Proviso connections at the Green Party convention

I've been attending the Green Party's national convention some. It started yesterday and runs through Sunday.

I'll be commenting generally on the convention on Prairie State Blue at some point. However, there is something of a Proviso angle.

I most of last night socializing with Jerry Pohlen, candidate for Congress; Kevin O'Connor, Proviso's Green Party committeeman and a candidate for state representative; and Rita Maniotis, a former Proviso East teacher and candidate for state representative. I also spoke to Rob Sherman, a candidate for state representative in the northwest 'burbs, but he also has a couple Proviso connections.

Pohlen is running against U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski in IL-03, which includes Brookfield, LaGrange Park and the southern portions of Forest Park and Westchester. Pohlen's partner Jim Frost, owner of Urban Flora, says the occupation of Iraq provides an easy way to connect with voters. When voters understand Pohlen is for withdrawing promptly and Lipinski is for the status quo the voters almost always respond positively.

Pohlen also has a new book out, Progressive Nation, a travel guide covering "more than 400 of the places in the United States that are important to progressive politics". See reviews on Amazon.com, New York Times and Barnes & Noble.

Maniotis was grumbling about her experience at a charter school. She didn't like that students could complain to the CEO about anything and then the teacher had to drop everything to respond to the complaint.

O'Connor, a LaGrange Park resident, has gotten lucky in his race against State Rep. Bob Biggins (R-Elmhurst). Biggins was arrested for DUI on May 28. See State Journal-Register. Since there is no Democratic candidate appearing on the ballot, O'Connor has the opportunity to make the race between the DUI candidate and the non-DUI candidate.

This afternoon I spoke to Sherman. He's the plaintiff in the lawsuit to overturn Illinois' moment of silence law. See Daily Herald (Rob Olmstead). The law was sponsored by State Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood). Sherman has appeared in the media with Lightford. He said she invited him to her birthday party and danced with him.

Previously, Sherman had been a talk show host on WJJG, 1530 AM. WJJG's studios are in Berkeley and various local personalities have hosted shows on WJJG, including the late Arnie Bryant.

Lipinski chief of staff tells citizen journalist to "talk to the hand"

On Friday, Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Western Springs) hosted his annual senior fair at a recreation center in Berwyn. The fair brought together a number of government agencies and some businesses who provide services for seniors. Lipinski took three or so questions from the audience, but largely constituents got access to Lipinski by approaching him and talking to him.

This woman* asked Lipinski a question about his vote for the Bush-supported FISA bill in July. Wikipedia has background on the July vote.

Rita Maniotis is an activist with Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice and a Green Party candidate for state representative. Maniotis was video recording Lipinski at the senior fair.

Jerry Hurckes, Lipinski's chief of staff, was trying to keep Maniotis from getting good footage of Lipinski.

In the video clip you can see Hurckes using his hand to block Maniotis' view of Lipinski. When I saw Hurckes doing this, I turned my camera on and began filming. The clearest view of Hurckes harassing Maniotis is at about 15-17 seconds into the view I posted. Assuming it took me a few seconds to get my camera set up, Hurckes was behaving like a poorly socialized third grader for 20-30 seconds before Lipinski told him to behave.

I owe a huge thanks to Steve Backman of Citizens United in Forest Park for help making this video tape. He loaned me the camera and transfered it to a digital format that could be posted on You Tube.

• What is Hurckes thinking when he is harassing Maniotis?
• What should people infer about Lipinski based on Hurckes' behavior?
• Should Lipinski fire Hurckes over this incident?

BTW, show some love to Proviso Probe advertisers. If you are buying or selling property, contact Patrick Doolin.











Also, the candidates running against Lipinski in the Democratic primary are: Jerry Bennett, Jim Capperelli and Mark Pera. Jerry Pohlen of Berwyn is circulating nominating petitions to run for the seat as a Green Party candidate.

*I assumed she was with Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice, but Rita Maniotis didn't know her name. Maniotis is the secretary for Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice. [UPDATE: EK wrote down the woman's name as "Loretta Luizzi". I will check to verify this.]

[UPDATE: In a May 7, 2007 article in Daily Southtown, two Hurckes political rivals expressed suspicion that Hurckes used a village inspector to retaliate against and individual who challenged Hurckes in the village elections. On election night Hurckes made a quote that foreshadowed Hurckes getting even.

"If you battle the king, you better kill him, or he's going to come back and haunt you," Hurckes said on Election Day as he ribbed the rival Unity Party and alluded to a challenge for the mayoral seat in 2009.

[Suspicion about Hurckes using the village to retaliate against his political opponent was probably re-enforced by a March 4, 2007 Kristen McQueary column (Daily Southtown) that tells the story of Hurckes calling the police to see how they handled a flimsy complaint against his opponent about improperly shoveling snow.]

former Proviso East teacher is Green Party candidate

This weekend I went to the meeting of the West Side Greens. I met three candidates: Jerry Pohlen (IL-03), Rita Maniotis (District 21 Representative) and Kevin O'Connor (District 41). Pohlen and Maniotis live in Berwyn. O'Connor the Green Party committeeman for Proviso Township lives in La Grange Park. If you want to contact O'Connor his email is Kevin.OConnor circled "a" ilgp.org.

Maniotis was a teacher of English and drama at Proviso East in 2006-07. It would be kinda cool to have an Illinois legislator that understood District 209 from an insiders perspective.

And she seems like she personable enough to be a serious political candidate.

I was less enthusiastic about the issue she put in her literature.

She supports the tax swap idea for shifting the cost of education from the property tax to the income tax. She says this should be done to make education funding "sustainable and equitable".

Property taxes are a sustainable source of income. In fact, the good thing about property taxes when compared to sales taxes and income taxes is that the taxing bodies know how much money they will get before the year starts. Sales and income taxes depend on the cyclical nature of the economy.

What's not sustainable with property taxes is having public sector employees having their pay and health insurance compensation grow faster than the tax base.

As for making education equitable, people don't want education to be equitable. As a matter of policy we divert more resources to high performing students and students with special needs. There are many different types of inequity built into the education system. Liberals may be influenced by Marxist ideas about equality, but I think it's denying reality to think people want education to be equal for all.

Maniotis wants to invest in mass transit. This makes sense to me.

She favors implementing universal health care at the state level. I don't think states have the resources to do this. However, I'm open to switching around the tax code so that they do.

Maniotis is skeptical of vaccines. I'm ok with applying some skepticism, but I'm skeptical about anti-vaccine paranoia. Most people think the people who try to make a political issue of opposing HPV vaccines are kooks. Left Wing opposition to vaccines flirts with kookiness too.

Maniotis also favors "Good Example Government"

--Implement recycling, renewable energy and energy conservation at all levels of state government
--Buy-Illinois! Support Illinois-based firms & farms

I did like her bio:

I am a high school teacher and a former radio producer. I am happily married with 3 children and ahve been an active member of the PTAs and PTOs at their schools. I presently serve as president of Morton West High School PTO. I am also secretary of Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice and a volunteer with Chicago Indymedia. I produce their monthly radio program, From the Trenches heard on 88.7 FM WLUW.

To contact Rita Maniotis, call (708)749-1891 or email RManiotis circled "a" Yahoo spot Com.

The Green Party is still looking for candidates to run for various positions, including challenging U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-IL07) and to run for Cook County Recorder of Deeds.

meet the Green Party candidates on Sunday

Sunday, September 16, from 1-3 PM, the West Side Greens will be holding their fall meeting at Kiwanis Park (Brookfield Ave. & McCormick Ave.), Brookfield, IL.

There will be two state representative candidates.

Rita Maniotis of Berwyn will run in the 21st district (currently Robert S. Molaro (D)).
Kevin O'Connor will run in the 41st district (currently Bob Biggins (R)).

Jerome Pohlen is running for Congress in IL-03.

For more info, contact Bruce Samuels, bjs613 circled "a" comcast.net or (708) 383-7711.