Latham worthy of County bench
Voters in the Cook County 7th judicial sub-circuit, which includes River Forest, Forest Park, Berwyn, and Cicero need to be aware of the differences in candidates on the democratic ballot of the Feb. 5 primary election. David Latham, (Ballot #110) is the only candidate who has been recommended or listed as qualified by all of the participating bar associations, has been recommended by the Italian American Political Coalition, and has been endorsed by The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO). Other candidates are politically connected to Chicago politicians, which makes up a portion of the sub-circuit. I urge voters to keep the courts independent and vote for Mr. Latham.
The election of judges can seem trivial, but this race shows how a good turnout in the suburbs can give a voice to the citizens of our area. You can have even greater impact by encouraging your neighbors to vote to the end of the ballot and mark 110 for David Latham.
Mark Suchomel
River Forest
Vote Pera for 3rd Dist.
The Chicago Tribune misstated facts and shrugged off ethical questions when it endorsed incumbent Dan Lipinski over challenger Mark Pera for the Feb. 5 Democratic primary for U.S. Congress in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, which includes Forest Park south of the Eisenhower.
It was odd to see an “endorsement” include two paragraphs excusing Lipinski’s ethical issues. For example: “The father installed his son in his old seat and is now a lobbyist. The congressman’s chief of staff gets paid to do work for … the All American Eagle Fund, which the elder Lipinski created … and funnels campaign contributions to other politicians.” Understandably, Lipinski left out those passages when quoting from the Tribune’s endorsement in his recent campaign mailing.
The Tribune also mistakenly described second term Congressman Lipinski as, “… growing into the job in his first full term.”
And I was surprised that they said Lipinski was “someone who rolls up his sleeves and gets things done.” Readers may recall my letter of 10/9/2007, “Lipinski lacks congressional clout,” about the group congress.org who determined Lipinski had the least influence of any democrat in his class first elected in 2004.
Pera’s campaign has shown Lipinski is out of touch with the voters of the district. Lipinski has supported Bush on key Iraq funding votes, on energy policy, is against stem cell research, and supported Bush on warrant-less domestic wiretapping. But the Tribune, which endorsed Bush for president in 2004, while the district voted 59 percent for Kerry, says “campaign style” is more important.
Vote for Mark Pera on Feb. 5. Better yet, go to www.pera08.com to volunteer and help get out the vote on Election Day.
Frank Hansen
Forest Park
Oust Moore from office
Do you hate paying high taxes for low services? Can you think of any more egregious example of high taxes for low services than Proviso Township High Schools (District 209)? There’s something you can do about this is in the Feb. 5 primary.
Per student, Proviso spends about the same as Lyons Township and Riverside-Brookfield. It spends slightly less than Oak Park-River Forest and far more than York, Morton, Leyden and Elmwood Park. Remember, Proviso is 90th of 90 in test scores in the Chicago area.
Why does Proviso suck? Machine politics optimize the schools for pilfering money from taxpayers while merely going through the motions of educating students.
Who is responsible for the deplorable conditions at Proviso? Three people head that list: Chris Welch, Ron Serpico and Eugene Moore. Welch is president of the board of education and Serpico and Moore are the political bosses who keep him there.
Serpico is the Melrose Park village president. Forest Park voters can’t do much about him except root for the feds to work faster.
Moore, however, is the Cook County Recorder of Deeds. Alderman Ed Smith stands a good chance of whacking Moore in the Democratic primary. Smith has a bunch of endorsements, including Mayor Richard M. Daley (who probably wants the independent alderman out of the city council).
I could tell you all sorts of bad things about Moore. After decades in politics it’s impressive how little he’s accomplished for citizens and how petty his schemes for self-enrichment have been.
Here’s something you can verify yourself. Moore brags about automating the recorder’s office. He’s been recorder since January 1999 and he thinks implementing a functioning website in nine years is a big deal. When you view the page with Firefox the useful stuff is all squished to the right hand side of the screen and white space on the left 50 percent of the screen. I challenge you to find a website as poorly designed.
Now, it may be possible that some Forest Park people connected to Mayor Anthony Calderone are encouraging you to vote for Moore. There’s a reason Calderone wants Moore re-elected. In addition to controlling District 209, Moore and Serpico control District 89, the Maywood and Melrose Park elementary school district. Right before the last school board race, the Moore and Serpico flunkies at District 89 voted Calderone’s alarm company a contract worth close to a million dollars.
In addition to the recorder of deeds race, the Cook County state’s attorney race is hugely important. Or it would be a huge improvement if we elected a state’s attorney that enforced the law on politicians and cops who are abusing the public trust.
The two candidates most likely to hold cops and politicians accountable are Tommy Brewer and Larry Suffredin, both bright, capable lawyers.
Carl Nyberg
Forest Park
