According to insiders, the candidates likely to be slated for the Circuit Court are Aleks Gillespie, Maureen Hannon, Alison Conlon, Brendan O'Brien, Daniel Patrick Duffy, Carolyn Joan Gallagher and Rossana Fernandez, Travis Richardson and John Lyke (who are black), and Devlin Schoop, who is backed by the gay bar association but who is not gay.Be sure to read the entire piece.
Alternates are Chaudhuri, Pat Spratt, Pat Heneghan, Carolyn Joan Gallagher, Mary Melchor and Joe Cleary.
The Cook County Democratic Party's slating meeting has now been set for August 18 and 19.
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4 comments:
Jack, if people made bets based upon what Russ Stewart has written, they'd all be in the poor house. His stories are entertaining, yes, just like the National Enquirer is entertaining, and listening to your great-grandfather prattle on after a few "pops" is entertaining, but very little is based on fact or turns out to be true.
What are the bases of his opinions? If I didn't know better, it looks just like a Mary Kay Dawson written press release, blocked, copied and pasted into Russ' column. Stewart has been Dawson's journalist of record since his paper was first printed in Sanskrit. She can't get the same drivel written elsewhere, like a newspaper that actually does fact checking, so she feeds Russ this garbage. She puffs up her clients, bad-mouths the competition, gives Stewart loads of inaccurate information and he dutifully jots it down as if he worked for McCorkle Court Reporters. Funny, everyone of Dawson's clients are listed, not a single one is missing (although I suspect she regrets providing the names of a few of those listed since she has subsequently jettisoned several of them). This is known as the bi-annual "Great July Purge." Take on far more clients than there are spots on the ticket, earn some dough, get the scoop from her buddy Frank on who is going through to the "Who Wants to Be a Judge" finals, and then purge the dead weight before slating -- this way, she gets to tout her high "win" record and sign up a whole new flock of wide-eyed goslings two years later. When she tells people about all the winners she has put through, the important question for prospective clients to ask is how many aspiring judicial candidates did she jettison before slating? Its like getting a call from the vet at Arlington Park telling you which horses are sick or injured the day of the Arlington Million; it is a hell of a lot easier to pick the winner once you know which horses aren't going to cross the finish line. Once jettisoned, those poor folks become collateral damage. Once their last check clears, they become pariahs; personas no grata; chum to be tossed into the waters for committeemen to cannibalize or, in some cases, they are pawned off on her third or fourth tier "consultant" friends who are even less effective than she is. Those former clients soon learn there is a thin line between love and hate, and it is about as thick as a check torn out of a campaign fund checkbook. [Hint: Never hire a political consultant who will not give you a written contract with a non-disparage clause.]
Many of those listed are common sense, judges get a lot of deference at slating. But what is this nonsense, "According to insiders?" Really? Who? What happened to real journalism? Would the story lose its oomph if Stewart wrote, "According to Mary Kay Dawson, a paid consultant ..." Yeah, the story is a lot less sexy and juicy when it is identified as a fluff PR piece. With all due respect to Mrs. Dawson and her stenographer, Mr. Stewart, this article should end up where it really belongs -- at the bottom of my bird cage.
Here's the thing, my cynical Anonymous correspondent: Right or wrong, Mr. Stewart puts his predictions out there and puts his name behind them. I respect that. Whether he's gazing in a crystal ball or really talking to people who should know, or who claim to know, because he was willing to speak up, we can go back and look at his predictions and see how he did.
Contrast this with the comment I received when I put up a post about the Pre-Slating. In pertinent part, after chiding my naivete for believing that there might be some hope for wannabes to make a good impression at the Pre-Slating, the commenter stated, "The current slate for 2016 has been in place for months now -- months." I asked the commenter to send me the list; I offered to protect his (or her) anonymity of only he (or she) would do so... but I didn't get anything.
cyn·i·cal
ˈsinək(ə)l/
adjective
1.
believing that people are motivated by self-interest.
2. commenting realistically and honestly about Chicago politics.
Russ Stewart writing about the 6th Subcircuit this week
http://www.russstewart.com/articles/2015/07-29-2015.html
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