money, politics and the county health care system

Many taxpayers don't know what the county uses their money for.

Chicago Tribune (Andrew Schroedter):

Malcolm Holec knows that he pays a portion of his property taxes to fund Cook County government, but he said he wasn't sure what he was getting for his money....

"I don't see what comes back from that money," said Holec, 70, of Mt. Prospect. "I'm spending the money, but what am I getting?"

A large portion of the county's money--probably the largest portion--goes to providing medical services.

People are starting to question the wisdom of letting the Eighth Ward administer health care for poor people in Cook County.
Crain's (Mike Colias):

A committee backed by U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin is preparing to recommend that direct oversight of Cook County's embattled health system be taken out of the hands of President Todd Stroger and the board of commissioners, according to people with knowledge of the panel's work....

It would be the latest in a drumbeat of calls from outside groups urging greater expertise for the Cook County Bureau of Health Services, which is among the few public hospital systems in the nation controlled directly by politicians. But this proposal carries added weight because of Mr. Durbin, a fellow Democrat who's made clear that Mr. Stroger must take steps to fix the system before Illinois' congressional delegation works to secure more federal money (Crain's, May 14). Federal funding accounts for more than half of the system's patient revenue.

Do you think the county health care system will be reformed with health care professionals hired instead of political hacks? Or do you think county government will make some moves and some noise but protect the political class as much as possible?

On a related note, Chris Miller wrote that he saw similarities between the death of Orlando Jones (see Sun-Times (Chris Fusco, Steve Patterson, Tim Novak and Natasha Korecki)) and the movie, Casino. The Las Vegas public health system was being investigated for questionable consulting contracts to the politically connected. Jones was at least someone asked to provide documents in that investigation, if not a target.

M08, two local Republicans declare for U.S. Senate

Sen. Richard "Dick" Durbin is up for re-election in 2008.

On Monday, La Grange physician Steve Sauerberg declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. See Topix.net search for media and blog coverage.

Politics1.com has a list of candidates who have expressed intent to run. (State Senator Bill Brady is listed as a potential candidate.) On the list of candidates is Jim Rowe, who challenged State Senator Don Harmon in 2006. Rowe lives in Franklin Park.

I last saw Rowe at a fund raiser for Tony Peraica's campaign for President of the County Board. Rowe engaged in dirty campaigning. He scared seniors and accused Harmon of supporting sex offenders. Rowe also made the inaccurate statement Harmon endorsed Topinka over Blagojevich. At the Peraica fund raiser Rowe really thought he was going to beat Harmon.

I also discovered Anthony "Andy" Martin is more of a kook than I thought. Apparent the Illinois Supreme Court has denied Martin admittance to the bar because of filing a hundred law suits with little or no merit in federal court. See Chicago Tribune (John Chase and Rick Pearson).

ETHNICITY, Peraica tries to play race card against Obama

I'm a fan of Commissioners Tony Peraica and have written favorably about him. See Carl Nyberg (Forest Park Review).

In Madison County Record Tony Peraica wrote a piece intended to slam Sen. Barack Obama. Peraica would probably claim that he's trying to tarnish Obama's reputation as a reformer by linking him to politicians in Chicago who Peraica identifies as corrupt.

Who does Peraica start with? Ald. Dororthy Tillman. Why Tillman? Why not start by linking Obama to President of the County Board Todd Stroger? There's more ammunition to indict Stroger of cronyism and he's a bigger fish than Tillman.

Tillman is perhaps most famous for her staunch advocacy of slavery reparations, but also is renowned for....

I want to give Peraica the benefit of the doubt, but by making Tillman the first example of his story, it's hard not to read Peraica's words as pushing divisiveness along racial/ethnic lines.

Peraica also includes this old chestnut:

Perhaps Obama is hoping for the same Chicago Election Day magic that the mayor's father provided for another presidential candidate, John F. Kennedy, back in 1960.

In the 1960 presidential election Kennedy/Johnson received 303 electoral votes and Nixon/Lodge received 219. (Fifteen electoral votes from Alabma and Mississippi were unpledged.) Illinois was worth 27 electoral votes. Even without Illinois' 27 electoral votes Kennedy/Johnson since had over 270 electoral votes. So the idea that Mayor Richard J. Daley threw the 1960 election is just a myth. Kennedy didn't need Illinois' electoral votes to win. See Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections for election results.

I don't know the purpose of Peraica's op-ed. Since it's published downstate, maybe he's contemplating a run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Dick Durbin in 2008.

I like Peraica, but I think he should avoid running for Congress in 2008. The GOP is going to get shellacked at the national level and the party is going to write-off Illinois early. If they have an extra million dollars it is going to be used to defend vulnerable incumbents, not for high-risk candidates in expensive states.