Chicago Daily Observer

On March 5 GOP county committeemen elected a political neophyte, Lee Roupas, the chairman of the Cook county Republican party. With the backing of former chair Liz Gorman and ally Maureen Murphy, among others. he received roughly 102,000 votes to defeat long-time GOP loyalist and Northfield township committeewoman June O’Donoghue, who received 74,000 votes.

Roupas says he’ll work to strengthen the county GOP, but initial signs aren’t encouraging. I sincerely hope I’m proven wrong, as I want to see a revitalized county GOP to counterbalance Democratic corruption.

So I’m puzzled and disheartened by what county Republicans apparently consider to be qualified leadership. Roupas was head of the Young Republicans at George Washington University in 2004. That same year he lost a race for president of the student association in a 32–68 per cent landslide. In 2006 Roupas fresh out of college was elected committeeman for Palos ... Read More...

A great American newspaper stepped into history on March 4, 1978.

The Chicago Daily News wasn’t the first Chicago daily to close up shop, and might not be the last. It folded after a prolonged but ultimately futile battle against market forces and changing urban geographic realities that slowly bleed it of advertisers and circulation.

Many of the same market forces that killed off the Daily News continue to buffet print journalism. The Sun-Times more and more exudes the stink of desperation as its tries one ploy after another, yet grows increasingly anorexic. The Chicago Reader is being slowly gutted of the sort of meandering literary delight that made it a must read for three decades.

The cold reality is that times change. If people don’t change with them, they’re left behind. Still, it sometimes feels like we’ve just settled into our seat on an airplane and realized we left ... Read More...

Two days after the wreckage of Alan Keyes’ 2004 senate candidacy Michael Sneed posed a question in her Sun-Times column, asking, “Is a new Republican Party in Illinois looming?”

Republican fundraiser Thomas Grusecki told Sneed at the time, “the unfunny joke is over. It’s time to rebuild, but without (Keyes). We need fresh blood and new leadership and to get this back to a two-party system.”

Unfortunately, well over three years later, the answer to Sneed’s question is still “no.” New leadership, yes. Rebuilding, no. And certainly no two-party system. That may finally be changing. Under party rules Republican county chairman Liz Gorman must convene the 50 Chicago ward committeemen and 30 suburban township committeemen by March 5 to elect a county chairman.

Though only 80 people will cast ballots, a political contest to be held within days will have a major
effect on Cook County politics, for better ... Read More...

Proviso District 209 School Board President Emanuel “Chris” Welch is one of those curious political types who operates in the relative anonymity of Proviso township.

Situated two miles west of the city’s border, just beyond Oak Park, Proviso township is home to an array of folk who have hacked out their own little fiefdoms in the hinterlands, far away from the attention of the major media, or, for that matter, the U.S. attorney for the northern district of Illinois.

An ambitious attorney and would-be political player, Welch is a mediocrity who’s excelled only at fooling voters into believing he places the interest of students and taxpayers ahead of his own self interests. Welch spent over $200,000 to be re-elected in 2005 to the non-paying job of D 209 school board president, but hasn’t managed to move beyond the district where he grew up. He was crushed by incumbent Karen Yarbrough ... Read More...

In the midst of its epic mismanagement of
Cook County government, the Todd Stroger
administration was caught in an embarrassing lie last
week when one of his political hires attempted to get
cute with a radio talk show host.

But Andre Garner’s feeble effort at deceit isn’t close
to being the biggest lie by the Stroger camp. The
biggest fallacy Stroger is trying to foist on the
public is that county commissioners Forrest Claypool
and Tony Peraica want to trim ten percent from the
2008 county budget.

What the two commissioners actually have proposed is a
modest two percent cut of the 2007 budget, and no
increase in the 2008 budget, which Stroger wants hiked
by eight percent. In other words, Stroger & Company
are complaining about “cuts” to a proposed budget not
yet approved by ... Read More...

The term “ecumenical,” defined as “tending to support and encourage unity between the various types of the Christian religion,” has often been applied to governance. After all, government tends to work best when ecumenical principles at least season its processes.

Cook County Republican Party Chairman Elizabeth “Liz” Gorman appears more than willing to routinely accommodate Democrats. If only she would spare some of that ecumenical fervor for her own political party. It certainly could use more unity.

With the debacle in the Democratic controlled state house and Governor’s mansion, the exposure of gross mismanagement of the CTA and other agencies under Mayor Richard Daley, and Todd Stroger exhibiting a stunning amalgam of ineptness and arrogance as he shafts taxpayers for the benefit of his inner circle at the Cook County building, you’d think that county Republicans would see a chance to finally begin breaking the hammerlock Democrats have developed ... Read More...