State House: Can outsider topple establishment in 2nd District?

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Updated: February 22, 2012 6:41AM

In a classic outsider-vs.-establishment matchup, two community activists hope to topple a veteran Latino lawmaker on Chicago’s Near Southwest Side.

The odds are stacked against the challengers in the 2nd House District Democratic primary, despite a remap that added all of Chinatown to the district and East Pilsen. For years, Chinatown was split into four districts, diluting the community’s power. The predominantly Latino district also includes Bridgeport, Little Village and McKinley Park.

Incumbent Rep. Edward Acevedo, a police officer who has held the seat since 1997, has the money advantage and the Democratic establishment behind him. A second-generation Mexican American, Acevedo is an assistant majority leader, the first Latino in that position. Acevedo faces Cuahutemoc “Temoc” Morfin, a community activist from Pilsen who nearly beat Ald. Danny Solis (25th) in a runoff last year.

Morfin has been a juvenile probation officer and a gym owner and has served on the Juarez Local School Council. He helped pressure Solis into supporting a City Council clean-power ordinance during the election, and he lists investing in green industries as his top district priority, along with attracting investment and addressing the foreclosure crisis.

Josip “Joe” Trutin is making a second run for this seat. The Bridgeport resident owns a video store and never seems to rest, volunteering for CAPS, serving on the Holden Local School Council, coaching baseball and protesting the conditions at two power plants in the district. Trutin says his top district priorities are being an accessible state representative, improving transportation and fighting for funding for the district.

Both Trutin and Morfin charge that Acevedo isn’t visible in the district, and they tout their independent credentials. “The state has the hardest choices coming up,” Trutin said. “You’ll need an independent to do that.”

Both have received campaign donations from Adolfo Mondragon, who is making his second attempt to unseat Sen. Antonio Munoz, another veteran legislator tied to the Democratic establishment. That Senate district overlaps with the 2nd House District.

Acevedo dismisses these critiques, telling the Chicago Sun-Times that “there are people in the neighborhood who say they are community activists. . . . I’m in the neighborhood all the time and I never see them until an election.”

He also said he wasn’t hung up labels.

“You can call me what you want — Democrat, independent, Republican. The main purpose of me being in the State House is to get things done for people,” Acevedo said, citing $30 million in capital development funding he has brought to the district.

As a legislator, Acevedo has focused on public safety, as well as on some education and immigration issues. He sponsored the Illinois DREAM Act, which helps make private college scholarships available to undocumented immigrants and other immigrants.

Acevedo said Illinois “needs a better system” to pay down its $83 billion unfunded pension liability, adding that the Democrats in Springfield are working on that now. He voted in favor of a major gambling package last year and for the state income tax increase.

Morfin said he would have voted against the tax increase and “that doesn’t help people keep their homes.”

When pressed on how the state would pay its bills absent that income, Morfin said: “We need to get elected officials out in the community, talking to companies within the district to get them involved and make them self-sufficient so we don’t just depend on the state budget.”

Trutin is a strong advocate for a forensic audit, saying the state’s financial fortunes could be greatly improved by weeding out waste and inefficiency.

“Will it fix everything?” Trutin asked. “Maybe, maybe not. But it’ll be a good start.”

About the state’s massive pension bills, Trutin said he would be open to revising pensions for current state employees “as long as the unions are represented in all the negotiations.”

Morfin opposes changing benefits for current employees.