-By Warner Todd Huston
I have to say, I am so sick and tired of shills claiming to be a real member of a party (but aren’t) being foisted on our ballots in this state. It is a culture of corruption that we as voters should not put up with, but we do. And we see it every damn election.
This year, for instance, we have a shill running in the 3rd Congressional District by the name of Jim Falvey. This person claims to be a conservative Republican. But is he? The truth is, the last time Falvey voted Republican was in 2006.
From 1998 thru 2004 Falvey pulled a Democrat ballot and did again in 2008. Since 1994 he’s only voted Republican twice (1996 and 2008). In 2010, the year of the exciting GOP sweep of Congress, he didn’t vote at all. So, for almost 20 years he’s voted GOP twice! And he calls himself a conservative Republican? Maybe his close neighbor, Democrat Dan Lipinski can help us understand how a guy that alerted no GOP committeeman or office holder that he intended to run for the 3rd District can go from voting Democrat for 20 years to suddenly being a Republican running for Congress?
What does this all mean? It means he was likely put on the ballot by Democrats to hurt the actual Republican in the race, Richard Grabowski.
This is all too common. Candidates claiming to be a Republican yet sporting a long history of voting for Democrats and donating money to Democrats, or even working for Democrats, appear on our ballots every single election.
Another case is the committeeman race in Chicago’s 42nd Ward. There we have a young man claiming to be a Republican who has never run for office before. But is Tom Smithburg a Republican? Hard to say, maybe he is. But for sure his family is a big, big dollar donor to Democrats, having given thousands to Rahm Emanuel. This should raise red flags. I mean it’s a bit hard for me to believe that their son is suddenly a Republican when this well-to-do family has such a long history of fealty to Chicago Democrats. Is Smithburg serious about being a GOP committeeman? Not likely.
What of Smithburg? Well, he has some goofy stuff in his background, too. For instance, when he was the president Northwestern’s chapter of Delta Upsilon fraternity in 2008 he was involved in a little controversy, if you will. He and his bros got snared in public disapprobation when they featured a midget wrestling show at a pledge recruitment event.
Smithburg was roundly criticized by the press and other university watchers and faced disciplinary actions by the university for his part in sanctioning the unsavory entertainment. I have not heard of any acts of contrition by Smithburg for that show, either.
Yet, Smithburg is being endorsed by the Chicago Young Republicans, GOP State Party Chairman Pat Brady, and State Senator and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady (no relation to Pat). One wonders if this fellow was at all vetted by the party before he was put up to run for committeeman? It hardly seems that he was. So why is Smithburg coming out of the blue to run for committeeman? It seems certain he was put there by party operatives to try and torpedo opponents William J. Kelly and incumbent committeeman Eloise Gerson.
Worse, in the meantime while party operatives are foisting shill Smithburg on the ballot to keep Kelly and Gerson from winning, they are not fielding candidates at all in most other positions in Cook County! Apparently a focus on one office — and one as low down the totem pole as committeeman, at that — is more important than having anyone in most other open positions! No matter what you think of Kelly — and I fully understand that many party folks do not like Mr. Kelly — or Mrs. Gerson, it seems a gross misuse of resources to be so worried about one low office while not even bothering to put candidates up for a large swath of other positions!
Unfortunately across the state there are other purportedly Republican candidates that are on the ballot who have a long history of donating big money to Democrats, or living next door to high profile Democrat operatives and have themselves no voting history or activity in the GOP. Shills, all.
It isn’t just Republican ballots that are mired down with shill candidates, either. Checking out the race for the House in the 22nd District will show a prime example of Democrats trying to hurt their fellows. The 22nd’s seat would be the one that Democrat Speaker of the House Michael Madigan now holds. Madigan is running for re-election, of course, but he found that he was to be opposed by a young candidate named Michele J. Piszczor. Madigan must be afraid of her candidacy because he put on the ballot two shill candidates in order to whittle down the young lady’s vote count. Also on the ballot are Olivia Trejo and Mike Rodriguez, neither of whom have any serious political ambitions but have only given their names to Madigan to act as a spoiler for Piszczor. Both Trejo and Rodriguez are shills, not real candidates.
There are many other cases like this across the state this cycle, too. Just as sadly, this is nothing new. It happens in every election. Why? Because we voters allow it to go on. This cynical, dishonest, disgusting situation only happens because voters don’t hold their elected and Party officials accountable for such outrageous behavior. It undermines our trust in the system and gives our political culture an air of noblesse oblige that keeps our politics mired in the mud.
Until the people start paying attention, this kind of garbage will continue.
