CHICAGO – Next week, Cook County GOP Committeemen will be asked to change to the Cook County bylaws which would allow Democrats into leadership positions in the Republican Party. The change is drawing fierce opposition from Chicago GOP Leader Chris Cleveland, who appealed to fellow committeemen to reject the proposal.
Cleveland says Cook County GOP Chairman Sean Morrison wants to shorten the time down to two years that requires a voter to have pulled Republican ballots before they could be named as the party's ward or precinct committeeman. Under the existing rule, 13 Democrats were removed as ward committeemen in 2016. That year, Cook County committeemen voted to remove those ward committeemen with over 90% of the weighted vote.
Since 2016, a couple of those Democrats sued the Cook County GOP. In one case, the plaintiff lost the lawsuit. In two other cases, the judge has said they needed a better argument or their suits would be dismissed.
In one case a Cook County Democrat Party-aligned judge gave the plaintiff a temporary decision based on a small technicality that, Cleveland says, can be corrected quickly.
"Nevertheless, Sean has described this as a 'final decision' and said that he intends to seat the Democrats. This is false: there is no final decision, and we have filed an appeal. Plus, Sean apparently doesn't understand that seating these Democrats is not within his powers as chairman," Cleveland said in the letter to his political colleagues.
Cleveland goes on to share information he found via research on the persons Chairman Morrison is pushing to fill the ward committeemen vacancies.
- Maria Bailey, 20th Ward
Maria is the mother of Kevin Bailey, the Democratic committeeman. Maria had never pulled a Republican ballot prior to running for office. She has a Pritzker sign in her front yard.
- George McKinley, 37th Ward
Magically, all of George's petition signatures are identical to the ones for Emma Mitts, the 37th Ward Democratic committeeman and Alderman. It seems that someone carried both a Democrat and a Republican petition down the streets of the 37th. Perhaps it isn't magic: George works in Emma's office.
- Fran Sapone, 29th Ward
She, too, had never pulled a Republican ballot in her life before she ran for office. She later filed suit before the Chicago Board of Elections, seeking to remove a slated Republican congressional candidate from the ballot, leaving the Democrat with no opponent. Her attorney was the treasurer of the 29th Ward Democrats.
- Larry Nelson, 24th Ward
You may have met Larry at previous meetings. Larry has pulled Democratic ballots because, as he said, "you have to". Most people who have met Larry would agree that he is not capable of recruiting and organizing elections judges, and yet year after year, he delivers a stack of perfectly filled-out election judge applications to the Board of Elections, all of whom are Democrats. Wherever could he have gotten them?
- Robert Handzik, 23rd Ward
When people talk about Madigoons, they're talking about Handzik. He's in one of Madigan's wards. He circulates petitions for Madigan's fake Republican opponents. No surprise — he was Madigan's fake Republican opponent himself in 2012.
- Gabriel Trejo, 13th Ward
The 13th is one of Madigan's wards. I haven't much to say about Gabriel, because he doesn't appear to exist. He doesn't respond to communications, has never shown up, there are no known photographs of him. The only information we have is that he was a reliable Democrat voter until 2016.
- Adrian Wright, 3rd Ward
Adrian has a remarkable resume. Let me quote: "Publicist/Media Coordinator, 20th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, Editor, 20th Ward Newspaper; wrote articles, editorials, organized topics and supervised staff for 20th Ward and alderman. Arranged and coordinated press conferences, media appearances and interviews. Organized public relations efforts, recruit speakers for ward events…" And: "7th Ward Outstanding Precinct Captain". And: "3rd Ward Community Liaison". She claimed to have been active in the 43rd Ward Republicans, but as someone who has been active in the 43rd Ward Republicans for, oh, 30 years now, I've never seen her.
- And my favorite, Steven Graves of the 19th ward.
In 2014, Steven had an epiphany at age 61 and decided he was a Republican. This happened after a long career as a patronage hack in the assessor's office, where he claimed to be a top Democratic precinct captain. Steven had voted straight Democrat for decades prior to that, and had contributed every year to the Democratic party and to the alderman. Seven months after he became a born-again Republican, though, he wrote another check to the Democratic Alderman. He still has never contributed to any Republican candidate. He has sued us, and he is represented by the son of a well-known Democratic attorney.
There are more, but you get the idea.
Each of these people will be sitting in the room with you, voting in the Cook County Central Committee just like you. For some of them, your weighted vote might be less than theirs.
Sean writes that by passing the amendment "… we will ensure that we will not waste time and resources in litigating the issue." But Sean hasn't wasted any resources. To date, Sean has not participated in the litigation in any manner, except to be an obstacle. Neither he nor the Cook County Republican Party have paid a dime. (Costs have been picked up by the Chicago GOP and me personally.)
Cleveland continues:
So your choice is clear: a vote for the amendment is a vote to seat Democrats as Republican ward committeemen.
Vote no, let the matter drop, and let the litigation play out. This will ensure that we can control our own membership, both now and in future generations.
The Chicago Republican Party intends to continue to pursue each of the cases vigorously, with or without Sean Morrison. We will intend to file in federal court shortly. We're not going to lose. In the words of the judge in the Sapone case (which we won), "This is not a close call."
The vote is scheduled for next Wednesday when the Cook County GOP will convene to vote on whether to accept Chairman Morrison's change to the rules.
