You know you're hurting when the President has to give you a hug

Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias got a hug and a "shout out" from President Barack Obama yesterday in Quincy, Illinois at one of several speeches Obama gave during his pump-up-the-economy tour through the Midwest.

If anyone politician needs a hug, it's Giannoulias, the youngest child apparently of the infamous Illinois Democratic family of trouble.

You know the name Giannoulias, but not from his having achieved anything spectacular while her served as Illinois' treasurer. During his entire time in office, it is hard to think of one major policy move he initiated that "wowed" anyone, except maybe his campaign contributors and political cronies.

As treasurer, Giannoulias would put on his Banking Hat -- which is really the only place you know anything about the guy -- and discuss issues like how the State of Illinois COULD HAVE stepped in to help consumers who are being exploited by the Credit Card companies which are charging interest rates that are making the Chicago Outfit blush. Yes, some credit card companies charge 30 percent interest, once you have rackedup enough debt and can't do anything about it except to pay the robbers in three-piece-suits.

When I asked Giannoulias about that last year on my morning Radio Show, he basically said the problem wasn't the credit card companies. The problem is with consumers who don't know how to manage their money. Well, not everyone comes from a family of bankers who have made millions of dollars in profit, and then took $78 million out of their bank months before it became clear that the Federal Government was going to step in and takeover that bank.

Oh, that's right. Maybe Giannoulias, who was an OFFICER at Broadway Bank, might have understood the issues with credit card rip-offs and overcharging and abusing consumers. Maybe that's why, as a banker, Giannoulias thinks the problem with credit cards is not the rip-off policies of the credit card companies, which are OWNED BY BANKS, but rather the problem of the consumers.

Unfortunately, Mr. Giannoulias. The consumers being ripped-off by the credit card companies ARE VOTERS. And right now, not many voters are happy with your selfish insensitivity.

Sure, we are impressed that you won state office, thanks to the millions your family and banking pals and friends poured in to your election to win that office, where you acted like a typical banker, I guess. And sure we are impressed that you are a basketball pal of President Obama's. Wow. That's great for you, not us schlubs, the consumers and voters, of course.

So now Broadway bank is taken over by the Federal Government -- thank God! And your family walks away with how many millions in profits from a bank failing? Usually when a business fails in everyday America, the business owners are the ones that suffer, not the public. Well, at least President Obama's Federal Government stepped in to rescue the bank from your grip, while you go around the state of Illinois and complain that, "Well, I was an officer at the failed bank but I had no responsibility for its problems or bad loans." We've heard that excuse before.

Thanks a lot Alexi for sticking it to the consumers one more time. At least President Obama is there to pat you ont he back and hug you and promise you a big job when the election is over in November. Maybe Obama will put you in charge of overseeing the nation's credit card company and banking fiasco after the November elections when U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk, who cares even less for the public's interests, take office.

You could do the right thing and step down, like Scott Lee Cohen did in the face of scandal that in his case was personal and had nothing to do with his business decisions. Maybe the Democrats can get their act together and appoint someone who has not only a chance of defeating Kirk, the flip-flopper, but also paying more attention to the needs of consumers and voters in this state.

but then, that would be like the credit card companies sending me a letter apologizing for the years of  excess interest rate charges at more than 20 percent, that they jacked up on me after breaking their contracted promise to give me a card at only 14 percent.

Hey President Obama. Here's a shout-out for you. How about some hugs and shout outs for the American people instead of your insider basketball buddy pals?

Wouldn't that be a story!

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Quinn responds with his own Harold Washington videos

Gov. Pat Quinn was stung by the campaign commercial released by rival and comptroller Dan Hynes in which the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, a week before he died, savaged Quinn in an interview.

Quinn was just a young opportunist back in the 1980s, thin and with a full head of hair and promises of frugal grandeur. Quinn's most destructive act was to mislead voters into believing he was a reformer, rather than a big mouthed opportunist, and rallied a drive to cut back the 3rd seat in the Illinois legislative districts that we now know crippled party diversity.

Quinn's people blasted Hynes for the use of Washington's powerful and devastating words, and then, came back with an attack of their own in which Washington attacked Hynes three times. Not Dan Hynes, but Dan Hynes' popular and brilliant father Tom Hynes.

It's typical of the vicious nature of the Quinn campaign. Quinn has a hate list that he keeps targeting journalists who have criticized him, and is blind to corruption and questionable conduct by people around him. Some of Tony Rezko's closest activists found their way in to state government and controversy through Quinn who associates with some questionable characters in the American Arab and Islamic community. Quinn is no friend of moderation and has helped the most extreme, anti-Israel elements rise in state power. They're all around him and recently some of them were involved in forums to showcase their preferred candidates.

As an American Arab involved in fighting for moderation for years, I would not want to be in the same room as some of the fanatics that Quinn has allied himself and I have spent the past two decades distancing myself from those questionable characters. There is a battle between moderates and extremists in the American Arab and Muslim community and Quinn has not associated himself with the moderates.

Dan Hynes, however, responded that Quinn's attack ads focus on his father, Tom Hynes, at a time when Dan Hynes was only a teenager.

Quinn's biggest complaint about Hynes is the narrowly focused controversy over the Alsip cemetery. In truth, it's terrible but every state agency was duped by the operators. Public sector fraud is committed by criminals, not the government officials whose agencies monitor the public sectors. The fact is Quinn as the twice-running mate of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has more to answer to than Hynes. What did he do to protect Illinois citizens.

I knew Tom Hynes well. He is a great man. Dan Hynes will undoubtedly be even greater.

Quinn, well, he has been one big disappointment. A self-serving hypocrite with a grudge and that's not the kind of person who should be running our state.

I covered Harold Washington during my 17 years as City Hall reporter including for the Chicago Sin-Times. Washington really disliked Quinn. And although Hynes challenged Washington for mayor, many thought Hynes' real focus was on the sinister Ed Vrdolyak. Washington actually liked Hynes very much and although they had their political squabbles, it wasn't a personal fight, but always professional between Hynes and Washington. You can't say the same for Quinn.

Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Maher says he's endorsing McCarthy, has nothing to do with trustee's possible race

Orland Fire Protection District President Patrick Maher, a candidate for the 17th Cook County Board seat now held by Commissioner Liz Gorman, says he has nothing to do with a possible candidacy of fellow OFPD trustee James P. Hickey running for state representative.


Petitions are being circulated to place Hickey's name on the Feb. 2, 2010 Democratic primary ballot in the 37th House District, challenging incumbent State Rep. Kevin McCarthy. Some of those petitions are being circulated along with petitions for Maher in Orland Park. (I haven't had a chance to speak with Hickey to find out if he is circulating them or if backers are trying to draft him.)


But Maher says he has "nothing to do with it."


Protested Maher, "I’ve emailed my petitions to hundreds of people … I can’t control who else they are getting signatures for. If my signatures are with anyone elses that does not mean I am working with them or supporting them. I have my  own organization. I am getting support from leaders of the community."


Maher also made it clear he backs McCarthy for re-election. "I’m supporting Kevin McCarthy for State Representative and I will continue to support Kevin McCarthy. He (Hickey) hasn’t talked to me, or, as far as I know, to the Democratic Committee in Orland Township. This is the first I heard he is running."

Maher expressed shock that Hickey might consider running for another elected office after having only been recently elected to the OFPD board of trustees.


"I am astounded that he would consider running for this position," he said.

Maher received the endorsement for his candidacy from the Cook County Democratic Organization. he also has the backing of several unions.

(I have calls in to Hickey to explore why he might be running this soon after winning office to the OFPD.)


UPDATE: State Rep. Kevin McCarthy called me back to say that he was contacted by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan's office this morning about the report, but when I passed along Maher's comments, he said he was "appreciative. I can work with him."


"I'm busy working on pension reform legislation and have some meetings on it this week. It's important to the taxpayers," McCarthy said. "I met Hickey and heard his petitions are out there. I met him once."

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com  

Former Congressman suggests alternatives to Obama's health care reform

There is a lot of opposition to President Obama's Health Care initiatives, even though 47 million Americans -- I repeat Americans -- do not have healthcare, are denied healthcare by the insurance company robber barons, or can't afford healthcare.

Many of those who have healthcare are afraid to lose what they have. They have been so abused by the bureaucratic muscling of the insurance companies like Humana and Blue Cross -- you can't argue with them and in a dispute, you are guilty first and may spend months trying to correct the record and the credit bureau black marks they help place -- the public with insurance is afraid to rock the boat. Americans with health care believe that their coverage will change and the health care industry robber barons are helping to promote that because they will try to hurt people who support the public health care option.

So what do we do? Let the lobbyists for the low-lifes in the health care industry win by pouring big bucks into the back campaign pockets of the conservative Republicans or the so-called "Blue Dog Democrats" -- I call them the Blue Cross Dog Democrats?

Or, according to former Congressman Bill Lipinski, offer a better plan that targets the problems with healthcare by focusing on the problems not creating a new system.

It might make sense to pass laws that:

1- Prohibit health insurance companies like Blue Cross and Humana and all from denying healthcare coverage to anyone because of alleged pre-conditions.
2- Prosecute health insurance companies that do deny coverage
3- create a system of price controls to prevent the health care insurance robber barons from excessively increasing prices
4- Create price controls to limit the costs of pharmaceuticals and tell the pahrmaceutical industry to shove it, too. (A prescription drug under a healthcare plan might cost $150 in paper price, but only really costs pennies to purchase, for example. If you do not have coverage, you have to pay the $150 which is excessive theft.)
5- Provide healthcare subsidies to families that cannot afford to purchase healthcare

The biggest problem with the healthcare industry is not the cost of healthcare. It is the healthcare insurance companies denying coverage or limiting coverage to individuals or families making it impossible to get healthcare for the issues they need. In many cases, the denials involve pre-existing conditions that insurance companies claim they will not cover by attaching riders and forcing applicants to sign them months after the applications have been submitted with payment and approved -- and months after the applicant can return to an old healthcare coverage.

These are real issues that need to be changed. If the public does not want a healthcare public option that President Obama is proposing, than create tougher laws to force the healthcare industry to provide the coverage they are denying.

Several of these big healthcare insurers have been recording record profits of more than $800 billion just in the past year. Clearly, these "profits" prove that the cost of healthcare is way beyond what it should be.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Pundits say Gorman has trouble but I don't believe it

Going in to every election, incumbents always look vulnerable. There's a lot of big talk and big ambition by officeholders who dream of becoming the next political "phenom" like Barack Obama, who went from relative unknown to president of the United States in less than six years.

The candidates are already dreaming and some of those dreamers have set their sights on one incumbent in the Southwest Suburbs, 17th District Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman.

Gorman is not the darling of the downtown news media which analyzes everything in terms of either Mayor Daley or the Chicago Loop. Most major media, with some exceptions, ignore the suburbs and pretty much follow the pack when deciding who is or isn't vulnerable in elections. So bright stars in the suburbs often are overlooked.

There have been a few exceptions like Media darling Forrest Claypool, who every writer pretty much ordained would become the slayer of the evil tax lord, Cook County Board PresidentTodd Stroger. But Claypool discovered in his polling that he could neither raise the money nor could he count on real Democratic Party support. He would have lost to Stroger.

Then there is the other darling of the news media, Mike Quigley. Unlike Claypool, Quigley is made of much more genuine substance. He's more personable and less arrogant. He actually talks to people. Quigley was smart enough to throw his hat into the crowded Democratic primary battle to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress. It wasn't that Quigley was a phenom like Obama, but rather that the race for the congressional seat was more like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Some people would luck out and make it through to the end of the race without getting gored, and a few unlucky ones would get gored.

Quigley got lucky. He has but two years to prove himself and he's working hard at showing he can handle the job, now that he was lucky enough to win.

Gorman is off the major media radar screen, except when the negative steamrollers come in to rehash all that deadweight about Ed Vrdolyak. Yes "Fast Eddie" will never leave the news. Ed happened to be friends with Gorman's husband, Gerry. They were business partners, too. But there isn't one politician Ed Vrdolyak hasn't helped, worked with or has not considered to be a friend. And he's done business with a lot of others, incuding a few who are among those being hailed by pundits as possible Gorman challengers.

The least known of the presumptive candidates to challenger Liz Gorman is in fact the front-runner, Pat Maher. President of the controversy-plagued Orland Fire Protection District (in two years its political legal spending went from nothing to hundreds of thousands) Maher is the son of a long time Orland Park village clerk, Dave Maher. Pat Maher has one brother who quietly and unsuccessfully ran for a village trustee post in nearby Lemont. In any other lifetime, the Mahers would be just an ordinary, bland suburban political family. Fat frogs sitting high on lilly pods in small pools. But this Maher family has ties to the powerful family of Tom Hynes, father of Comptroller Dan Hynes, who hail from the legendary 19th Ward where the the 19th Ward Machine stands ready at their beck and call.

Yet Pat Maher is not the name that everyone is talking about when it comes to the 17th District challenge to Liz Gorman. Take this paragraph from a recent column by my friend and capable columnist Russ Stewart (July 23) who looked at the county races from top to bottom:

17th District (Park Ridge, Des Plaines, Mount Prospect, then south in a narrow corridor to Lemont, Orland Park and Tinley Park): Incumbent [Liz] Gorman’s husband was a business partner of Ed Vrdolyak, and there is some negative fallout attaching to her. She was first elected unopposed in 2002, and re-elected in 2006 with 55.6 percent. She is the Orland Township Republican committeeman, was briefly the Republican county chairman, and has been feuding with Peraica.

A likely 2010 Democratic candidate for the seat is Dr. Victor Forys, a Polish-American who garnered 11.7 percent of the vote in the 2009 Democratic congressional primary in the 5th District. If Forys can assemble both a geographic (north versus south) and ethnic coalition, he could win. Other candidates include Orland Park trustee Jim Dodge and RTA Board member Dennis Cook. But well-known Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin is also a possibility, and would be favored in a primary. The outlook: Gorman has huge problems.

The first thing you notice is that the focus is not on Liz Gorman, who has come out swinging this past year with some major legislative initiatives. Rather, the focus is on her husband, Gerry, a businessman whose family is involved in politics. It's a funny thing. I'd heard a lot about Gerry Gorman that made him out to be some kind of behind-the-scenes T-Rex. Then I had a chance to meet him. Turns out he's just like any other family man who takes his kids to little league practice and spends a lot of time with his wife.

The second thing you notice in Russ Stewart's analysis is the absence of any recognition of Pat Maher. The focus instead is on: Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin; Jim Dodge, who Gorman appointed to the METRA Board; Dennis Cook, a member of the RTA board with the Illinois Federation of Young Republicans. And perennial candidate Victor Forys.

Now, I'm not knocking anyone but I can tell you this:

Dan McLaughlin may covet higher office, possibly lieutenant governor in the Democratic race for Governor in 2010, as the rmor mill is now swirling. But Dan has a big job with the Chicago Plumbers Union that pays well and takes up much of his time. Being president of a village with a great reputation and a high-paid village manager is a second job that pays some money but offers great rewards. Give that up for the undistinguished arena of the Cook County board? I don't think so. Maybe for statewide office, yes!

Dodge, the former Orland Township GOP Committeeman, has ambitions. But in a fight with an incumbent Republican, he'd have a difficult battle. A nice guy, what has he done on the METRA Board and how would the public even know him? Could he raise the money you'd need to run in this fight? And would you backstab someone who went to bat for you when you needed it?

Dennis Cook may want to enter the race simply to give himself higher name recognition because he just ain't too well known with the voters. A nice guy according to Republican insiders who I know. He has a future.

But Orland Park based challengers really have a disadvantage. The 17th District is shaped like the Via Dolorosa, the cobble-stone path that winds its way through the narrow streets of Jerusalem, where Jesus carried his cross before being crucified. In addition to including Orland Township, where Maher may do well, the 17th District runs all the way north to include many areas where names like Maher, McLaughlin, Cook, Dodge and others might not mean so much. Places where building name recognition is not easy like in Park Ridge, Des Plaines, and Mt. Prospect, just to name a few.

I give Liz Gorman credit. She's fearless. I wasn't her biggest fan several years back when she headed the Cook County Republican Organization. I thought she could have done more. But since leaving that party leadership post for others, she has done much. The truth is I don't think any Republican could have done much better with the county or with the state. Illinois House Speaker Mike J. Madigan has the legislature in a vice grip, and despite numerous opportunities to break through the Democratic headlock, Republican leaders have fallen short. The disarray at the state level only gets worse in many prominent Republican bastions. So maybe she did as well as anyone else might have done.

It takes more than party identity. It takes action, someone willing to stand up and fight the fight for the taxpayers. And boy do the taxpayers desperately need someone to standup and fight on their behalf as everyone seems to tripping up all over. Everyone that is, except Liz Gorman.

In the past year, I have seen Liz Gorman stand up and fight, and fight hard for the rights of taxpayers not just in the 17th District, but in Cook County, too. She was the driving force behind the battle to force Todd Stroger to repeal the oppressive 1 percent sales tax hike. If it wasn't for her, the repeal battle might not have been fought. That it was fought has given the county board ambition to push even harder and there is a chance that next week, a compromise will pass that forces Stroger to cut the sales tax by half.

And while everyone else was hissing last year, Liz Gorman was the only county commissioner who stood up and asked why the board was going to give a $190,000 taxpayer funded loan to the regional schools superintendent, Charles Flowers. She fought hard trying to convince everyone that Flowers' office was drowning in mismanagement and wasteful spending. No one listened.

Turns out Liz Gorman was right on the money, where it counts for taxpayers. Gorman protested and last month, a state Audit concluded that Flowers had charged thousands of dollars worth of personal expenses on the taxpayers' credit card. And he couldn't provide receipts for more than 70 percent of those purchases. he also gave thousands of dollars in cash advances to his employees, including to one who is his sister.

Believe it or not, there are politicians like Flowers who think the public trough is their personal ATM machine where they can borrow money whenever they want.

Liz Gorman was the scissor who chopped up Flower's taxpayer funded Debit Card.

Two major initiatives defending the rights of the taxpayers just in the past two months. That has to make even the most seasoned of political challengers a bit wary wondering if Liz Gorman is really worth trying to unseat.

For the taxpayers, right now, the answer is Liz Gorman should remain in office.

I think if Pat Maher breaks from his father's shadow and starts to clean up the mess at the Orland Fire Protection District, he could make a name for himself as a champion for the taxpayer's too. And when Dan McLaughlin retires -- he's been in office a long time -- or moves on up the ladder as some are rumoring he will do in another bid for state wide office, Maher may want to try to run for village president.

And if he can do it without the help or meddling of the foreigners from the 19th ward, he just might make a great mayor. Someday.

By the way, there is one rumor that is worth looking at closely. Orland Park Police Chief Tim McCarthy, the hero who took a bullet for President Ronald Reagan in the assassination attempt in the 1970s, is being rumored to be a possible candidate for the U.S. Senate seat on the Democratic side. McCarthy is a titan. he ran for statewide office once before but with two statewide candidates coming from the same village, it made it tough to win. With Illinois Attorney general Lisa Madigan out of the race, why not McCarthy.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

Inspiring speech from President Obama, with some interesting moments

The differences between President Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush are startling. Although Obama's speech Tuesday night seemed more about inspiration than actual substance, I listened with a growing confidence that maybe this country can get things done.

Some reaction:

The Republican members of Congress who along with Bush helped dig this country into an economic grave, sat on their hands far too much as Obama fought to inspire this country to greater achievement and to overcome our hardships.

I couldn't help but remember that today's economic troubles stem from Bush's failures as a leader, the manumental mistake of invading Iraq and the endless costs associated with fighting that worthless war. So many Americans have doed there it is tragic, only to have turned that country into a training ground for al-Qaeda, which was never there before we arrived with our invading forces on in March 2003.

I smiled and nodded when Obama hammered the robber barrons of the banking industry and Wall Street, the economic mobsters who are bleeding this country to its death. And did a virtual fist-bumped with the president as be vowed to crack down on their excesses. Let's hope he can follow through.

I was annoyed though to watch as members of congress crowded around Obama to get his autographs on their invitations. It seemed so cheesy considering that their privilege protects them from the pain of the down spiralling economy.

I laughed when NBC anchor Brian Williams stumbled through the beginning of his interview with former Congressman Rahm Emanuel who is now Obama's chief of staff. Emanuel served as a "volunteer" in the Israeli army for three works working at an Israeli military base. Emanuel has refused to answer questions about whether he did or did not wear an Israeli military uniform. Not wearing one on the base would have been unusual, but embarassing today especially since becoming a congressman and later Obama's chief of staff. The issue of loyalty is important in this country.

But Emanuel's influence was clear in Obama's speech when he failed to mention the Palestinians or Palestine in his reference to bringing peace and security to Israel and better relations with "her neighbors." Subtle but significant shift in American foreign policy tenor.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Just when I thought ...

Just when I thought the Republican Party in Orland Township was getting their act together and showing leadership, I see that it is asking not telling its members who to vote for.

That may sound good, but the choice isn't between two Republicans for office. It is between Republicans and Democrats, all running on the non-partisan April 7 election ballot in Orland Township.

It's significant because so far the race has not seen much real activity. No mailers inundating our mail boxes. Some fluff pieces with no real substance in the local newspapers, but nothing that even suggests there is an impending election.

Instead of endorsing the Republicans who are running in the Township races, Orland Township Committeeman Elizabeth Doody Gorman is asking her precinct captains and paid GOP members (all of them) if they want to support Democrats who are running, not just Republicans. Ooops!

If you are a Republican, that has to be disappointing. It's another example of Gorman's failed Republican leadership. She did a poor job as county chairman, and has been replaced by the very active and energetic Lee Roupas. And now she is not doing a very good job as Orland Township Republican Committeeman, either. She launches a great web site that touts all of the Republican party achievements, that far outshines the non-existent web site of the Orland Park Township Democratic Organization, headed by Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin.

And then she goes and does this.

The Democrats have to be happy, though.

A GOP precinct captain recently wrote that the GOP and Democratic Party are prohibited by law from slating candidates in the local elections. That's not true, but maybe that's the pitch being made to explain the GOP's double-edged non-action. The GOP could have slated Republicans in the election primary Feb. 24. Running as "Republicans." That's the election for "established" parties. Instead, the Democrats and Republicans are running on "independent" and "new party" slates. But anyone can see who they are and what their party affiliations are.

On the Township Level, that's Township Supervisor and incumbent Robert Maher, who is a Republican. He's done a great job although he is getting challenged by Paul O'Grady, who is a Democrat and is NOT tied in anyway to the 19th Ward Republican commissars insinuating their way into local politics.

Who is the GOP backing? Gorman has a habit of supporting herself over other Republicans. The rumors are strong that she may step down from her county board seat and give it to Paul Vallas, the former Chicago schools CEO who is running against Mr. Taxman Todd Stroger for president of the county board. Having a seat on the board would give Vallas a forum to challenge Stroger and do what many on the county board are failing to do, fight Stroger's tax Tsunami.

That might be the best thing Gorman can do for the Republican Party.

AROUND THE VILLAGE AND TOWNSHIP

In the village, incumbent Mayor Dan McLaughlin is a Democrat for sure. He's the Orland Township Democratic Committeeman. Under his watch, Orland Park has grown tremendously and has much to showcase, although I do have some issues with property taxes, the tax rebate and a few other issues like some of the people around him. He's the favored to win with a long record of wins. He's being challenged by Gerald Maher, who ran against him once before and lost, but that loss was before many of today's taxation and economic issues were around. It is a new ballgame. Gerald Maher happens to be Robert Maher's brother, although they are not working together.

And of course, neither Robert nor Gerald Maher are related to David Maher, the incumbent candidate for clerk who is running for re-election, too, and who is the father of Patrick Maher, the head of the Orland Park Fire District, which faces many confused issues that need to be better sorted out like the change in ambulance service.

Turns out what Patrick Maher is trying to do is NOT sock residents with an ambulance charge, but is trying to get the help of residents who have insurance to make the insurance companies reimburse the district for ambulance service. It's all confusing, but the bottom line is if you don't have insurance, no one is going to make you pay for an ambulance. If you do have insurance, make those insurance company robber barrons pay. The district needs you to give the insurance forms to the insurance companies so the district can get paid. The district lost as much as $1.3 million a year from not getting reimbursed.

Patrick Maher, who is not running for re-election, is working for some of the candidates, too. And maybe it's in the bi-partisan spirit we're talking about here. He is supporting O'Grady in the Township race, but backing Patricia Thompson and Marty McGuire, incumbents on the re-election slate of Robert Maher. He insists it is not for political reasons, but because they asked him and I believe him.

In elections, there is one important rule about voters and support. If you don't ask, you don't get. I remember the stories of elected officials who told me they met voters and shook their hands and the voters said they loved them. But when it came time to vote, the voters voted for the opponents. When the candidate asked the voter why, the voter said, "You never asked me for my vote."

And even though you didn't ask for my opinion -- or maybe you did by visiting this blog in record numbers -- I'll give it to you. Robert Maher is a solid candidate with a good track record. Paul O'Grady is not a front for the 19th Ward, though, and is NOT related to any of the famous O'Grady's. Gerald Maher is an important independent voice in the village and deserves credit for challenging the incumbent. And Mayor McLaughlin, who I have chided in the past for his poor choice of associations, is re-examining those ties and still has the edge.

Of course, the election is about six weeks away. Sounds confusing.

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes pushes Barack Obama in letter

Dear Friends:

It was just over a year ago that I wrote my friend, Barack Obama, a letter urging him to run for President of the United States. I believed then and I believe now that he offers the unique qualities of leadership, integrity and vision so desperately needed in our nation. In February of this year, Barack announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, and has been campaigning tirelessly ever since.

We are now only 37 days away from the Iowa caucuses, which will play a large part in determining who will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. And Barack needs your help. I have maintained all along that Barack's supporters in Illinois could play a vital role in our neighboring state of Iowa. As a long-time supporter of mine, and as someone who I'm sure has come to admire and respect Barack Obama, I am asking you to consider lending your grass-roots support to the Obama Iowa campaign effort. You can help in a number of ways, including:

Go to Iowa
On Saturday, December 8th, I will be leading a crew of volunteers to campaign for Barack in eastern Iowa. I would love for you to join us. We'll leave early in the morning and be home later that evening.

Make Phone Calls into Iowa from Illinois
If you're not able to make the trip to Iowa, you can make phone calls from the Obama headquarters on weeknights and weekends.

Call People You Personally Know in Iowa
If you know anyone who lives in Iowa, even one person, we would love for you to contact them and urge them to attend caucuses in support of Barack. Once you've made the contact, the Obama campaign will follow up with them with the necessary information.

Please help Barack Obama win Iowa and the Democratic nomination by replying to this e-mail and choosing one or more of the above. Please include the best phone number to reach you. We will follow up with you with details, especially for the trip planned for December 8th.

Thanks so much for your consideration.