Peraica could give us a 4-year vacation from the Machine

Peraica could give us a 4-year vacation fr
October 18, 2006
BY CINDY RICHARDS

Can it be that voters in Cook County really are mad as hell and they aren't going to vote Democratic anymore?
Perhaps. Or maybe the Chicago Tribune/WGN poll that shows Democrat Todd Stroger and Republican Tony Peraica in a virtual dead heat will turn out to be wrong.

Maybe the respondents lied. Or maybe the stunning poll results will turn out to be a big boost for the Democratic Machine.

Why would the Democrats benefit from a poll showing the Republican candidate was running neck and neck with their puppet candidate, Stroger, the political son?

Because it might:

A. Energize some county employees to vote early and often for the status quo lest they find themselves unemployed under a new Republican regime.

B. Scare some potential Peraica voters who fear they might be doing more than lodging a protest vote. Then, if Peraica wins and does what the fear mongers predict -- ban abortions or make life tougher for gays -- these progressives will have no one to blame but themselves.

Or it's possible this race might turn out just the way the pollsters predict and we'll see some real change at the county.

What would a Cook County government run by a Republican look like? It's hard to know. But it's possible it could employ far fewer people. And those it does employ might be there because they know how to run something other than a political machine.

I have voted for only a handful of Republicans, always on the state or national level, never on the local level. So this will be a first for me.

Am I troubled by Peraica's position on gays and abortion? Yes. Do I believe him when he says he won't mess with the status quo on either? I have to.

And, the sad reality is, even with a Democrat as board president, abortion was hardly big business at county hospitals. While pro-choice groups have endorsed Stroger because they fear what a county run by Peraica will mean for women's reproductive health, this is one time I have to say that abortion cannot be the only issue in this race. If the county doesn't get fixed, we may find ourselves living in a place that meets only the needs of the people who line their pockets with county cash.

Will I regret voting for Peraica? Again, it's impossible to know. Ask me again in four years when, I hope, I will have the option of voting for a qualified Democratic reformer to run this $3 billion county government in a way that serves the people rather than the political insiders.

Because four years is all we're talking about here. Barring some major catastrophe or unpredictable event, we are talking about a four-year hiatus from Machine politics at the county level. Four years to whip into a shape a bloated bureaucracy, straighten out our strapped health-care system, clean up our neglected forest preserves and shore up our overburdened criminal justice system.

It's hard to believe that a Croatian immigrant who has served just one term as a county commissioner could do all that in so relatively little time. But, by all estimates, Peraica has proved to be smart, hardworking and attentive to details. In short, everything Stroger is not.

Stroger, whose only qualification for this office is that his daddy held the job before him, is running a dead heat against Peraica, according to the Tribune poll released Monday. Stroger polled 39 percent, Peraica polled 36 percent and Don't Know polled 22 percent. The margin of error of 5 percentage points makes it a virtual tie.

An earlier poll, conducted by Peraica's campaign and released last week, predicts he will win by 8 percent.

What a difference a month -- and a lot of publicity -- can make. A month ago, a Chicago Sun-Times/NBC-5 poll showed Stroger leading Peraica 52 percent to 19 percent.

If these polls are accurate reflections of our voting intentions, it says to me that we are finally figuring out that we don't have to be treated like chumps by the county or the Democratic Party.

We finally understand that we might have a choice and that it might a difference if someone other than the guy anointed in the back room deal is running the show.