McCain, Obama, McSweeney & Scheurer on Cable and Streaming

"Public Affairs," is featuring David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], Republican nominee for 8th Cong. Dist. Representative, and Bill Scheurer [Lindenhurst], Moderate Party candidate for 8th Cong. Dist. Representative, tonight Monday,July 31 through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, McSweeney and Scheurer discuss and debate the Middle East conflict between Hezbelloh, Israel, Lebanon and perhaps others, terrorism, the War in Iraq, free and fair international trade, CAFTA and NAFTA, jobs, the economy, tax cuts, federal spending and deficits, health care, abortion and much, much more with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
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The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including shows with McCain, McSweeney and Obama; McSweeney-Scheurer, Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President , Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk, Ald. Ricardo Munoz, McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
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This week on Public Affairs in the suburbs:

A press conference with 8th CD Republican Nominee David McSweeney and Senator John McCain [R-AZ] held two weeks ago, Senator Barack Obama [D-IL] speaking at the Austin Town Hall a week ago with west side of Chicago small business owners and other members of the west side community and Senator Obama interviewed by Jeff Berkowitz a week ago.
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Healthcare, universal care and lawsuit reform

Jeff Berkowitz: I want to get over to healthcare quickly. I know that’s important to both of you, presumably to Congresswoman Bean if she were here, as well. Dave McSweeney, what do we need to do about healthcare? People are talking about forty million people uninsured. What’s your solution?

Dave McSweeney[R-Barrington, 8th CD candidate]: The first thing we need to do is adopt lawsuit reform. We need federal malpractice reform. I’m supporting that legislation. Melissa Bean voted against it.

Jeff Berkowitz: Federal caps on non-economic damages?

Dave McSweeney: That’s correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: Lower the awards. Fewer suits. Make American industry more competitive? Is that your plan?

Dave McSweeney: Create opportunities for OB/GYNs [obstetricians] to stay in Illinois, to stay in the practice-- bring down healthcare costs. I’m a supporter of health savings accounts. I’m supportive of association health plans allowing small businesses to pool their resources together to buy insurance.

Jeff Berkowitz: How did Bean vote on the caps—federal caps on non-economic damages?

Dave McSweeney: She voted no. It’s HR-5.

Jeff Berkowitz: How would you have voted, Bill Scheurer, on caps on non-economic damage awards?

Bill Scheurer[I-Lindenhurst, 8th CD candidate]: I support tort reform generally, including in the medical area, because I don’t think tort litigation is an efficient way to protect the interests of the public. It’s very irrational and very skewed. But there’s absolutely no connection between the modest gains we would see from medical malpractice reforms and the massive cost problems and coverage problems that we face in the healthcare crisis.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you’re talking about a radical change. Universal healthcare?

Bill Scheurer: We’re deceiving ourselves if we think that passing malpractice reform is all of a sudden going to lead to forty five million people who are not insured now having insurance.
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The Iraq War: Out or stay-- just a little bit longer? A lot longer?

Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go back to the war quickly, because that is so important. In Iraq. Bill Scheurer, very quickly, what would you do? Would you back us out of the war last year, this year, right now? What would you do?

Bill Scheurer: Well, there’s a whole range of proposals-

Jeff Berkowitz: You’ve got to be quick.

Bill Scheurer: You can’t be quick. There’s a whole range of proposals, four or five proposals that run the gamut from Congressman Murtha’s proposal to pull out and leave troops around the border-

Jeff Berkowitz: Give me your choice.

Bill Scheurer: I would back all of them. The other two candidates would back none of them. I would vote for every one of those proposals.

Jeff Berkowitz: Any timetable to get the U.S. out of Iraq?

Bill Scheurer: I would vote for the bi-partisan Abercrombie-Jones two year proposal.

Jeff Berkowitz: Okay. Dave McSweeney, what’s your choice?

Dave McSweeney: We can’t set a timeline. We need to complete the mission. We should support the Malicki government and the transition to Iraqi troops taking control of their country and rooting out the terrorists, but I don’t support a timeline. We need to complete the mission.

Jeff Berkowitz: All right. Bean might say she’s somewhere in between. She doesn’t support a timeline either, so again, is she close to you? Or is she in between you and Scheurer?

Dave McSweeney: Well, again, this is a classic example. I think Melissa Bean has taken multiple positions on this, especially the resolution before the Congress a couple weeks ago.

Bill Scheurer: In my view-

Jeff Berkowitz: I have to cut you off, Bill, just for a minute- because we’re going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank Bill Scheurer, who’s running as the Moderate Party candidate. He is an independent and he is running in the 8th congressional district. And to his left—certainly not philosophically, but literally here in terms of the situation on the set, we have Dave McSweeney who is the Republican nominee for Congress in the 8th congressional district. Melissa Bean is the Democratic incumbent. We hope to have her here some time, with the three of you all going at it. Sorry I cut you off, Bill, please go ahead.

Bill Scheurer: I think that her [Cong. Bean’s] stand is exactly like David’s stand. Her voting record shows that she supports an open-ended war without end over there and she’s behind President Bush’s effort.

What is this Race about?
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Jeff Berkowitz: Is that what this race is about? It’s about trade, about the war?

Bill Scheurer: It’s about all four issues. It’s about working families. It’s about healthcare. It’s about balanced budgets. It’s about bringing our troops home and taking care of them when they get here.

Jeff Berkowitz: Dave McSweeney, is this race about the war and keeping that commitment? What is it about?
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Dave McSweeney: This race is about-

Jeff Berkowitz: About?

Dave McSweeney: Lower taxes, less spending, and a strong national defense.

Jeff Berkowitz: The two of you, what do you think Bean thinks this race is about? Scheurer, what do you say?

Bill Scheurer: I have no idea what she thinks this race is about.

Jeff Berkowitz: McSweeney, what do you think?

Dave McSweeney: I have no idea either because she refuses to engage in debates.

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High Gas Prices
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Jeff Berkowitz: Gas prices. Dave McSweeney, what would you do? Real quick.

Dave McSweeney: The first thing I’d do is adopt a long-term energy policy. Nuclear power. Double the tax credits for hybrid cars. And make permanent the tax credits for wind and solar.

Jeff Berkowitz: Pretty similar, Bill Scheurer?

Bill Scheurer: I agree we need a long term energy policy. But, we’d probably differ significantly on what that would be.
[SHOW ENDS]
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Public Affairs, featuring as its guests 8th Cong. Dist. candidates David McSweeney [R-Barrington Hills] and Bill Scheurer [M-Lindenhurst]. The show was recorded on July 16, 2006 and is airing tonight on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, July 31 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. . The show with 8th Candidates McSweeney and Scheurer is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with more than twenty five other shows, which are also airing there. [See here].
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Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Did God put Republicans on this earth to cut taxes?

If the Topinka proposed gasoline tax decrease (See post, below) is fully passed on to the consumer, which is unlikely in the short run, and retail gas prices stayed at their current level in the Loop of about $3.30 per gallon, Public Affairs estimates the savings would be about $4 for a "fill up." So, for a driver who fills his [or her] car up once a week, the Topinka proposed gas tax dercrease would add up to a savings of about $50 bucks for the entire summer.

Will the full tax cut be passed on to consumers? The longer the run, the more time, by definition, for producers and consumers to adapt to price changes, net of taxes; the more time for producers and consumers to adapt to price changes, net of taxes, other things equal, the more elastic the demand and supply curves for gas; the more elastic the demand and supply curves for gas, other things equal, the greater the amount of the tax decrease that will passed on to consumers. Contrary to conventional media thought, this is true for both competitive and monopolistic industries. Of course, the retail gas business is quite competitive, perhaps even more so than the media business in Chicago.

So, if the industry supply curve for gas were completely elastic or if the industry demand curve for gas were completely elastic, which they are not, either in the short or long run, the estimated maximum savings for someone who fills her 20 gallon tank about once a week, as a result of the Topinka proposed decrease in the gas sales tax, would be about 50 bucks for the entire summer.

Now, a savings of $50 for a summer may not seem large to you. But, remember, as Bob Novak used to say, God put Republicans on this earth to cut taxes, and Topinka's proposed gas tax cut is a start, or so some Republican supporters might say.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Putting gas into Topinka’s campaign: Cutting taxes

On a typical, sweltering, late July afternoon in Chicago, Republican candidate for Governor Judy Baar Topinka sought yesterday to “gas up,” her campaign. Topinka urged the Democratic incumbent, Governor Rod Blagojevich, to call the Democratic dominated State House and State Senate into a special session. The session would be to accommodate Topinka’s prior request for legislation to phase out the 6.25% Illinois gasoline sales tax, starting the phase out when gas prices reached $2.00/gallon and removing it completely for prices greater than $2.50/gallon. The same phase out would apply to local gas sales taxes, Topinka added. When gas prices fell below the $2.50 level, the sales tax would be re-imposed, although it is unclear whether Judy would phase it in, to be symmetric with her phase out.

Three Term State Treasurer Topinka, down eleven points, or so, in several polls, stood at a gas station on the corner of Ontario and LaSalle St. in the Loop, about two hundred yards from the Rock and Roll McDonald’s and under a BP sign [Beyond Politics?], that listed BP’s top grade gas at 3.62/gallon. Judy argued to a gaggle of print reporters, cameras from NBC-5, local Fox and WTTW, Public Affairs and Illinois Channel, and a self
described “volunteer,” cameraman [Jordan, he said] from the Blagojevich campaign that people in Illinois were hurting from high gas prices. Topinka said her proposed tax relief would help these people out, save them some money and maybe allow them to take a summer vacation—which sounded good to the media in attendance, who were straining to hear amid traffic and sirens that punctuated the press conference.

Topinka argued that tax flows that resulted from high gas prices were not “in the till,” were not anticipated in the budget planning and therefore could be returned to the taxpayer without preventing the State from reaching its budget expectations. In short, Judy Baar Topinka says the higher tax revenue for the state from higher gas prices is a “Windfall.” Easy come, easy go, or something like that.

When Public Affairs’ Berkowitz questioned the estimated loss, nonetheless, to the state Treasury over the next year of this tax cut, Topinka said we can’t estimate that because we don’t know the future price of gas. Berkowitz persisted-- assume it is $3/gallon, he said, trying to help. Judy declined to play that game and to give Berkowitz an estimate.

When the AP argued isn’t it true the state is still hurt by the loss of tax revenue, Judy went sort of Keynesian on us and started talking about consumers spending their new found disposable income, which she suggested would stimulate the economy, state and local, which in turn would bring in new tax revenue for the government. A novel theory, not quite supply side Laffer curve, not quite Keynesian. And, if Judy is right on her suggestion, why shouldn’t the state remove all sales taxes, which would stimulate the economy, and bring in offsetting new income tax revenue? Yet another tax swap idea? Nobody pursued it. Grist for the next press conference.

When another reporter questioned the possible high cost of the special session, Berkowitz suggested why not hold the special session in conjunction with the upcoming Governor’s Day and Republican Day in Springfield in August. Judy liked that, suggested we might save some costs for the State- perhaps the legislators who would be there anyway for those days would not ask for per diem reimbursement. However, Topinka rejected Berkowitz’s suggestion to have the special session at the fairgrounds.

But, why not. If you can hold a presser at a gas station, why not a special session outdoors? Too late, no more questions, the handler said. Off the gaggle of reporters went. Without even a Big Mac from Team Topinka. The summer of the media’s discontent. For Rod's rapid response to Judy's suggestions, see here.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Repealing the laws of supply and demand?

Jeff Berkowitz: Was [49th Ward] Alderman Moore representing his ward or labor unions today?

Jerry Roper, President and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce: I think Ald. Moore was bought by the labor unions. There is no doubt in my mind.
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Well, that is perhaps a bit harsh, but it does seem as if Ald. Joe Moore is the Alderman from Labor or labor unions in Chicago. And, that is not just from today’s Living Wage vote in Chicago’s City Council, but also from the way he speaks whenever his voice hits the airways, which is not infrequently. And, it does seem as if Mayor Daley was outmuscled and outhustled by labor on this vote.

The vote was a 35-14 margin of victory for those who would like to repeal the laws of supply and demand and install a living wage. CLTV’s Carlos Hernandez Gomez called it a veto-proof majority. Well, yes, Carlos, if you assume that the Mayor can’t peel off two or more votes from the majority. WTTW’s Rich Samuels made this point last night on Chicago Tonight and it seemed to be his view that the Mayor would see if he could find the votes to permit him to sustain an upcoming veto.

Ald. Natarus, who is becoming the object of ridicule whenever he stands up to speak these days [This happened at the Democratic Cook County Central Committee meeting last week to vote for a ballot replacement for County Board President John Stroger], talked up what a great debate the City Council had on Wednesday. Well, I suppose that is perhaps relative to the Council’s recent history of “nothing debates and discussions.” Nobody will ever mistake the City Council for a great, deliberative body.

Rich Samuels, on Chicago Tonight, last evening, selected Ald. Ed Smith [28th] and Ald. Arenda Troutman [20th] to illustrate his argument that there was “more eloquence than you could possibly imagine,” at the meeting this afternoon. I would have argued for Ald. Ike Carothers [Substance, passion and style] and Ald. Freddrenna Lyle [Style and Preparation]—More on this later today.

Ald. Smith had his sidekick at the meeting, Ald. Burnett, hold up a large chart illustrating how much a starting employee at Wal-mart earns relative to its CEO, and that was his argument for a living wage. I am not sure I would call that an eloquent argument. It was more shrewdness and pandering for putting forth an inflammatory but largely irrelevant argument.

Ald. Troutman spoke about her constituents’ preferences for her to vote against the living wage-- as she dumped dozens of actual letters on her desk, saying as she did so that her constituents say they want jobs and noted that she had no grocery or big box in her ward and she is tired of having to go to someone else’s ward to do her shopping.
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More commentary on this topic on this blog later day.
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McSweeney and Scheurer [8th CD] on TV and Streaming

Bill Scheurer [Lindenhurst], 8th CD Moderate Party nominee: The entire structure of American trade is dominated by large corporate interests.
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Jeff Berkowitz: David McSweeney, what do we need to do about healthcare, people are talking about 40 million people uninsured, what's your solution?

David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], 8th CD Republican nominee: First thing we need to do is adopt lawsuit reform. We need federal medical malpractice reform. I've supported that legislation, [8th CD Democrat Congresswoman] Melissa Bean voted against it.
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"Public Affairs," is featuring David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], Republican nominee for 8th Cong. Dist. Representative, and Bill Scheurer [Lindenhurst], Moderate Party candidate for 8th Cong. Dist. Representative, tonight in 25 Chicago Metro suburbs [See, below, end of this post, for a detailed suburban airing schedule] on Comcast Cable; this coming Monday night [July 31] through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, starting within the next few days on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, McSweeney and Scheurer discuss and debate the Middle East conflict between Hezbelloh, Israel, Lebanon and perhaps others, terrorism, the War in Iraq, free and fair international trade, CAFTA and NAFTA, jobs, the economy, tax cuts, federal spending and deficits, health care, abortion and much, much more with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
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The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including shows with Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President , Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk, Ald. Ricardo Munoz, McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
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Coming attractions on Public Affairs in the suburbs:

Next Week: A press conference with 8th CD Republican Nominee David McSweeney and Senator John McCain [R-AZ] held ten days ago, Senator Barack Obama [D-IL] speaking at the Austin Town Hall on Saturday with west side of Chicago small business owners and other members of the west side community and Senator Obama interviewed by Jeff Berkowitz.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the show airs tonight in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In ten North Shore suburbs, the show is also airing in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below.
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The episode of Public Affairs, featuring 8th CD Republican Party nominee David McSweeney and 8th CD Moderate Party nominee Bill Scheurer airs tonight:

at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Ald. Munoz and the Living Wage: on TV tonight and Streaming

"Public Affairs," is featuring Ald. Ricardo Munoz [Chicago Alderman, 22nd Ward] tonight throughout the City of Chicago on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV] at 8:30 pm ; and anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, Ald. Munoz discusses and debates the proposed Living Wage for employees working for companies in the City of Chicago, education quality and school choice, immigration reform and a potential run by Ald. Munoz in the 4th Cong. Dist. in 2008 with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
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A partial transcript of our show with Ald. Munoz is included, below. The issue covered in the partial transcript is Chicago's proposed living wage ordinance, which is scheduled for a vote in the City Council this Wednesday. Critics of the ordinance, e.g., Ald. Mitts, Professor of Economics Austan Goolsbee [former adviser to Senator Obama] and Mayor Daley argue that the living wage requirement will retard economic development in the City by scaring off Big Box stores, e.g., Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, etc. and thereby diminish job opportunities for individuals in the City, e.g., minorities with low skills, especially teenagers looking for entry level part time work-- whose productivity may not yet warrant, in an employer's eye, an hourly wage, with benefits, of $13/hour.

Supporters of the Living Wage ordinance, e.g., Ald. Munoz, Ald. Moore, et al argue that Big Box stores will build stores in the City, irrespective of the living wage requirement. In the words of an economist, they would seem to be arguing that the Demand for Labor is virtually inelastic, i.e., the number of employees hired is insensitive to hourly wage increases.

We discuss, you decide.
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The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five different and recent episodes of “Public Affairs," in addition to Tonight's City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs with Ald. Munoz and last week's show with Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, Republican Nominee for Cook County Board President. The choice also includes our recent show with Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk and additional recent shows with McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held recently with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
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This week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," features two of the three candidates in the 8th CD race: Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills] and Moderate Party Nominee Bill Scheurer [Lindenhurst].
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From tonight's show with Ald. Munoz [D-22nd Ward, Chicago]:
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Jeff Berkowitz: Let’s go over to the living wage. That’s something you’ve been championing, right, for a long time?

Ald. Ricardo Munoz [D-Chicago, 22nd ward]: Yes. Back in 1997, we introduced a Chicago living wage ordinance, which basically said, if you’re doing business with the city, you should pay your employees a living wage. Back then, it was 7.60 [an hour] and it’s not that much of an increase, because the living wage is defined as the hourly rate that you would get paid just to bring you to the federal poverty rate.

Jeff Berkowitz: Back then it was defined as seven dollars and sixty cents an hour.

Ricardo Munoz: Right, 7.60. Right now we’re at about 9.60.

Jeff Berkowitz: That’s for contractors with the city of Chicago.

Ricardo Munoz: Correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: If you want to do business with the city of Chicago, your employees have to get now, currently, 9.60, as their minimum wage.

Ricardo Munoz: Correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: Federally, the minimum wage is 5.15. In Illinois, the minimum wage is 6.50, right?

Ricardo Munoz: So you want to be able to give men and women who are working forty hours a pay check that will make ends meet. I mean, you don’t want somebody to be working two and a half or three jobs because their earning minimum wage at every one of those jobs. And, we are currently considering before the City Council what’s called a “big box living wage ordinance” that would require all large retailers, more than ninety thousand square feet in size, which basically are “super stores,” to pay a living wage, because there’s no reason somebody should work forty hours a week and still be below the poverty line, below the poverty rate, and then have to depend on food stamps, depend on public aid, depend on government subsidies to be able to make ends meet at home, whether it’s paying the bills or putting food on the table.

Jeff Berkowitz: But are people better off being employed at a lower wage and supplementing it with government assistance than being unemployed at the living wage that’s being proposed now of thirteen dollars an hour. So, many economists say it will raise unemployment. And why would somebody be better off—those that get a job, they’ll be better off. But those who become unemployed because the employer is less willing to [employ that person at] thirteen dollars an hour—now they’ve got to get even more government assistance. How are they better off?

Ricardo Munoz: Every time there is a government effort to increase wages, there is a set of economists and corporate leaders that basically scream that the sky is falling. The sky never falls. These individuals—when we passed the living wage [out of the City Council] in 1998, everybody said [that] we are going to lose jobs. We didn’t lose jobs.

Jeff Berkowitz: How do you know?

Ricardo Munoz: When we increased the state minimum wage-

Jeff Berkowitz: Excuse me. How do you know you didn’t lose jobs? You didn’t lose jobs in terms of-

Ricardo Munoz: Because we were still providing the same services, and those contractors-

Jeff Berkowitz: But you could have possibly had even more jobs, more opportunities through the government [Ed. note: that is, the City of Chicago may have had more government programs or expanded programs if its costs of labor were lower, and those programs would have created more jobs; further, the contractors, if able to pay wages closer to the market wage, would have hired more workers in the private sector portion of their business]…

Ricardo Munoz: It should be our job to get people off government subsidies. When you provide a living wage, then that family has more disposable income to buy refrigerators, to buy cars-

Jeff Berkowitz: If they—if they can get a job.

Ricardo Munoz: And they will get it because these companies, like a Wal-Mart, like a Target, like a “super store,” they’re going to come into the city anyway, because they know the market. They see the density.

Jeff Berkowitz: They’re not saying that. They’re saying they’re not.

Ricardo Munoz: Oh, because they just want to scare people. When we passed the living wage ordinance-

Jeff Berkowitz: What about other cities? Are there other cities that have living wages where you’ve seen Wal-Mart come in just as well and just as frequently then where there isn’t a living wage?

Ricardo Munoz: Well, Chicago is, so far, the first large city to consider the big box living wage.

Jeff Berkowitz: So we don’t have any empirical evidence to say it will be as you say or it will not.

Ricardo Munoz: The state of Massachusetts did it and Wal-Mart is still there.

Jeff Berkowitz: But how many stores came in after they put in a living wage? Do we know?

Ricardo Munoz: I do not know.

Jeff Berkowitz: Because you’ve got a guy [an economist]—you say economists say this—at the University of Chicago named Austin Goolsbee. You know the name?

Ricardo Munoz: No, I don’t.

Jeff Berkowitz: He advised Senator Obama when he was running for the U. S. Senate in the 2004 campaign. So, I’d say he [Goolsbee] is a card-carrying liberal. Okay? [Berkowitz smiles]

Ricardo Munoz: Okay.

Jeff Berkowitz: He [Professor Goolsbee] said this [the Living Wage Chicago ordinance] is the worst thing you can do. He’s saying these big box stores are preferred by consumers in Chicago, [giving them] lower prices. This is what they want- they want parking, they want good selection. He says economic development would occur across (and is occurring now, Roosevelt Road [South of the Chicago Loop], out to your neck of the woods on the western border of Chicago), with Targets, Home Depots [being started]. This is going to put a kibosh on that, fewer stores, fewer jobs. This comes from a professor at the University of Chicago economics department, who supported Barack Obama and advised him. [To hear Goolsbee debate a contra view on this subject [Professor Joseph Persky], go to the audio library for WBEZ’s excellent Eight Forty Eight program and click on June 28, Big Box Wages segment, nicely done by CPR's Catrin Einhorn].

Ricardo Munoz: And we respectfully disagree. These companies want to come into the neighborhoods because—if you look at the Little Village neighborhood, sixty thousand people in the 22nd ward live there. Sixty thousand people that still need to buy milk, that still need to buy disposable diapers. They still need to buy all these commodities. And, the stores are going to come anyway, so [you] might as well improve people’s lives by increasing the minimum wage.

Jeff Berkowitz: Even if some do come in, you don’t think possibly Wal-Mart would choose, Target would choose, Home Depot would choose to divert some of their resources elsewhere where they feel they could compete better, because now they’re going to be competing [in the City of Chicago] with [smaller] stores that are not required to pay the living wage.

Ricardo Munoz: Home Depot and Target are already paying a living wage. It’s the Wal-Marts that aren’t-- that pay minimum wage. So the Home Depots and Targets are already here; they’re already paying that wage.

Jeff Berkowitz: They’re not required to pay a living wage, are they?

Ricardo Munoz: But, they’re already paying a living wage.

Jeff Berkowitz: They’re all paying thirteen dollars an hour?

Ricardo Munoz: Over at Home Depot, their entry-level wage is eleven dollars an hour.

Jeff Berkowitz: So if a guy comes-

Ricardo Munoz: The living wage is set at $10/hour. [Ed. Note: the living wage, with required benefits, is scheduled to increase over time to $13/hour].

Jeff Berkowitz: What if a person works ten hours a week-- he [or she] is a high school student, you’re telling me he’s making eleven dollars an hour, not nine, maybe not eight?

Ricardo Munoz: The entry level wage at Home Depot is eleven dollars an hour.

Jeff Berkowitz: For full time, or for part-time?

Ricardo Munoz: I think for both.

Jeff Berkowitz: But you know the argument is that you want people-
To learn how to work, to learn how to handle a job, so you might want them to work ten hours, fifteen hours [at a] lower wage that is not necessarily the wage they will be earning all of their life. [Ed. note: Ald. Mitts has made this argument]. But you’re convinced the living wage is the way to go?

Ricardo Munoz: Correct.

Jeff Berkowitz: You’re convinced that it doesn’t cause any increase in unemployment?

Ald. Ricardo Munoz [D-Chicago, 22nd ward]: It doesn’t increase unemployment.

Jeff Berkowitz: It doesn’t? You’re convinced of that.
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Public Affairs, featuring as its guest Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz [D-22nd Ward]. The show was recorded on July 2, 2006 and is airing tonight on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, July 24 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. . The show with Ald. Munoz, who may run in the 4th Cong. Dist. Democratic Primary in 2008, is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with more than twenty five other shows, which are also airing there. [See here].
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Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Senator Barack Obama, a Liberal run for President

Revised and links added at 1:00 am on Saturday
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Melissa Harris Lacewell [University of Chicago and Princeton University Professor of Political Science], Eric Zorn [Chicago Tribune Columnist and blogger] and John Cox [running somewhat early in the 2008 Republican Primary for President] bantered on Chicago Tonight last night with host Eddie Arruza about whether Senator Obama should and will run for President.

Eric Zorn recoiled at Arruza’s characterization of the opinion columnist as a cheerleader for Obama’s Presidential run, with Zorn saying he preferred the label “analyst.” Zorn then proceeded to lay out, with some passion, the case for Obama’s run, e.g., he is favored now, Obama is the “new thing now,” he has national appeal, charisma and magnetism; in 2012 or 2016, there will be another such charismatic or preferred candidate, or another new thing, so now is the time for Obama; the longer one stays in the Senate, the harder it is to run for President successfully, etc.

Melissa Harris Lacewell was a little less definitive in her statements than Zorn, but she was complimentary of Senator Obama. Harris Lacewell lamented the lack of structure and coherence of the Democratic Party and suggested it was looking for someone to substitute for that party strength—and that Obama, like Bill Clinton in the early 90s, might be just what the Democratic Party needs to give it the coherence it lacks.

John Cox, who at first blush seemed an odd choice for the show, took the conversation away from adulation of Barack Obama to an attack on Barack for never having worked in the private sector. This is not quite true in that Senator Obama previously was affiliated with a law firm [Miner, Barnhill & Galland] and taught at a private university (University of Chicago Law School). Both would seem to qualify as private sector jobs.

Cox, who has lost or dropped out of three Republican primaries [10th CD and U. S. Senate], lost in one general election [Cook County Recorder of Deeds] and lost in a late bid for State GOP Chairman, criticized Senator Obama for his “top-down government directed solutions,” to various public policy problems and issues and for “repeating the liberal line on many, many things.” Cox did a reasonably good job of contrasting his own market oriented solutions in the areas of education [School Choice-school vouchers] and healthcare [vouchers, efforts to expand the number of providers, insurers, etc.] with those of the good Senator.

This, of course, is why John Cox “is running for President,” that is, to get a platform. It worked last night: WTTW gave him a platform for his conservative, free market oriented views and Chicago Tonight got some balance to help its discussion. A win-win outcome for all.

The most notable and amusing part, however, of the program was the aversion of Harris Lacewell and Zorn to use the L word to describe Senator Obama. The good professor said:

I am a little taken aback by the notion that he [Obama] is liberal. He is certainly a Democrat. But, being a Democrat in Illinois does not necessarily make one liberal. I do think that he is generally progressive. Although, I think [he] toes more of the new Democratic Party line than the older one. And, it’s funny to hear the Democratic Party described [by fellow panelist John Cox] as a top down, Government heavy party. I think that’s actually not sort of where domestic policy with the Democrats has been over the past fifteen years…

Eric Zorn, whose columns have noted recently that Barack Obama has been straddling the fence on some issues, argued that Obama has “fairly moderate, mainstream, Democratic, progressive views.” Zorn suggested that there are other senators who are farther left in that they, unlike Obama, support same sex marriage and have stronger positions against capital punishment.

Zorn is certainly right in his argument that there are more liberal senators or senators farther to the left than Obama, but that hardly means Barack Obama is not a liberal. Even Zorn's colleague at the Tribune, Elleen Warren, noted two years ago that Barack Obama is "quite liberal". And, for a Professor of Political Science to be “taken aback by the notion that Obama is liberal,” is nothing short of astonishing. If I were Arruza, I might have at least raised my eyebrows at that one. Better yet, let's take a look at some of the Senator's positions on the issues.

Obama was an early, vocal and forceful opponent of the War in Iraq. Much more so, he would and did argue, than any of his 2004 Democratic U. S. Senate Primary opponents. Senator Obama reminds his anti-war followers from time to time that he is not a pacifist and that military force is sometimes necessary but has been hard pressed to give examples of when and where he would exercise it, and he stammered a bit when I asked him about the genocide in the Sudan, with then State Senator Obama saying two years ago at a press conference [after a Chicago Council on Foreign Relations speech] that he did not know if he would support the U. S. taking unilateral action to try to stop mass genocide in the Sudan, if the U. N. declined to do so. [This is perhaps a timely statement to keep in mind as now U. S. Senator Obama travels to Africa next month].

Senator Obama has not been receptive to answering questions about when, if ever, he might support taking military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability. [Watch here, Obama-Bean April 17, 2006 Press Conference]

Senator Obama is now unequivocally opposed to school vouchers, although prior to his decision to run for the Senate he said on “Public Affairs,” he would take a look at anything to try to improve the quality of education in inner city schools, of which he characterized many as being in retched condition.

He is, I believe, a supporter of a significant increase in the minimum wage. Senator Obama is a strong believer in labor unions' efforts to raise wages above the free market level.

Obama is a believer in fair trade, not free trade, wanting to see a stiffening of labor and environmental standards before he will consider supporting trade agreements.

Senator Barack Obama has been a consistent and harsh critic of the Bush tax cuts and would roll them all back, or as the Republicans would say, raise taxes. He has not been a big voice in the U. S. Senate for restraining the level of domestic spending.

Barack Obama voted against confirmation of both nominees by President Bush last year to the Supreme Court: Judge Roberts and Judge Alito. Given Obama's perspective, his Alito vote is understandable, but not his vote on Roberts [See here]. In any case, his no votes on both reflect the thinking of a liberal U. S. Senator.

Obama is 1000% pro-choice on abortion, pro gun control and pro gay rights, with the exception of same sex marriage, and even there he has implied he could support that some time in the future.

On healthcare, Senator Obama has moderated his position: stepping back before he went to the U. S. Senate from single payer to Universal health care. And, he has made clear, contrary to what John Cox suggested last night, that he wants private firms as well as government entities to be involved in health care. [See here].

Now, the above positions, depending on your perspective, could be good or bad. But, clearly they are generally the positions of a liberal.

Yes, on some big issues, Senator Obama strikes a somewhat moderate position. For example, although opposing the War in Iraq, he has always emphasized once there, the U. S. has to be careful how it exits. This is in stark contrast to the “get out last year,” positions of his very liberal colleague Cong. Jan Schakowsky [D-Evanston, 9th CD], who was a very effective and strong supporter of Obama throughout his primary campaign-- which was Obama's real U. S. Senate contest [Watch Cong. Schakowsky here, Oct. 2005 show] and of former military hawk and ex-marine Cong. Jack Murtha [D-PA]. And, on faith and the public square, he has struck a more moderate tone than liberals such as Eric Zorn would prefer.

And, in tone, Senator Obama is always civil, respectful and careful in his statements. Those traits help project a moderate image, which, as Zorn noted, Obama wants to continue to develop as he contemplates a run for President.

Oh yes, the question was: Is Senator Obama going to run and should he run for President.

Well, Barack Obama is in the fortunate position of being able to run without running-- at least for now. Senator Obama has a barebones, nationally oriented, skeletal organization set up to raise money for such things as training people in the political process, etc. Ever since his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, 2004, Obama has been a national figure, invited to help Democratic candidates raise money through-out the country, receiving something like three hundred, or so, invitations per week to speak.

Senator Obama is building a strong base of national support and attracting followers who continue to transcend race, geography, political party and ideology, albeit with a few, slight bumps from time to time. He is as good a speaker as you will see, and he connects with audiences, large and small.

Indeed, even before Barack Obama was a U. S. Senator and a national Barock star, his talents were easily observeable. As I wrote after covering the run-up to-- and his U. S. Senate Primary win:

Barack Obama is an unbelievably talented human being. He so overwhelms you with his articulateness that you fail to see his charm. Or, he so overwhelms you with his quick grasp of the crowd and its tone that you fail to see his substance. Or, he so overwhelms you with his substance that you fail to see his ability to connect. On and on it goes. Just when you think you know the breadth and depth of the guy, he pulls out something new. See here

So, Barack Obama is in a very good position. He oozes talent, style and charm. He has a great command of the issues. He knows the right people and the right people keep wanting to get close to him. And, most importantly, for a while, Senator Obama can do virtually all the things that a candidate for VP or President should do, without having to say he is running for President. At some point, he will have to make a decision. Knowing Barack Obama, it will be a cautious, well thought out decision.

Obama's decision will depend on the perceived strength of Hillary, Edwards, Kerry and perhaps Gov. Bill Richardson [D-NM] or someone of that type. It will also depend on how well his national organization is coming together, and perhaps on how well received he is in Iowa and New Hampshire. Unless one of the above referenced contenders becomes a prohibitive favorite or his nascent national organization fizzles in the next eight months, Senator Obama will give it a shot by March, 2007. [For a contrary view, watch CBS-2 News' Mike Flannery predict a likely no-go decision by Obama on "Chicago Week in Review," tonight on Ch. 11 at 7:00 pm, midnight, 1:30 am and 4:30 am]

Even if Senator Barack Obama falls short, and doesn't become a candidate for President, he will have a good shot at being selected as the VP candidate and thus would be on his way to the Presidency. Not bad for a skinny kid from the south side of Chicago, with a funny sounding name. Not bad at all.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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President-Elect Steele and Comm. Collins: Candid Camera

Cook County Commissioner Bobbie Steele [D-Chicago] was elected President of the Cook County Board this morning. She will fill out the term of President John Stroger, whose resignation due to his stroke of March and continued related health problems, is effective July 31. That means Comm. Steele will serve as President from August 1 until December 4, 2006, when either current Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica [R-Riverside] or Chicago 8th Ward Alderman Todd Stroger [D-Chicago] will take over as President, depending on the results of the November 7, 2006 election contest for the four year term of President of the Cook County Board.

As noted here, Commissioner Earlean Collins [D-Chicago], who has been the Sandra Day O’Connor swing vote of the Cook County Board on key votes for the last four years, was again the swing vote today. Going into the meeting, it was well known that for the first ballot, the five Republicans would support their 78 year old senior member, Carl Hansen, who lost his primary this March after 32 years on the Board. And, it was known that Commissioners Claypool and Quigley were supporting Claypool for President. Further, Commissioner Steele had Daley, Murphy, Maldonado, Butler, Sims and Suffredin in her corner. If none of the 16 Board Members in attendance [John Stroger is absent] voted present, the winner would require nine votes.

The word on the street was that Commissioner Collins and President Pro-Tem Mario Moreno [who casts his vote last at the meetings] were undecided, or at least uncommitted, going into this morning’s meeting. After Collins voted for Steele, it was clear Steele would have eight votes.

Although Moreno could have gone for Republican Hansen or reformer Claypool, throwing the election into a tie and thus a second ballot, with a possible compromise candidate emerging-- say John Daley—Mario Moreno wasn’t going to do that. Had Collins gone for Claypool or Hansen, then Moreno would have gone for Steele, throwing it into a second ballot. And, then the likely outcome became unclear.

Instability and uncertainty do not seem to be Commissioner Collins’ way. So she decided to support Commissioner Steele for President of the Board. I could have told you that last night, but why spoil the suspense. For another take on the election of President-Elect Steele, see here and for Steele’s statements that she neither concerned herself with back room dealing in this matter nor the impact of going from a $85,000 Commissioner's salary to a $170, 000 President's salary for four months on her pension, see here.

Candid comments by Cook County Board President-Elect Steele and Cook County Commissioner Collins:
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Mary Ann Ahern [NBC-5 News]: In four months [as County Board President], what are you going to be able to do? Why bother?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: Why bother? Because we need to make immediate changes and I feel we can make those changes in a short time.

Jeff Berkowitz [Public Affairs and Illinois Channel]: Will you consult with Todd Stroger about those changes.

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: [Looking quizzically at Berkowitz]: Consult with Todd? I think Todd should consult with me.

Jeff Berkowitz: Will you consider his views?

Another reporter interjects: Will you be able to work with him [Todd] when he takes over [Ed. Note: seems to be a bit of a presumption by this media member]?

Commissioner Bobbie Steele: Oh sure, I can work with anybody.
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Commissioner Bobbie Steele: We are going to look at our staff and see what changes need to be made.

Jeff Berkowitz: Will there be a new Chief of Staff [in the President’s office] ?

Commissioner Bobbie Steele: It’s likely that there will be.
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Bill Cameron [WLS Radio]: So, you can’t rule out a tax increase?

Commissioner Bobbie Steele: We are going to look at all of our options.
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Scott Fornek [Sun-Times]: So, you are not closing the door on a tax increase? That’s a possibility?

Commissioner Bobbie Steele: No, I am not closing the door.
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Andy Shaw [ABC-7 News]: Do you share the sense that there is a lot of wiggle room to cut before you even consider taxes?

Commissioner Bobbie Steele: There probably is. And, we’ll look at that.
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Informal Press Conference, Cook County Board Room, July 19, 2007, after Commissioner Steele was elected President of the Cook County Board to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of President John Stroger, effective July 31, 2006.
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Commissioner Bobbie Steele: We are faced with a fiscal challenge, but I think with the support of our Board and streamlining some of our departments and cutting where we have to cut, it’s going to take a lot of support to make those cuts and we need to make them, and I am willing to do it because its time that we act responsibly and its time that we recognize that the taxpayers pay our salaries, and we are not going to sit here and waste money for services that we don’t get. We owe it to them.
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Jeff Berkowitz: Would you say that you would campaign hard for Todd Stroger [Democratic nominee for the Cook County Board President]?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: Did I say that?

Jeff Berkowitz: I said, would you say that?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: Well, you know, I must first of all take care of the people’s business here in Cook County, and if there is time and I can get out, I will. But, my greatest concern now is to take care of the business at hand.

Jeff Berkowitz: How do you feel about the shellacking that Cong. Danny Davis took yesterday.

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: The what?

Jeff Berkowitz: The shellacking?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: I am not aware of the shellacking.

Jeff Berkowitz: 77% to 23% [in the vote by the Cook County Democratic Central Committee to pick the Democratic nominee for Cook County Board President to replace John Stroger on the general election ballot, Ald. Todd Stroger beat Cong. Danny Davis by that margin]. Is that a big blow to the West side of Chicago?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: You know, I hope that people will soon stop thinking west side, south side. Cook County is a big tent and we have a north end of Cook County, a south end of Cook County and we have on the north side-- we have North Lake, Northfield, Skokie, so Cook County is inclusive of the north side, the west side, the south side, and the far south side: Worth, Bremen, all of those municipalities in Cook County, so we have to have a paradigm shift in thinking about Cook County…
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Jeff Berkowitz: How do you feel about Tony Peraica?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: I think he is a wonderful guy.

Jeff Berkowitz: Do you think you can work well with him over the next four months while he is running for President?

Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele: Oh, yes, yes, yes. I don’t think Tony and I will have any problems.
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Informal discussion in Commissioner Steele’s office, July 19, 2006.
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Jeff Berkowitz: The last three years you have kind of gone with the Gang of Eight and made it nine votes to block proposed tax increases by President John Stroger—

Commissioner Earlean Collins: I didn’t go with the Gang of Eight; I led the leadership fight of that budget. I was the leader of balancing that budget without tax increases. It started with me. I am the one who had the whole package and I corded it together and presented it to the President and all the members and included them in it, took their amendments that they had, and put together a unified effort to balance the budget- [but] I provided the leadership.

Jeff Berkowitz: Will you continue to provide that leadership this year?

Commissioner Earlean Collins: Absolutely, absolutely.

Jeff Berkowitz: Your intent is to see no tax increase as the Board deals with the Budget through the end of this year and into next year, is that right?

Commissioner Earlean Collins: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.

Jeff Berkowitz: All right.

Commissioner Earlean Collins: Unless we find, and I don’t think we will, that after getting rid of duplication of services, and after freezing the positions and the departments cutting their budget to only those critical essential services to our core mission and then we see where we are- and if you have done all of that, and you are satisfied that there is nothing else you can do, we must provide critical services, and whatever that is, we can look at that, but in an election year, it is going to be very difficult to get nine votes to raise any kind of taxes.

Jeff Berkowitz: So, you don’t foresee any kind of a tax increase.

Commissioner Earlean Collins: No, I don’t.
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Informal interview outside of Commissioner Collins’ office, July 19, 2006.
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For more on today's Cook County Board vote and presumably how the situation plays out in the future, watch WTTW's Chicago Tonight [Ch. 11 in the Chicago Metro area] this evening at 7:00 pm, or when it repeats at midnight, 1:30 am and 4:30 am. Carol Marin's panel is expected to include Cook County Board President-Elect Bobbie Steele; Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner [R-Riverside] and Republican Nominee for County Board President in the Fall election; Peraica's Democratic opponent in the Cook County Board President contest- Ald. Todd Stroger and Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool [D-Chicago].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Todd Stroger on the ballot: A good day for the Machine?

He may have the voice of God and his voice may be that of the establishment wing of the Democratic progressive movement in Chicago, Cook County and Illinois, but today, Cong. Danny Davis [D-Chicago, 7th CD] did not have the winning voice. Not even close.

Cong. Davis is well credentialed, both experientially [as he boasted] and academically [more degrees than you can shake a fist at], and he is an eloquent speaker and tireless worker to advance Democratic Progressive causes. But, Danny boy, as the Irish might call him, this is hardball politics, Chicago style. Thus, Ald. Todd Stroger, not Cong. Davis, will replace Todd’s father, John Stroger, on the ballot, as the Democratic Nominee for Cook County Board President. And, Cong. Davis said some nice words about Todd Stroger and his support for him, just before Todd Stroger’s post victory press conference. A gracious loser was Cong. Davis.

If the choice between Ald. Stroger and Cong. Davis was made based on the eloquence of the speech today, clearly it would have been Cong. Davis. If you were a recruiter, and you had specs for the job in terms of government experience and knowledge of the issues, you would take Cong. Davis’ Cook County Board, City Council and Congressional experience over Todd Stroger’s years as an obscure State Rep. and alderman. If you interviewed the two, and chose based on the substance of the interview, no doubt you would choose Cong. Davis. This would be the case notwithstanding Davis’ dalliance in recent years with Rev. Moon.

However, as Archie Bunker once noted when he lost a job promotion even though he had gone back to school to earn his GED, Congressman Danny Davis [D-Chicago] should perhaps have spent more time studying Einstein’s Theory of Relativity as opposed to getting post graduate degrees and certificates in education and public administration. Similarly, Commissioner Bobbie Steele noted the other day when she withdrew from the race to replace John Stroger on the ballot that her father was a farmer [not a County Board President].

The determining and indeed only real factor in today’s decision, as everyone knew it would be, was that Alderman Todd Stroger is the son of John Stroger, who has been on the Cook County Board for more than three decades, President of the County Board for a decade and a part of the Democratic Party Machine forever.

Democratic Ward and Township committeemen, i.e., Democratic party bosses who make up the Cook County Democratic Central Committee, voted early this afternoon 77”% to 23% to replace John Stroger by putting his son, Ald. Todd Stroger, on the ballot as the Democratic Nominee for Cook County Board President.

As one political media personality said to me as we entered the Hotel Allegro, the scene of the crime, this morning, “How can you argue with 35 years.” I had asked the wag if he thought there could be any surprises today, and his answer was pure Politics 101. He wasn’t saying, of course, what he thought should or shouldn’t be the case. Just what is.

The wag, no doubt, was referring not just to Stroger’s three decades plus of experience and title as a County Commissioner, topped off as President of the County Board for more than the last decade. No, of greater importance than John Stroger’s formal toils in Cook County government was the fact that John, the Father, has devoted his entire political career to going along with the Democratic Party Machine, even if it meant African-American John Stroger voting like a black Irishman, if there are such.

John Stroger was there for the machine when it asked him to support the machine’s white candidate Richard M. Daley over black reformer and icon Harold Washington for Mayor of Chicago. John Stroger was there for the Chicago Democratic Machine when it asked him to support white Dan Hynes over African-American Barack Obama.

Further, Dan Hynes was the lackluster, white, son of 19th Ward political powerhouse Tom Hynes—and Dan was running for the U. S. Senate in the 2004 Democratic Primary. Obama, of course, was the first African-American President of the Harvard Law Review and is now likely to be the first African-American President of the United States. Obama, at the time, was a U. S. Senate Democratic Primary Candidate and of course he went on to beat his closest competitor, Dan Hynes, 53 to 24 %, in a seven candidate field. In short, Hynes, by any measure, was not competitive, in any way, with Obama. Yet, John Stroger, continued to vote like a southside Irishman, not a southside African-American.

Not supporting Harold Washington and Barack Obama were just a few of the many times that John Stroger played the machine game, as opposed to following his heritage, or even just the reform movement. I don’t say this to denigrate John Stroger, but to illustrate just how strong John Stroger’s allegiance was to the Chicago Democratic Party Machine.

When you give the Party that kind of loyalty, it has to be rewarded. Almost every pol in the room at the Hotel Allegro knew that, even those who voted their hearts and souls for Cong. Danny Davis. Further, it is not really a matter of the Party delivering justice for John Stroger or even Todd. No, it is a matter of rewarding party loyalty. It you don’t reward that behavior, the machine crumbles. And, then what?

Well, then the whole patronage, jobs, contracts for friends process collapses. That is, the no-bid, friend of the President contracts, the patronage jobs and all that bloat and inefficiency that Democrat Commissioners Forrest Claypool and Mike Quigley and Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica rail against might be removed. And all the other relationships, ties, deals and bonds that unite those within the Chicago Democratic Party Machine could be jeopardized.

That’s one reason why 11th Ward Committeeman [and Cook County Board Finance Committee Chairman and brother of Mayor Daley] John Daley and 14th Ward Committeeman [and City of Chicago Finance Committee Chairman] Ald. Ed. Burke, Ald. Beavers [who himself was placed on the ballot this afternoon, without opposition, to replace John Stroger, as the 4th Dist. Democratic nominee for the County Board], State Rep. Lou Lang [D-Skokie], Ald. Dorothy Tillman, Ald. Lyle [who gave the speech of her life and the best speech of the day, as noted by Chicago Tonight’s Rich Samuels], Ald. Natarus, Ald. Solis, and Ald. Brookins, just to name a few of the disparate supporters of Todd, sat there, some speaking for Todd, some not, but all looking pretty happy as today’s events unfolded.

No, the Democratic Party pols weren’t going to abandon the concept of party loyalty, not today.

But, there, at the Hotel Allegro on Randolph in the Loop, to begin hammering away at the newly minted Democratic candidate for Cook County Board President was Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, the Republican Nominee for Cook County Board President. He held a presser before Todd’s, which followed the vote. And, after that, in a class act, Tony walked over to Todd and congratulated him on his nomination.

I asked new candidate for President of the County Board, Todd Stroger, after his presser, how many debates he would do, and he brushed me off with the comment, “I will discuss that with Tony Peraica, not You.” Must have been something I said. Or wrote.

I asked Tony Peraica how many debates he wanted, and he surprised me by saying three. I would have thought more. Peraica’s Communications Director, Bill Pascoe, was quick to correct his candidate, saying, “at least three.”

So, let the games and the debates begin. It’s Peraica v. Stroger. Just like we thought last March. Only it’s Todd in to sub for his father, John. Like Father, like Son? We’ll see.

Quick to poll, Chicago Tribune columnist and blogger Eric Zorn is already asking his readers how they will choose between Tony and Todd. Zorn is trying to figure out if progressives and other independent Democrats, who account for large numbers of the 46.5% who voted for Democratic Reform Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool in the County Board President primary, will jump ship and vote for Tony Peraica [See here].

Those who follow Cook County politics and policy, and this blog, will know that the Gang of Four [Democratic Commissioners Claypool, Quigley and Suffredin and Republican Commissioner Tony Peraica] joined with the four other Republicans on the Board and Democrat swing vote Earlean Collins to block three Stroger tax increases over the last three years. It was an unusual coalition and winning Gang of Nine on the key economic issue of the County Board. [See here]

Could the Gang of Four stay intact sufficiently to elect Peraica? Not in the pure form. That is, Claypool, Quigley and Suffredin are not ready to bolt their party and support fellow reformer Peraica. First things first, they are all true blue Democrats.

Quigley has said he would support any Democrat over Peraica. Claypool has said he is a Democrat and will remain one. That leaves room for Claypool not to endorse either Todd or Tony, and to turn his supporters free, so to speak. Quigley, notwithstanding his stronger comments to the contrary, might come around and copy Claypool, at least in terms of how he handles the Todd- Tony choice.

The above discussed actions of Claypool and Quigley could help push Democratic voters to Peraica. Moreover, Claypool and Quigley might tacitly encourage a closet revolt within the Democrat Party to support Peraica. A Todd Stroger loss could help Claypool-Quigley solidify their power within the Democratic Party.

On the other hand, a Todd Stroger win, despite lukewarm support from Claypool and Quigley, might mean that they would go no higher than County Board in their political careers and the machine might even find a credible primary opponent for each in 2010.

If you are going to shoot at the King, even if at night, you had best hit your target.

What do you think? Go here and cast your vote for Todd or Tony.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Ald. Ricardo Munoz on TV this week and streaming

"Public Affairs," is featuring Ald. Ricardo Munoz [Chicago Alderman, 22nd Ward] tonight in 24 Chicago Metro suburbs [See, below, end of this post, for a detailed suburban airing schedule] on Comcast Cable; this coming Monday night [July 24] through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, Ald. Munoz discusses and debates the proposed Living Wage for employees working in the City of Chicago, education quality and school choice and a potential run by Ald. Munoz in the 4th Cong. Dist. in 2008 with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
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The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five different and recent episodes of “Public Affairs," in addition to this week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with Ald. Munoz and last week's suburban show with Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, Republican Nominee for Cook County Board President. The choice also includes our recent show with Deputy Gov. Bradley Tusk and additional recent shows with McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held recently with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
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A partial transcript of our show with Ald. Munoz will be posted on this blog later tonight.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the show airs tonight in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.

In ten North Shore suburbs, the show is also airing in its regular airing slot at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below.

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The episode of Public Affairs, featuring Ald. Ricardo Munoz, airs tonight:

at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette

And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.

and Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka.
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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Mainstreaming w/Tony Peraica: On TV Tonight and streaming

Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President:...Even within the African American community, it is widely known that Todd Stroger doesn’t have the stamina, the wherewithal, or the intelligence to do the job that they are trying to thrust upon him. And, I don’t think he’s going to have—not nearly the kind of support that his father John Stroger was able to get. And, I think we will be able to garner a significant level of support from the African American community.
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Jeff Berkowitz: Is the [healthcare] service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?

Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.
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Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?

Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.
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Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?

Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.

Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?

Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.

Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?

Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.
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"Public Affairs," is featuring Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican nominee for County Board President, tonight [July 17] through-out the City of Chicago on CANTV, Cable Ch. 21 at 8:30 pm; And, anytime on the "Public Affairs," podcast page on your computer [See here]. Among other topics and issues, Peraica discusses and debates nepotism and biblical begetting in the Chicago and Illinois Democratic Party [See here] ; Patronage, Contracts and Waste and how best to provide juvenile detention services, adult jail services and health care services to low income individuals -- with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz.
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Tonight's show with Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for Board President Tony Periaica is timed well. Tomorrow the Cook County Democratic Central Committee meets to pick a replacement to succeed John Stroger on the ballot as the Democrat Nominee for President of the Cook County Board. Perhaps the Democratic Chicago Ward Bosses will want to watch the show tonight with Tony Peraica to decide if Tony can beat Todd Stroger, before they slate Todd. Same thing with those Cook County Board members who live in the City. They could use the show to prepare for this Wednesday's Board Meeting to decide on who will be the Board's choice as interim President to replace President John Stroger. "Public Affairs," might prove a better investment of time than Leave it to Beaver.
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The "Public Affairs," podcast page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five different and recent episodes of “Public Affairs," in addition to this week's suburban edition of Public Affairs with Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President and last week's City of Chicago show with Deputy Governor Bradley Tusk. The choice also includes our show with Ald. Ricardo Munoz- which is airing this week in the Chicago North and Northwest suburbs and next Monday night in the City of Chicago; our recent shows with McSweeney, Giuliani and Gov. Thompson--and State Rep. John Fritchey [D-Chicago] on our video and audio podcast page[See here]. The podcast page also includes a one on one interview with 8th Cong. Dist. Republican Nominee David McSweeney [Barrington Hills], press conferences held with Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Republican Challenger, State Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka after their debate to date, a press conference with U.S. Senator Barack Obama and Cong. Bean and much, much more. [See here].
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Coming Attractions on Public Affairs

Next Monday night in the City Ald. Ricardo Munoz [Chicago, 22nd Ward], possible 4th CD Democratic Primary candidate to replace Cong. Gutierrez in 2008 is featured on Public Affairs. This show also airs this week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.

Two Weeks from Tonight: 8th CD Candidates David McSweeney [R-Barrington Hills] and Bill Scheurer [Moderate Party-Lindenhurst] square off. This show also airs next week in the North and Northwest Chicago Metro suburbs.
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A partial transcript of tonight's show with Commissioner Peraica is included, below.
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Tony Peraica, Cook County Commissioner [R-Riverside] and Republican Nominee for County Board President: I have been diligently visiting all the major power centers within all communities in Cook County, including the African American community. I believe that I have an excellent rapport with the leadership in the African American community who are just as disgusted and just as incredulous about the situation that is developing here. Even within the African American community, it is widely known that Todd Stroger doesn’t have the stamina, the wherewithal, or the intelligence to do the job that they are trying to thrust upon him. And, I don’t think he’s going to have—not nearly the kind of support that his father John Stroger was able to get. And, I think we will be able to garner a significant level of support from the African American community.

Jeff Berkowitz: The African American community are big consumers of Cook County hospitals. ... There’s Stroger Hospital, There’s Provident Hospital. What else do we have?

Tony Peraica: There’s Stroger Hospital, Provident Hospital, Oak Forest Hospital, and-Jeff Berkowitz: Big consumers.

Tony Peraica: Cermak Hospital.

Jeff Berkowitz: Okay, so they’re big consumers.

Tony Peraica: And thirty clinics.

Jeff Berkowitz: Would you say they’re pretty inefficiently run at this point?

Tony Peraica: Yes. We spent a billion dollars a year on the Cook County Health Bureau, which is four hospitals and thirty clinics. We are employing eight thousand employees in functions related to the Health Bureau.

Jeff Berkowitz: What are you going to do differently to make it more efficient, especially for those African American consumers of hospital services in Cook County:

Tony Peraica: I would improve the service greatly by having a hands-on management technique employed, where we would, first of all, call in all of the department heads and ask them, “What have you done in the last six months, within your department? What are you working on now and what do you plan to do within the next six months?” And, if they don’t have a plan of action and it shows, for example, that their departments are languishing and are not performing up to par, I would replace them immediately. We would then bring in industrial engineers to take a look at every one of these departments in terms of what is it that they do, how often do they do it, and how many people does it take to perform the task. And then, based on that, we would try to adjust the level of personnel, increase or decrease, as needed to make sure that we can deliver services through the community that relies on them in an efficient, cost-effective, timely manner.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is the service going to be better? How’s it going to be better for consumers?

Tony Peraica: I will go to the Stroger Hospital myself, personally, early in the morning, and sit in the emergency room and find out how long it takes for the patients to be visited by a nurse or a doctor. And if they don’t get services timely, I will be taking names. I will be issuing warnings, and I will be terminating people for lack of performance.


Jeff Berkowitz: Claypool says there should be more preventive care. You agree?

Tony Peraica: Absolutely. I agree. “Access to Care” is a program that needs to be expanded, particularly throughout our thirty clinic system in the suburbs, where we can have citizens of Cook County obtain medical services in the communities where they live, rather than to travel to one of the four hospitals which are not conveniently located across this one thousand square mile county, which is huge. I traveled it yesterday, and I get reminded each time just how geographically large it is. We need to provide greater access to care in the communities where individuals live. And, we need to provide some sort of a reimbursement or voucher system to local physicians and medical providers to treat the indigent population to prevent problems before they have to be treated in our four hospitals.

Jeff Berkowitz: Juvenile Detention Center. Claypool and others—your fellow reformers—say it’s been a mess. What does it cost—about sixty thousand dollars a year to take care of one of the juveniles who is detained there? Something like that?

Comm. Tony Peraica [R-Riverside]: Well, yeah, if you divide it up.

Jeff Berkowitz: Divide the total budget by the number of people there. Does that make any sense? Are they being well taken care of for sixty thousand dollars?

Tony Peraica: No, they are not being well taken care of, and it does not cost sixty thousand dollars. The average stay for a juvenile in the juvenile detention facility is about three weeks, two to three weeks. So, we have a constant turnover of individuals. The capacity of the Juvenile Detention Center is about four hundred fifty to five hundred maximum juveniles, and during the entire year we get maybe ten to twelve thousand children that come to that facility.

Jeff Berkowitz: What’s the budget?

Tony Peraica: The budget, as I remember last, is about thirty million dollars, twenty seven to thirty million dollars.

Jeff Berkowitz: For those four hundred fifty that are there at any one point in time. What has to be done differently?

Tony Peraica: What has to be done differently is that we open up the hiring process and the contracting process there, so that we can have qualified individuals with proper training and educational backgrounds, with proper psychological backgrounds, working with troubled youth so that they do not make their problems worse, but rather help to decrease the level of tension and to try to alleviate some of these problems and provide an educational component to the troubled youth that are in the Juvenile Detention Center.

Jeff Berkowitz: So the problem isn’t that John Stroger wanted to provide inefficient service. The problem is that John Stroger—and, you’re saying, Todd Stroger will—put patronage people there who aren’t competent and therefore the service isn’t provided. Am I getting that right?

Tony Peraica: Absolutely. The problem throughout the Cook County Bureau of Health as well as the Cook County Juvenile Detention facility is that you have too many patronage hacks who are not qualified and who are not doing the work.

Jeff Berkowitz: Same thing with the Cook County Jail?

Tony Peraica: Yes.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you really have to get the patronage out?

Tony Peraica: The problem at the Cook County Jail is not that you have too many. The Sheriff’s office, which runs the Cook County Jail, has a budget of some four hundred million dollars each year, and employs about seven thousand employees, of whom about thirty six hundred are correctional officers. The problem is not that you have too many, because we had to hire, as you know, under the Duran v. Cook County, or the Duran v. Sheehan case, that was pending for the last over a decade now, we had to hire seven hundred additional correctional officers, to staff the jail properly, to have a proper ratio of correctional officers to inmates. The problem that we have within the Sheriff’s office is that you have correctional officers who are doing, you know, oil changes, who are doing mechanical repairs, who are doing pin striping on cars, who are doing things—janitorial work that does not relate to the function of running a jail, being a sheriff or providing public safety services.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you have to professionalize that? Do you need a new Cook County Sheriff?

Tony Peraica: You need to professionalize some of it. You need to privatize some of it. You need to do things that are necessary to provide a cost-effective service at the lowest possible price.

Jeff Berkowitz: Is that Peter Garza’s platform? He’s the Republican nominee?

Tony Peraica: You will have to have Peter Garza on this show and ask him that question.

Jeff Berkowitz: You support Peter Garza over Tom Dart to replace Sheriff Sheehan?

Tony Peraica: I think Peter Garza is superiorly qualified to Tom Dart to run the county jail. He [Garza] has twenty two years of experience in the area of corrections and he would be a far superior sheriff to Dart, who’s a fine man. I know him [Dart], but he came there [Chief of Staff for Sheriff Sheehan and Democratic Nominee for Sheriff] through political patronage from the 19th ward [Land of Tom Hynes]. And, really, he didn’t come to the office of being a Sheriff of Cook County through great skill or experience.

Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to get your fellow Democratic reformers to support you? Mike Quigley has said he’s going to support any Democrat, including Todd Stroger, over you, the Republican.

Tony Peraica: Well, I would like to see Commissioner Quigley pushing for Todd Stroger on the Near North Side in the 43rd and 44th wards. I think that will get him a lot of credibility.

Jeff Berkowitz:What about Forrest Claypool? He couldn’t win the Democratic primary [for the Cook County Board President nomination], in part because he couldn’t get the very popular U.S. Senator Barack Obama to endorse him.Tony Peraica: Right.

Jeff Berkowitz: Barack didn’t endorse John Stroger, but he didn’t endorse Claypool—Barack said some nice things about Claypool [the day before the primary election]. Do you think you can get Forrest Claypool to say nice things about Tony Peraica?

Tony Peraica: Forrest Claypool and I have an excellent working relationship. We are, I would say, friends, outside of the County Board.

Jeff Berkowitz: Yes or no? Can you get him to support you?

Tony Peraica: Yes. I think I can.

Jeff Berkowitz: All right. We’re going to continue to speak as the credits roll, but I very much want to thank our guest, Tony Peraica, who is a Cook County Commissioner. He is the Republican nominee for President of the Cook County Board. As we tape this on July 9th of the year 2006, we anticipate his opponent in the general election will be Democrat Todd Stroger. That’s what we anticipate.

Tony Peraica: You didn’t talk about the two hundred million dollar loan.

Jeff Berkowitz: Yeah. Right.

Tony Peraica: You should have covered that, because that’s a germane issue.

Jeff Berkowitz: So you’ve been told all along that the Cook County staff thinks finances are good. Everything’s fine. Now they say they need a two hundred million dollar line of credit.

Tony Peraica: Now we have a cash shortfall and we have to go out and borrow two hundred million dollars to pay our bills and payroll, which is outrageous.

Jeff Berkowitz: So Claypool—he’s told me this. He says the staff-- they just lie—that’s what Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool said; he said they just lie to you, the Board members. Do you agree?

Tony Peraica: Yes. They did.

Jeff Berkowitz: Are you going to stand for that?

Tony Peraica: No. I’m not going to stand for that.

Jeff Berkowitz: Whose heads are going to roll? What are you going to do?

Tony Peraica: Well, I think we’re going to have to start with the chief of staff and the chief financial officer and the comptroller and the rest of them down the line. We need to find out why we were not given accurate information three weeks ago, when Crain’s Chicago business reported it.

Jeff Berkowitz: We should say that Todd Stroger was invited to be on this show. He couldn’t make it. We hope he’ll be here. We’re fair and balanced. We’ll give him every shot to express his points of view. What’s Todd Stroger going to do if he’s Board President about that kind of lying that’s going on?

Comm. Tony Peraica [Riverside]: The same old. Nothing is going to change. Patronage will continue. Contracts will go to the insiders. Bloated payrolls will continue and the real estate taxes and other taxes will continue to rise. And, I don’t think that’s what the voters of Cook County want or deserve. We need to have a change. This is the opportunity now. November 7th, everyone needs to come out.
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Public Affairs, featuring guest Cook County Commissioner and Republican Nominee for County Board President Tony Peraica was recorded on July 9, 2006 and is airing tonight on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs, July 17 at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21. . The show with Commissioner Peraica is also available as a video podcast at the Public Affairs Cinema Complex, along with more than twenty five other shows, which are also airing there. [See here].
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Transcript draft prepared by Amy Allen, who also does research for “Public Affairs,” and has her own political blog [See here].
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Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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