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State politics smitten with incurable plague
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Chicago Sun-Times
August
20, 2008
By Carol Marin
Nepotitis. Unlike erectile dysfunction, the heartbreak of
psoriasis or restless leg syndrome, there's no treatment for
this one.
No vaccine to prevent it.
No antibodies to battle it.
Nepotitis is that rabid contagion of the Illinois political
persuasion that infects whole families -- irrespective of race,
color or creed. We witnessed another case of it just this week
when state Senate President Emil Jones announced his sudden,
post-primary retirement together with his plan to plant his
son, Emil Jones III, on the November ballot so young Emil can,
come January, sit in old Emil's 14th District South Side Chicago
seat.
Oh, right, there will be an election. But the primary has conveniently
come and gone when other candidates, had they known of President
Jones' pending retirement, might have jumped in but didn't.
And since the Republican opponent in the general election is
none other than Ray "Spanky the Clown" Wardingley,
a pitiable perennial, why bother with the general election?
Let's just plop young Emil in his dad's seat now.
Nepotitis is a plague that never dies.
At the very same moment Barack Obama, an alumnus of the Illinois
State Senate and a mentee of President Jones, is campaigning
across America in behalf of change we can believe in and a new
kind of politics. Here on the homefront we have his mentor playing
the same old, cynical game that treats public office like a
family entitlement. And the public payroll like a bequest.
You don't need me to remind you of our long and embarrassing
history, but recent blasts from the past make the pattern clear.
Congressman Bill Lipinski was the picture of health through
his primary race in the spring of 2004 only to be stricken with
nepotitis mid-summer. The onset of the disease coincided with
the deadline for ward committeemen to slip his out-of-state
professor son, Dan, onto the November ballot where his opposition
was a ringer the Lipinski forces had already planted on the
Republican side of the ballot.
Nepotitis leaves nothing to chance.
Then, of course, we had the double-header over at the Cook County
Board in 2006.
President John Stroger, felled by a stroke, stayed on the primary
ballot until, once again, summer rolled around and with it,
the deadline for ward bosses to install his son, Todd, on to
the November ballot. Meanwhile, interim County Board President
Bobbie Steele, whose pension was about to skyrocket with her
momentary occupation of the president's post, had her own bout
of nepotitis resulting in another quick resignation and installation
of her own son, Robert, in his mother's commissioner seat.
I could go on and on, but really, why bother?
Now President Jones is pretty angry with us at the Sun-Times
and at NBC5. Furious that we have dared to ask questions about
how young Emil, lacking a college degree, got an administrator-level
state job paying almost $60,000 a year; how his stepson, John
Sterling, has been the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands
of dollars in state subcontracts at the same time his stepfather
was fighting the mandatory disclosure of subcontractors; and
how Jones himself has regularly taken out no-interest loans
from his million-dollar-plus campaign fund, more than half a
million of which he can pull out in personal income thanks to
a grandfathered-in campaign provision.
Again, I could go on because there's so much more to fuel the
outrage.
What does Emil Jones III have to say about his candidacy for
his dad's seat?
Nothing.
He has not returned Sun-Times' phone calls or e-mails. Why?
President Jones' spokeswoman, Cindy Davidsmeyer, said Tuesday
by phone from Springfield that Emil III is "still a private
citizen, not on the ballot yet. That's the way he's conducting
himself."
I understand. We all understand.
Nepotitis is not just incurable, it's all but invincible.
