedfellows this weekend when he announced that he's endorsing Larry Suffredin for Cook County state's attorney.