Liz Gorman sails to 4th term victory

By Ray Hanania

Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman sailed to a 4th term election victory representing the 17th Cook County district over rightwing Tea Party challenger Barbara Bellar.

Gorman, who has played an instrumental role in building the candidacy of Bruce Rauner as the Republican Party's choice for governor, was projected to win with a heavy landslide margin of 60 percent, based on early voter returns. The Rauner race was still close, as early numbers showed him leading State Sen. Kirk Dillard by about 3 to 5 percent, although the numbers were still early for the governor's race when Gorman claimed victory.

A champion of taxpayer rights, Gorman attributed a part of her victory to the "sloppy, garbled robocall" that former Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica made on Bellar's behalf Sunday night. Some voters said that hearing Peraica's voice reminded them of everything that is wrong with politics, and pushed them to vote for Gorman, giving her the extra voter boost.

Voter turnout was projected as being extremely low statewide, but Gorman said that she appreciated all the support she received from voters.

Gorman made a name for herself as a champion of taxpayers when she singlehandedly led the fight to repeal the repressive Todd Stroger 1 Cent Cook County Sales Tax increase. Stroger won the tax hike with a large majority of support from the county board, despite Gorman's opposition. But Gorman continued to push for a repeal of the tax introducing several resolutions to demand it be withdrawn.

While most commissioner simply fell in line with Stroger, Gorman showed voters that it was possible to repeal the tax which cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands in added sales taxes each year. And as public opposition to the sales tax hike grew as a result of Gorman's efforts, other commissioners joined in untilt he sales tax was removed in two steps.

"I want to thank all of the voters for the mandate they have given me," Gorman said early Tuesday night. "I promise to continue to fight to represent the rights of the taxpayers."

Gorman also credited her victory over Bellar and Tea Party extremists to her refusal to respond to Peraica's and Bellar's campaign mud-slinging.

"Their robocall showed how desperate they really were. Voters don't want to listen to candidates who throw mud. They want their candidates to talk about the programs they plan to implemented when elected and that's what I focused on," Gorman said.

Gorman had received endorsements from every major newspaper, including one from the Chicago Tribune that acknowledged her role in repealing Stroger's hated sales tax increase. Click to read that story.

The night before on Monday, Gorman organized a huge rally at the Lexington House on 95th Street for Rauner that drew more than 500 attendees. Click her to view that story and video.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning former Chicago City Hall reporter an columnist. He is the editor of the Illinois News Network www.IllinoisNewsNetwork.com.)

Rauner ignites crowd at Gorman organized rally

By Ray Hanania

More than 500 supporters attended a rally at the Lexington House banquet Hall on 95th Street Monday night, St. Patrick's Day, organized by Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman on behalf of gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner.

Supporters packed the room as Gorman introduced leading members of the Cook County Republican Organizations including Cook County GOP Chairman Aaron Del Mar, Palos Republican Committeeman Sean Morrison, and other Republican officials from the region. Rauner had the crowd on their feet as he walked in like a rock star at a Rolling Stone's concert to music, lights, and a crowd of television news media reporters.

He continued his pummeling of Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who many are saying is losing momentum and will have a tough fight on his hands to hold his office in November. Rauner has surfaced above a crowded field of qualified Republican rivals including State Treasurer Dan Rutherford, State Sen.Kirk Dillard and State Senator Bill Brady.

Gorman was duking it out with rival Barbara Bellar during the past few days as Bellar turned to controversial former Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, who did a robocall blasting Gorman in a mumbled voice that many described as laughable. And Bellar, the darling of the Tea Party extremists, claimed in her own robocall that she was the "Republican" endorsed candidate for the Cook County Board seat which Gorman has held form 12 years. Gorman pounded Peraica in her own robocall and brushed off Bellar as "nothing more than nun-sense," alluding to Bellar's false claims that she was a former nun.

But while Brady, Dillard and Rutherford concentrated their punches against Rauner, Rauner focused his powerful right hooks at Quinn, even though the General Election is seven months away. Here's the video. Ray Hanania, http://www.OrlandParker.com, http://www.SuburbanChicagoland.com, http://www.IllinoisNewsNetwork.com

Here's the video: 

(Ray Hanania is an award winning for Chicago City Hall reporter and columnist. He is the managing editor of the Illinois News Network at www.IllinoisNewsNetwork.com.)

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Bellar throws mud with her “nun-sense” and phony sainthood

Bellar throws mud with her “nun-sense” and phony sainthood

By Ray Hanania

Barbara Bellar sent a letter to my home the other day, but I didn’t know if she was asking for prayers as a former Nun (as we all know, she never was a nun), or just making a pitch for Obamacare as a Medical Doctor.

Turned out the letter was just a huge mud ball Bellar is throwing at taxpayer champion Liz Gorman, the Orland Township Republican Committeewoman and the Republican Cook County Commissioner who almost singlehandedly overturned the oppressive 1 percent sales tax imposed by ousted Democratic County Board President Todd Stroger.

It was a single page with text on both sides of the page, like one of those legal pitch letters from a credit card company filled with empty promises and exaggerated service claims.

All Bellar did in the letter was attack Liz Gorman and claim that she is too cozy with the Democrats. Are you kidding me?

The truth is that if anyone was sucking up to the extremists in the Democratic Party, it is Bellar.

RuthBaderGinsburg (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a letter to the Chicago tribune, Bellar praised Obama. And when she met with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the left wing Democratic liberal and former president of the ACLU, Bellar praised Ginsburg saying she admired her.  Maybe that’s when she was hoping the Democrats would give her a job.

Bellar is attacking Gorman for hanging around Democrats? Are you kidding me. It’s all more “nun-sense.”

By bashing Gorman, Bellar wants you to believe she is a Republican Messiah of sorts, although honestly like most of you, I’ve never heard of her before. And that is a testament unto itself, considering I have been covering Chicagoland politics for more than 35 years. Where was she and what did she ever do for the taxpayers?

She’s done nothing for the Republican Party or for Cook County taxpayers. But she sure wants that public government job. The letter she sent reflects the kind of disrespect false Messiahs show when they don’t know anything about what it means to be a struggling taxpayer. It’s just a desperate attempt hoping you’ll put her on the public payroll for doing nothing.

Bellar says she cares about you because you are overtaxed. Well, at least she knows what the problem is for most residents in Chicagoland. But when she assaults Liz Gorman she reveals her true lack of knowledge and exposes herself as another self-righteous false prophet.

In a prior failed race for the 18^th Senate District (she is working overtime trying to put herself at the banks of the public trough) in 2012, she claimed in her literature that she was a Catholic Nun. But many columnists and journalists who covered that race point out that in fact, that’s not true. Which is quite a quagmire since Nuns are supposed to not lie. But then, she isn’t a nun so maybe a lie is in character?

Her campaign slogan was “there is ‘nun’ better.” Well, at least the first part of that sentence was true.  There is none! It was all “nun-sense.” Turns out Bellar, the wealthy medical doctor, was never a nun. Just a wannabe nun like the wannabe elected government official she desperately wants to be.

As I read through the blah, blah, blah of her letter, and all the mudslinging she is throwing at Gorman, it reminded me about how much Liz Gorman has actually done for the taxpayers.

I won’t lie. I like Liz Gorman. It’s pretty hard to top what Gorman did, almost singlehandedly repealing the Stroger 1 Cent Sales Tax increase that was a true burden on the taxpayers that Sister Bellar doesn’t seem to think is important. In fact, this past week, the Chicago Tribune endorsed Gorman spotlighting how Gorman led that battle almost by herself to succeed in repealing the Stroger Sales Tax.

Wealthy doctors don’t know much about how the average person has to deal with taxes. But they love to talk about how much they would do if you would just give her your vote.

Well, Liz Gorman doesn’t have to tell us what she “plans” to do if elected because what she has done is more than most others have done.

The Stroger Sales Tax was the most repressive tax ever imposed on Cook County residents. Instead of fighting it, other county commissioners shockingly tried to increase the tax to 2 cents. When Stroger was finally tossed out of office by angry taxpayers, a lot of the commissioners who supported the tax increase reversed and jumped on the Gorman bandwagon to reluctantly repeal the Stroger Sales Tax.

Gorman wasn’t reluctant. She was persistent. She introduced the resolution three times to repeal the Stroger Sales Tax. Most other commissioners would have given up when the first effort failed. But not Gorman. She just kept on going.

And that makes Bellar’s letter look even more stupid, especially when Bellar writes, “Liz Gorman was close with the Todd Stroger team.”

You’re no Nun, Doctor Bellar. Instead wasting the time trying to win public office, you should go back to Church and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for lying. Forgiveness for never lifting a finger to help the over-taxed homeowners of Cook County. And, forgiveness for mailing out a sleazy campaign letter that spends every drop of ink slandering a good person like Liz Gorman but never once offering a single fresh idea on what you would if you ever happen to stumble into public office.

Someone needs to rap your knuckles with a ruler, Sister Bellar. But I think that slam is coming in the Republican Primary Tuesday, March 18.

End

Tribune endorses Liz Gorman in 17th Cook County District Race

The Chicago Tribune has given Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman an enthusiastic endorsement in the March 18 Republican Primary election.

Gorman, who was first elected to the Cook County Board in 2002 and has been re-elected with overwhelming district support two more times in 2006 and 2010, seeks her 4th term in office in the General Elections, to be held November 4, 2014.

Gorman has received widespread support for standing up the extremists not just in the Republican Party, but the extremists it he Democratic Party, too, embracing a "centrist" approach to regional government that focuses on defending the rights of taxpayers, homeowners, senior citizens and fighting unnecessary tax increases.

Gorman led the fight in 2008 to repeal the 1 cent sales tax increase imposed by then Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Although today many commissioner claims that the "led" the repeal fight, Gorman was the only commission to support the repeal each of the three times it was introduced. It was the final, third repeal motion that received majority support from the county board. But Gorman refused to drop the issue when initial efforts failed to win board majority votes. That persistence is recognized by the Chicago Tribune in their editorial March 12, 2014, in which the editors wrote:

17th District (Southwest, west and northwest suburbs): The lone GOP board race pits Barbara Bellar, a physician and attorney, against incumbent Elizabeth Doody Gorman. The Tribune has endorsed Gorman often and does so again here. Unlike board members who see taxpayers as the handy solution to Cook County's problems, Gorman has focused on keeping metropolitan Chicago attractive to employers. Proof: She worked tirelessly to exterminate Stroger's sales tax increase.

Although extremists in both parties have targeted Gorman over the years, her signled-minded focus on fighting for taxpayers' rights have earned her enormous support and election victories.

Recently, Gorman was instrumental in leading a group of centrist Republicans in Illinois to endorse the candidacy of Bruce Rauner in his battle for governor against challengers Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard and Dan Rutherford. The winner of the March 18 Gubernatorial Republican Primary is expected to face Democratic governor Pat Quinn.

end

Rauner plans pre-election Night/St. Patricks Day Rally March 17

Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois, has scheduled a pre-election night, St. Patrick’s Day celebration for Monday March 17 at the Lexington House banquet hall, 7717 W. 95th Street in Hickery Hills in Chicagoland’s Southwest Suburbs.

The event is co-sponsored by Rauner backer Cook County Commissioner and Orland Township Republican Committeeman Elizabeth “Liz” Doody Gorman.

Gorman has been a major supporter of Rauner’s candidacy, which has picked up major steam over the past few months.

The event is open to Rauner supporters and will run from 7 pm until 9 pm with free beer, wine and food for attendees.

“We’re expecting a strong crowd to send a strong message that Illinois residents are ready for change that will improve the economic situation for families, seniors and young people in our state,” Gorman said.

Last week, Gorman hosted a rally for Rauner in Orland Park that was attended by several hundred voters. (Click here to view that story and video.)

Rauner wins debate over decent performances by Brady, Dillard and Rutherford

Rauner wins debate over decent performances by Brady, Dillard and Rutherford

Seal of Illinois. Center image extracted from Illinois flag. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To read my initial analysis of the Rauner-Brady-Dillard-Rutherford debates on WLS AM Radio, go to the Illinois News Network website and read the story there.

Click here

Rauner won mainly because he did what the other debaters refused to do, stay focused on the issues and what is good for Illinois. Rauner refused to criticize the others while Dillard and Brady were eager to criticize him and others. Rutherford did his best to stay focused but seemed bruised by the attacks.

During the debate Dillard said that Rauner had more friends in federal penitentiaries that Illinois has had governors. But one might point to veteran Illinois politicians like himself (a great guy, a witty comment, but so open for response and criticism) have more colleagues in federal prisons than some states have politicians.

What was great about the debate was that beyond those few moments with Dillard and Brady attacking, the focus was on issues. Rauner contributed significantly to keeping that positive focus, despite the efforts of his opponents Dillard and Brady.

All four did make good suggestions, offered great ideas and it was one of the best debates I have seen in a long time.

-- RAY HANANIA

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