In Greek mythology, a cornucopia is a horn of plenty, a metaphor for fullness and abundance. It’s the proverbial goat’s horn overflowing with whatever one wishes or desires.

 
 
In Illinois’ mythology, where the gods have decreed that political power is all-Democratic, all of the time, yet another cornucopia awaits. In the upcoming 2014, 2015 and 2016 election cycles, Democratic prospects are abundant and overflowing, while the Republicans’ are non-existent. Here’s an analysis, beginning with the latest first:
2016: State Democrats are energized, nearly orgasmitized, with the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidential …

The greatest humiliation in politics is not necessarily losing, or even losing overwhelmingly; rather, it’s losing when you’re supposed to win.

Such events are called “mortification elections,” and they occurred in 2013 in suburban Oak Park, Maywood, Schiller Park and Morton Grove. They are differentiated from three other types:
* A “validation election,” in which the incumbent (or incumbent’s party) is re-elected by a healthy percentage, which exceeds the margin secured prerviously. These occurred in Park Ridge, Cicero, Arlington Heights, Harwood Heights, Roselle and Wheeling.
* A “benediction election,” in which the incumbent …

“First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” That was the exhortation in Shakespeare’s “Henry VI.” What the famed playwright imagined in prose, technology, in conjunction with demography, is on the precipice of accomplishing. For America’s 1.2 million attorneys, and the 44,000 annual law school graduates clogging the profession, there is good and bad news.

The good news is that the torrent of budding lawyers will soon diminish to a trickle. There are too many lawyers, too few jobs. There is demand for doctors and dentists, not lawyers. Of …

To analyze political campaigns and elections, one needs to utilize three of the body’s tactile sensations: seeing, hearing, and smelling. Fortunately, there’s no touching.
In the April 9 suburban elections, at least in the northwest area, the nose has it. Stinky and odiferous contests abound. Civility is absent. Mandacity is the rule. In contests where an incumbent is running, it’s a referendum; the “Brillo Test” applies, and the non-incumbent must show proof of incumbents’ misdeeds, misfeasance and/or misgovernance. In contests among non-incumbents, it’s pile on the mud; whoever is least worst wins. …

For taxpayers in suburban Harwood Heights, a dinky village of 8,612 nestled inside Chicago’s northwest side, the cost of groceries is allegedly getting a wee bit expensive. Like about $9 million over the next 20-40 years. That’s the tab for givebacks and “shared” sales tax revenue on the $25 million Mariano’s Fresh Store due to open in May.
Not surprisingly, a political “food fight” has erupted in the 2013 mayor’s race. Incumbent Arlene Jezierny did her utmost to entice Mariano’s to build their upscale food emporium at Harlem-Lawrence. Trustee Jimmy Mougolias, …

In the upcoming northwest suburban Des Plaines mayor’s race, it’s Barbra Streisand redux, redundant and reduplicative. The Hollywood icon surely doesn’t know if Des Plaines exists, or where it exists.

But two of her signature movies, “A Star is Born,” and “The Way We Were,” are paradigms of the April 9 contest, where 75-year old former mayor Tony Arredia is struggling to overtake hyper-energetic 26-year old Alderman Matt Bogusz.
Vote your age, Arredia’s campaign exhorts, fervently hoping that oldsters will prefer a fellow oldster over a callow youngster. Arredia is the Streisand …

You’ve heard that old bromide: Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
In north suburban Lincolnwood, village president Jerry Turry has coined a variation: People don’t pay taxes. The sales of guns pay taxes. And, as a result, the 2nd Amendment looms as a major impediment to Turry’s aspirations for a third term on April 9.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear firearms. But it doesn’t guarantee Shore Galleries’ right to move its gun store and build a target range. And that looms as a pivotal issue in determining …

Remember the timeless Dr. Seuss childhood fable, where the Grinch Who Stole Christmas mutters that he “meant what the said, and he said what he meant, and an elephant remembers one hundred percent”?

 
North suburban Niles, with a population of 29,803, is 2013’s “Seuss-town.” The operative rhyme is “the new is the old, and the old is the new, and Nick Blasé is the mayor that nobody wants to admit that they knew.”
As mayor from 1961 to 2008, a span of 47 years, Blasé ran Niles with an iron fist. “He …

Tom Benigno, Illinois deputy Secretary of State, is running a goody-goody campaign for village president of Norridge. And that, as a strategy, is a sure ticket to defeat.
In the 40 years I’ve been writing this political column, I’ve observed and analyzed a vast number of goody-goody campaigns and candidates.

You know the type: A candidate so dreamy and delusionary that he/she fervently believes that being a friendly, sincere, competent, compassionate, loveable, wonderful, modest, semi-saintly human being, utterly devoid of hubris and megalomania, selflessly committed to “serving” all of humankind, and dedicated …

Bring on the super-glue. Once-dominate political machines in Cicero, Niles Township and the 2nd congressional district are crumbling, as will be evident on Feb. 26.
In Illinois’ far South Side Chicago and south suburban 2nd District, vacated by the disgraced Jesse Jackson Jr. (D), the 3-G’s – guns, gender and geography – are primed to dictate the outcome of the Democratic primary. The winner should be “geography.” The precipitate withdrawal of Toi Hutchinson, a black south suburban state senator, starkly narrows the choices: Anthony Beale, a black Chicago alderman; former south …