-By Warner Todd Huston
OK, say you are running for the Cook County Board. And say your daddy is the village clerk in the very district where you are hoping to get a whole slew of by-mail and early votes. Also say your cousin is running for Governor and he’s already the State Comptroller now. Do you think your opponent might casually wonder if the fix is in?
… well, it is Crook County, after all.
Naturally, the above isn’t just some bad TV script, but a real situation in southern Cook County. In Orland Park where Democrat Patrick Maher is running to unseat Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R, Or. Park) we find that Maher’s daddy just happens to be David Maher, the Orland Park Village Clerk, and Maher’s cousin just happens to be Dan Hynes, Democratic State Comptroller and current candidate for the Dem. nomination for governor.
Naturally, Commissioner Gorman is a bit wary of the whole situation and is raising some red flags about it all.
“I’m concerned about him protecting the integrity of the upcoming primary and general elections, especially if you look at the petitions he circulated,” Gorman said.
Gorman claims that signatures the clerk collected on behalf of his son and other Democratic candidates look fishy.
Of course, the family of Democrats gave Gorman the “what me” face and claimed that it’s all on the up-and-up.
For his part, Patrick Maher is suspicious that Gorman has floated a dirty trikcs campaign with one of the Democratic Party opponents that he’ll face in the primary. How could Gorman have anything to do with a democratic challenger to Patrick Maher?
Check this out…
On of Patrick Maher’s democratic opponents is a John Maher, of 6901 W. Golfview Lane, Palos Heights. Patrick notes that floating fake candidates with similar names to confuse to voters is a well known dirty trick often fostered by the opposing party.
“It’s typical politics as usual on the county board level, especially out of our area… Liz is threatened by me as a candidate and sees me as the strongest in the Democratic field,” Patrick Maher said.
Of course Gorman claims she has no idea who this John Maher is and that she has nothing at all to do with the man’s candidacy.
Yup. It’s normal, everyday Cook County messiness.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.