Raw state politics enough to make you gag
If you want a snapshot of how the sausage is made in an election, it could be seen at 69 W. Washington Tuesday. That building houses both the Chicago and Cook County election boards.
If you had any doubt party leaders -- in particular House Speaker Mike Madigan -- walk softly but carry a really big stick, that was the place to be.
There, an ant army of Madigan's foot soldiers, between 35 and 40 of them, swarmed the place, furiously combing through the candidate petitions of their fellow Democrat and perpetual thorn in the side, state Sen. Rickey Hendon.
Hendon, an 18-year legislative veteran and African American, had his own handful of troops on site returning the favor by combing through the petitions of Madigan's assistant majority leader, state Rep. Arthur Turner.
Turner has been in the House for 30 years and also is African American, also from the West Side.
Hendon and Turner have been at each other's throats for decades. Now, both are running for lieutenant governor.
Forget about public service, this is about raw politics. There are no heroes in this story.
Let's start with Sen. Hendon.
Did I mention that in addition to running for lieutenant governor, he's running for Congress to fill Rep. Danny Davis' seat?
But Rep. Davis still is running for Congress. Did I mention that Davis also filed as a candidate to replace Todd Stroger as the president of the Cook County Board?
Still with me here?
Then there's Arthur Turner.
There are THREE of them listed as candidates at the moment. All with exactly the same address: 2102 S. Avers Ave.
One is running for lieutenant governor against Hendon. That's the Arthur Turner who is the state representative and Madigan loyalist.
The other two Arthur Turners are, it turns out, one and the same person. That would be Arthur Turner's son, Arthur, who is running to take his dad's state representative job.
With the same name and same address, how many voters would notice?
"They're trying to trick senior citizens into thinking they're re-electing his father," protested Hendon.
Hendon, who has no problem being a candidate for two offices, somehow has a problem with the Turners' creative approach.
It was Hendon who fired the first shot in this blood feud, claiming to find fraudulent signatures in the petitions of Turner Jr.
Whatever Hendon found, Turner Jr. hurried Monday to file another set of petitions to replace the first set. (That's why his name appears twice.)
Hendon's attack on the Turners seems to have unleashed the considerable forces of Mike Madigan to investigate, in turn, Hendon's petitions.
And Madigan, being the head of the Illinois Democratic Party as well as House speaker, has battalions at the ready.
Steve Brown, Madigan's longtime spokesman, said he didn't know anything about all that.
"We normally would review petitions in rep races," he said by phone Tuesday.
Has Madigan put a target on Hendon's back?
"I haven't paid close attention to Hendon's career," Brown said.
Is that true of the speaker, too?
"Probably," he said.
Hendon, not a reformer, certainly sounded like one last night when it came to the power that the real reformers tried but failed to take away from Madigan last week in the form of campaign finance reform.
"Madigan is using Democratic state money against me," he protested, referring to that part of the ethics bill that failed. "What's an ethics bill if you don't change the power of the leader?"
It's called "the leader wins."
But don't weep for Hendon.
Whatever he finally runs for this time, he doesn't jeopardize his Senate seat. It won't open up for another two years.
Watching the election sausage being made in Illinois takes a cast-iron stomach.