County Commissioner Deborah Sims hides behind racism to defend her worthless trackrecord

Cook County Commissioner Deborah Sims, the whining face of crybaby elected officials who rampage through taxpayer's rights to pad their own useless offices and do-nothing services wants to blame her "colleagues" for "fueling" a stupid, racist call that she received the other day on her county office telephone. Sims should apologize to the voters, taxpayers and to her two colleagues on the Cook County Board whom she viciously attacked, Larry Suffredin and Tony Peraica.

It was such a spectacle, a circus, really, as cameras and microphones were held up to the tiny speaker on the county phone as Sims played back the voice message left by some moron who ranted against her vote flip-flopping to allow the repressive 1 percent Todd Stroger Sales Tax to stand. It sounded like there was more classlessness than racism in the caller's voice as he spewed racist comments and foul words.

I bet no one ever heard of Sims until this moment when some racist moron decided to put her into the spotlight. Sims has done nothing but occupy a worthless seat on the Cook County Board since 1994 -- she's been on the county board for 15 years and no one can come up with one thing that she has ever done in office except fatten her campaign war chest and raise money.

Sims comes out of the Chicago Democratic Machine where she worked before she was handpicked by the Machine to "represent" the district. She served on the County "construction" committee, which gives her the ability to hit county contractors up for contracts. She raised $48,000 in the last half of 2008, an amazing amount of money when you consider her mediocre record and do-nothing career in office.

Her biggest sponsors is Wilson Frost, the former Chicago alderman.

There is no question in my mind that the call made to Sims' office was a set-up and I will put odds that this is an old Chicago machine Trick. When you want sympathy after running over an old lady trying to cross your street -- which is how I compare Sims' vote to sustain Stroger's veto of the sales tax rollback -- you break your own window. But in these days and times where everything is racism, a phone call from some hack -- twice to the same phone apparently -- is even better.

Just as they never find the culprit who threw the rock through the window of some Chicago alderman, they will probably never find the racist caller. He might actually be on the Machine's payroll just doing his job. And in the event that the call is real, blaming it on County Commissioners Tony Peraica and Larry Suffredin, who were on radio last week the night of the vote condemning her, is outrageous.

Sims should apologize immediately for that comment. In fact, her accusation against Peraica and Suffredin is even more outrageous than the racist call, if that call was even real and not a set-up.

Sims should take responsibility for her failed leadership as one of the most undistinguished officeholders in Cook County. She can't even defend her actions on a level playing field because there is no defense for her ignorant vote on the board. So she hides behind racism and blames a questionable racist call on two colleagues who rightly called her out.

Pathetic.

That phone call was probably the only time Deboarh Sims ever listened to the opinions of one of her constituents.

-- Ray Hanania

www.RadioChicagoland.com

With few exceptions, voter turnout in suburban elections will be low

Once again, important local elections in most Chicagoland suburbs will be anti-climactic with the incumbents sweeping the polls and returning to office.

It's not because they have all done such a good job. It is because voters in the Chicagoland suburbs are both apathetic and confused.

Didn't we just vote for President Barack Obama to replace the nation's historicaly least liked and least effective President George W. Bush? Why do we have to vote again? Remind me?

The fact is the elecion system is made intentionally by the government to be confusing and to foster apathy. Low voter turnout in suburban elections has been the rule, with only few exceptions.

Here's the system we have now: The most important election is the election for President and major statewide offices. Voters go to the polls in larger numbers at this election.

Local officials through their state obfuscators -- also called legislators in the state House and Senate -- made sure to separate the national elections from the local elections, they claimed, because it was tooc onfusing for voters.

Too confusing?

The year after the presidential elections -- last March (in Illinois but earlier and later in other states) and in November, voters voted for president and the Congress. This February and now April 7, in Illinois, voters will vote for local government officials like village President and city mayor in the suburbs.

There are no elections in Chicago, where the media focus is intense. And media coverage which drives voter awareness, is lacking in the suburban elections reflecting a "who cares?" attitude. Any media coverage will be token and local.

So, if you are a voter, no one in the media is paying attention to your local suburban election, which means you will not get much awareness nor background information on the candidates. And that means the lower the voter turnout, the better it is for the incumbents. The supporters of incumbents who usually have jobs beholden to the incumbents, vote. And there are a lot of them usually reflecting the employee base of a village where incumbents usually sweep the majority of votes, as much as 95 percent. And so do their families and their friends. The supporters of the challengers, who usually are not beholden to the challenger for their jobs, may vote.

The local incumbents, who get ver little real journalism scrutiny -- most suburban papers publish "happy talk" features about how great the incumbents are in order to reduce animosity that might result on losing advertising (in today's repressive economic situation, it's even worse).

On top of all this, the election process is even more confusing. The "consolidated election" process has made public participation even less likely because no one knows when to vote. Cosnolidated elections mean that primariues have been eliminated and candidates (usually incumbents) who get 50 percent plus 1 vote are declared the winners in what used to be the Primary election date. (A primary used to be when members of an established party select their candidates from a field of candidates from within their party who then run in the general election representing their party.)

It isn't like that everywhere. So media coverage of those contests confuse the public into believing elections are over.

What should be done? We should have one election for every office in the country on the same dates. A Primary and a General Election. One year every four years, except for Congress, which would be every two years. Make special elections on the off years for Congress for those offices where vacancies have occurred at least three months before the Congressional elections.

If the suburban elections had taken place last November, almost 50 percent of incuments who have been challenged in the elections -- many are never challenged and run-unopposed -- would be defeated and replaced by fresh faces, fresh voices, fresh ideas and office holders who at least going into the system will be more likely to champion the needs of the voters and the public rather than line their own pocketbooks.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com