Chicago is in Cook County and there is a post called Cook County President. I'm not entirely clear what the position does, other than hand out patronage jobs. The incumbent was a man named John Stroger who won the primary back in the spring in spite of the fact that he had suffered a massive stroke and vanished from public view.
The Stroger family insisted that he was totally running the show, he was just staying sequestered because he's a private kind of guy. Then he finally resigned and the local machine muscled his son Todd into the spot. Followed that so far? Dad ran for the primary election (while vegetative) and won, now he's been swapped out for his son.
Last night, after I had gone to sleep, Republican challenger Tony Peraica and his supporters went to the Cook County Administration Building to demand ballot integrity. Cook County Clerk David Orr, who is apparently in charge of the whole shebang, continued to insist that the ballots were protected by cops. The Sun Times picks it up here:
Orr emerged from his office to say "hooligans" were trying to break into boxes with election cartridges inside.
"Drunks or whoever, they were trying to block people from bringing them up," Orr said. "And the freight elevator was broken."
Still, Orr said the integrity of the election hadn't been compromised.
Media cameras captured boxes being ripped open by unknown people, and others lying over the boxes to protect them. One man was arrested for allegedly damaging the elevator.
"It's just absolute anarchy over here," Peraica spokesman Dan Proft said. "We just saw a box coming in that was open . . . it's just been chaos."
Cook County officials said all of the ballot materials had been accounted for.
Peraica urged his supporters to leave the election night party at the Hotel Intercontinental and march about a mile to the building at 69 W. Washington.
Once they arrived, a Stroger campaign volunteer was seen briefly wedging himself into the revolving door. Eventually, most supporters were allowed in, and Peraica and six supporters met with Orr, along with seven Stroger supporters.
"I smell a rat here," Peraica said, citing $60 million in upgrades county taxpayers funded to improve voting equipment since a similar debacle in the March primary.
Peraica's venomous response was a stark contrast to Stroger's reaction. Stroger, a Democrat, giggled as he told supporters he was going to bed for the night and would wake up today "just like Christmas" and celebrate.
