Mike Manzo's video advertisement

I'm not sure why, but this ad caused me to laugh really hard.

Edgar endorses Sheahan for state rep

If you care what former-Governor Jim Edgar thinks, he's supporting Brien Sheahan for the 41st Illinois House district. State Rep. Bob Biggins is retiring. See Daily Herald Animal Farm (John Patterson).

BTW, the blog entry mentions the professions of the other candidates, but not Mike Manzo. Doesn't it seem Manzo should be identified as an employee of Commissioner Tony Peraica? It seems at least as relevant as mentioning the professions and employers of the other candidates.

how does Vallas run for Cook County Board Prez affect Peraica?

Carol Marin (Sun-Times) reports Paul Vallas will run for President of the Cook County Board as a Republican. The current President is Todd Stroger.

h/t Capitol Fax Blog

What are the implications for the Cook County Democratic Party?

If the Cook County Democrats run Todd Stroger the party has a good chance of losing the seat. Vallas has a long record of public sector accomplishments.

I expect the Cook County Dems will want to run somebody who has a good reputation with the goo-goos, but won't cut patronage as aggressively as Vallas would as a Republican.

The Illinois Democratic Party (functionally the will of the Illinois Democratic Party is equivalent to the desires of Michael J. Madigan) will probably want to prevent the possibility of a strong Republican emerging who would be a threat to run for governor. Madigan's daughter, Lisa, is preparing to run for governor.

So, the Democrats might be fairly united to keep Vallas from winning.

Stroger is a weak candidate.

The Democratic Party unofficial rules seem to be that Democrats have to replace Black Democrats with Black Democrats.

Who is a Black Democrat who is popular with the goo-goos, who wouldn't rock the boat much on patronage? And Alderman Toni Preckwinkle has already started a campaign.

What's this mean for Commissioner Tony Peraica, who represents much of Proviso Township?

Peraica seems to have a special skill at winning elections by thin margins, although he got clobbered in his last election; Anita Alvarez got close to 70% of the vote for Cook County State's Attorney in 2008.

Since Peraica has made himself a thorn in the side of Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, the chair of the Cook County GOP, much of the official Republican Party would be happy to throw Peraica under the bus. Gorman and Peraica really dislike each other.

Vallas is a stronger candidate than Peraica, so the Illinois GOP will support Vallas too.

Peraica could run for another position in Cook County government, but if I'm not mistaken, President of the County Board is the only position he could seek simultaneously while running for re-election to the county board.

My personal take is that Peraica has drifted to the Right more and more in how he talks. His political instincts remain a mix of reformist instincts, government as business, progressiveness and social conservatism.

Mike Manzo, Peraica's chief of staff, has moved to DuPage County, which is traditionally the base of the Illinois GOP. Manzo ran his wife for county board against the GOP establishment. Formerly Manzo was president of the board of education of Proviso Township High Schools and he also ran against Ron Serpico for village president in Melrose Park.

I think it's fair to say that Peraica and Manzo see themselves as reformers who see a need to reform and purify the Republican Party and then the Republican Party will be a true vehicle of reform. And they are both committed to social conservatism.

I can see a scenario where Peraica loses his re-election and moves to DuPage County to run for office there. Peraica and Manzo would then seek to takeover the DuPage County GOP and then use that as their base to purify the Illinois Republican Party.

campaign worker used to paint Peraica team as thugs

Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica (R-Riverside) is running for State's Attorney.

Peraica was something of a media darling when he ran against Todd Stroger for President of the County Board. Media people liked Peraica because he was accessible, gave good quotes and reflected back the media's perception of Stroger. Peraica railed against the cronyism, corruption and incompetence.

On election night Peraica's campaign was celebrating, including drinking. Mike Manzo was at the location where the ballots were being tabulated by the Cook County Clerk. There had been a number of irregularities and Manzo witnessed a bunch of Stroger people being on the inside.

Manzo called Peraica and informed him that the campaign should get there people to come over to prevent any cheating.

Peraica marched his campaign staff, many under the influence of alcohol, to the location and they were not allowed to get the equivalent access that the Stroger campaign had.

The media saw and filmed Peraica's celebrants, including intoxicated people, marching like an angry mob. This became the defining image of the campaign: Peraica's angry mob.

The Democrats and their allies in the media are now playing-up stories that re-enforce this image. This is somewhat analogous to the media deciding Howard Dean was unhinged for opposing the Iraq War (before it was socially acceptable on the DC cocktail circuit to say the invasion was a bad idea). So, when the media got an image to match the story they already told themselves, they repeated it over and over again.

For Democrats that want to pooh-pooh Peraica, his complaints about election fraud in Cook County were quite similar to complaints Democrats were making about electronic voting in other parts of the country. The basic complaint is that the dominant party has access to the machines and the votes and if the votes were tampered with the tampering is exceedingly difficult (impossible?) to detect.

I imagine if the Peraica campaign would have had it to do over again... they would have done certain things differently.

But the image of Peraica as the leader of an angry mob is getting re-enforced by other stories now. Capitol Fax Blog (Rich Miller) tied together a couple stories under the title "More thuggery from Peraica".

There are those who say that Peraica’s infamous march to the County Building on election night last year was simply an unfortunate, isolated incident, despite the obviously stupid move of leading a drunken mob across town. But Tony apparently loves him some thugs, and likes to have them do his bidding.

I like Peraica. And the need to reform Cook County government, and especially law enforcement in Cook County, doesn't disappear because the reformers are uncouth.

I think Cook County Commissioner Liz Gorman, who is chair of the Cook County GOP, is closer to the mark on Peraica than the image the media is trying to sell.

Capitol Fax Blog quoting Daily Southtown (Steve Patterson):

“Peraica thinks everything is a fight, but it takes two to fight, and I won’t be part of this,” Gorman said. “He’s tossed too many grenades. One was bound to backfire on him.”

Peraica, and the people around him, often refer to other Republicans as venal, corrupt or incompetent.

When Peraica kicked-off his campaign for State's Attorney he had a conference call for bloggers. Someone--not me--asked a question.

Peraica starting ticking through suburban townships where he had good words for the GOP committeemen, but they he got to Proviso Township and gave a more detailed analysis of the local political landscape.

Peraica said of Michael Corrigan, the Proviso Township Assessor and GOP committeeman, that he barely shows up for his township job, how could you expect him to do any work as committeeman?

Having seen firsthand how the Cook County State's Attorney covers for local politicians not following the law, I see the need for reform. And if Peraica fails to deliver reform at State's Attorney it will be easy enough to dump him in four years.

However, Peraica seems to have trouble focusing on saying things that advance his cause of getting elected without adding gratuitous insults of others, especially local Republican officials.

Gorman may think Peraica's a jackass, but she's not hell bent on sticking it to Peraica. One Peraica campaign worker told me that when he approached Gorman--he'd known her for a long time--she got her people out to help Peraica's campaign.

My two cents is that Peraica and his staff should resist their inclinations to engage in conflict with others when it doesn't advance their interests in accomplishing something specific, like winning an election.

building friendships and alliances based on political firings

James K. Graham, Sr., and Generoso "Gino" Trombetta at the Neopolitan Social Club, aka Club Napoletano, on Friday night.

Trombetta was wrongfully terminated at District 209. Outside of superintendents Trombetta is the most famous Proviso case of someone wrongfully terminated going to court and winning a big judgment.

Graham has the same position at District 88 (Bellwood and Stone Park elementary schools) as Trombetta had at Proviso Township High Schools (District 209). Graham was fired after less than two months on the job, in a firing he believes was political. This entry linked to an article that explained the back story.

Graham met Trombetta for the first time at Club Napoletano. The club is a private social club. Members get to eat and drink for a flat rate fee. Call club president Mike Manzo, 708-268-4050, for details.

I have been working at Club Napoletano for about three weeks.

Melrose PD mandatory volunteer work for political campaigns

From the files of Mike Manzo, who ran for village president in 2001:

MELROSE PARK POLICE DEPARTMENT
(official Melrose Park Police letterhead)

TO: ALL ELECTION DAY VOLUNTEERS
FROM: CHIEF VITO R. SCAVO
DATE: MARCH 7, 2001
RE: MANDATORY MEETING

THIS IS TO INFORM YOU THAT ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2001 AT 7:00 P.M., THERE WILL BE A MANDATORY MEETING HELD AT the MELROSE VISION PARTY HEADQUARTERS, 2405 DIVISION. THE MEETING WILL LAST APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
//sig//Vito R. Scavo
CHIEF VITO R. SCAVO

VRS/jl

1 NORTH BROADWAY * MELROSE PARK * ILLINOIS 60160 * 708-344-8409
“911” FOR EMERGENCY

Who is "jl", the person who prepared this memo for Scavo?

Does it make sense to have a "mandatory" meeting for "volunteers"? Was "volunteering for political work required to be considered for promotion in Melrose Park? To keep one's job?

A07, James Boyd, a former board member [D209]

James Boyd, a Westchester resident and a former member of the board of education, is running for school board of Proviso Township High Schools (District 209).

In 1994 at the request of Mike Manzo District 209 discontinued paying for health insurance for board members. Paying for board member health insurance violated Illinois law because school districts are not allowed to compensate board members for their service.

Paying for health insurance wasn't limited to employees and board members. District 209 also paid for the health insurance of the former attorney's widow.

In the early 1990s District 209 obtained $15 million by issuing a bond. Boyd arrange for the money to be invested with a bank in Wisconsin. Why not invest locally?

Apparently Boyd was working as a financial consultant for the bank in question.

A reporter from one of the local newspapers seemed hopeful that Boyd is an independent candidate who can bring professionalism and civility to the board of education. People in the Education Reformers camp see Boyd's candidacy as candidates encouraged to run to divert votes in Westchester from the Harris, Kelly and McDermott slate which would presumably do well in Westchester.