Better to take a chance on Peraica than let Dems take us for granted

Better to take a chance on Peraica than let Dems take us for gr
September 24, 2006
BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

Have you had enough, yet? That's Tony Peraica's campaign slogan. He says he has been using it for a year and a half now. I probably didn't pay much attention for the first year because I never would have expected to be in his corner. But you know what?
I've decided I have had enough. I'm voting for Peraica.

It's not an easy fit. He's a conservative Republican. I consider myself a liberal Democrat.

We're on opposite sides of the hot-button social issues.

But we seem to have one important belief in common: the idea that Cook County government needs to be turned upside down and given a good shaking.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the only issue of consequence in this year's race for Cook County Board president. We need to find someone who will challenge business as usual at the county.

Peraica wouldn't have been my first choice for this task, but we have only two candidates from which to choose on Nov. 7 -- Todd Stroger being the other, and the notion that you would bring in a man's son to reform his father's government is ridiculous, especially after the son has been installed in this position by his father's political friends.

I say better to take a chance on Peraica than to accept the certainty of slogging through four more years with someone trying to protect the status quo. I don't care what Todd Stroger says about his intentions. He's not going to make fundamental changes in county government.

And for all the uncertainties about Peraica, the one character trait he has clearly demonstrated is that he isn't afraid to be confrontational. In fact, he seems to relish it.

Four years can be a long time with the wrong person in office, but I think it will be in Peraica's self-interest politically to try to deliver on the honest, leaner, more efficient government he has promised. It's the only chance he has of seeing his political career extend beyond those four years.


Plenty of people to keep him in check
Should he lose his bearings, I trust that the same individuals who currently try to keep the County Board on the straight and narrow would hold him accountable as well. In fact, I think Peraica would have so many people gunning for him from the county's entrenched bureaucracy that every little indiscretion and misstep would come flying back at him.
On those social issues on which progressives differ with Peraica -- abortion, gay rights and gun control -- the Democratic majority should be able to keep him in check.

If Peraica makes a hash of it, and probably even if he doesn't, Democrats can easily dispose of him in four years, as long as they do a better job of listening to the electorate and advance a better candidate than they did this time -- when they essentially ignored all the voices warning, "Don't do it."

I sat in on the Cook County Democratic Central Committee meeting where party leaders picked the young Stroger to take his father's place on the ballot, and if you'd seen it yourself, you would have been amazed at their determination to forge ahead as if the progressive wing of the party didn't count. In their contempt for Commissioner Forrest Claypool, they failed to recognize that his voters had valid concerns about the direction of county government.


Questionable judgment
If those who were offended by the succession process don't demonstrate their dissatisfaction in the voting booth, Democratic leaders will know they can take everyone for granted the next time, too.
I'm not trying to pass off Peraica as a reformer. I see him more as an opportunist, and I'm hoping he'll see more opportunity in keeping his promises than forgetting them.

To show you that I don't intend to give him a pass, let me tell you about one instance of questionable judgment by Peraica that hasn't been reported previously.

Last year, Peraica's law firm was paid $31,550 by the Village of Bridgeview for legal work in connection with some real estate acquisitions for the new Chicago Fire stadium. Peraica said the work, performed by another lawyer in his office, is unrelated to the village's controversial purchase of the golf dome property that has spawned accusations of strong-arm tactics.

While I don't think Peraica should be making money off municipalities in his commissioner district, that's not what bothers me. I'm more concerned about the fact that Peraica took the Bridgeview legal business at the same time he is paying $500 a month in county funds to rent office space in a building owned by Bridgeview Mayor Steve Landek. Peraica uses the space at 63rd and Archer in Summit for a district service office.

What's particularly strange is that Landek is the Lyons Township Democratic committeeman while Peraica is the Lyons Township Republican committeeman.

I never tried to tell you this was an easy choice.