DART USHERS SHERIFF’S OFFICE INTO “NEW AGE”
You may not agree with everything he does or says but guess what? He is the best that we have right now.
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| He is our guy. |
ANALYSIS &
OPINION BY RUSS STEWART
In the past 68 years, since 1946,
Cook County has had nine sheriffs, all of them ostensibly devoid of moral
turpitude, reasonably competent, generally resistant to temptation to indulge
in graft and favoritism, able to sublimate the duress and stress of sitting on
a timebomb – and almost all eminently forgettable.
That’s Sheriff Tom Dart’s problem.
He’s forgotten. The 51-year old lawyer from Chicago’s clout-heavy 19th Ward craves
a promotion – to Chicago mayor, U.S. Attorney, county board president, state’s
attorney, or even a high-level job in the Obama Administration’s Department of
Justice.
“I love my job,” he said. “I work
10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week. I get calls at 3:00 AM. I’m making a
difference.”
Get me out of here, he really means.
Dart sits atop a timebomb. The sheriff’s responsibilities include courthouse
and courtroom security, operation of the County Jail and House of Corrections,
and patrol of the county’s unincorporated areas. A possible courtroom shooting,
a jail break, a drug dealing or gun-toting deputy, a Juvenile Court incident –
all have political repercussions.
During his 8-year term, Dart said,
there have been no jail breaks, only several “walk-aways,” due to tangled
paperwork. The Jail houses 12,500 inmates daily, of which half are accused
felons awaiting trial, and the remainder convicted felons serving their
sentence. Over 3,000 are housed in four segregated buildings, and Cermak
Hospital, while being given meds, and therapeutic and psychological treatment
for “mental health” problems. Another 3,000 convicts or detainees are on
electronic monitoring.
Welcome to “New Age” law
enforcement. In the days of yore, the criminal justice system was intended to
be punitive. Jail was a place of misery and suffering, to deter ex-cons from crime and
re-incarceration. That philosophy “is not working,” said Dart. Now the focus is
curative: Criminals are not predators, they’re victims. Instead of spending
their squalid life shuttling in and out of prison, they get a lifetime of
Medicaid-paid meds and therapy, a Link card, Section 8 housing subsidies, and
public aid. It used to be: Don’t commit a crime if you can’t do the (jail)
time. The new jingle is: If you don’t commit another crime, the taxpayers will
make sure you live real fine.
I asked Dart: Is the sheriff’s
office is now a social service agency? A veritable half-way house? “If I can
prevent one in 20 (ex-cons) from coming back (to jail), I’m satisfied,” said
Dart, a Democrat first elected in 2006. “We need a thoughtful strategy to fight
crime.”
According to Dart, his two-term
“accomplishments” include: Shakman compliance; a crackdown on sex trafficking;
inmate “mental health” programs and screening; banning evictions on apartment
tenants in foreclosures; monitoring gang activity; requiring rape kits; and
employing social workers to intervene in inmate, evictee and child matters.
Here’s
a tricky multiple-choice question: Who will be the next county sheriff?
(a) Tom Dart; (b) Ted Palka; (c)
Sylvester Baker; (d) Bill Evans; (e) Ed Burke Jr.; or (f) Chuck Norris.
If you answered (a), then you didn’t
read the question. Dart is the sheriff, and he will easily beat Palka, Baker
and Evans in the March 18 Democratic primary. If you answered (f), then you’ve
been watching too many “Walker, Texas Ranger” reruns. If you picked (e), then
you have phenomenal insight into the way Chicago and Cook County politics
operates. DNA and geography control. The South Side 19th Ward, which has
controlled the sheriff’s office since 1990, will be superseded by the South
Side 14th Ward.
Count on this: Ed Burke Jr. will be
sheriff sometime soon. The son of 48-year Chicago Alderman Ed Burke, the
council’s Finance committee chairman, and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne
Burke, young Burke is one of the sheriff’s 210 “exempt” hires, out of 6,640
employees. Non-exempts are hired through civil service exams, not political
clout. Burke is presently an assistant chief deputy sheriff, in charge of child
support enforcement, earning $85,667. His dad has $8.2 million in his campaign
account – more than enough to spend (or is it buy?) sonny’s way into the
sheriff’s job.
As for 19th Ward Alderman Matt
O’Shea, who covets Dart’s job, one word: Foggataboutit.
According to Palka, a deputy sheriff
and inspector in the sheriff’s office for 30 years, the “culture of corruption
and favoritism has not changed” under Dart. What has also not changed is the
office’s reputation as a political career capstone, not a steppingstone.
Under the 1871 Illinois
Constitution, a sheriff was limited to one four-year term. The 1969
Constitutional Convention removed that term limit, the rationale being that
graft was less endemic.
In the past 17 sheriff’s elections,
the luckiest guy was Richard J. Daley: He lost the 1946 election to Republican
Elmer Walsh by 978,011-1,044,294 (48.4 percent). Had Daley won, he would have
been termed-out in 1950, might not have been slated for county clerk in 1950,
and would not have been on the mayoral track. Surprisingly, a Republican won
five times (1946, 1950, 1962, 1966 and 1986). Not surprisingly, the job is
usually a dead end. Only a few have advanced.
Joseph Lohman (D), elected sheriff
in 1954, won the state treasurer’s post in 1958, but lost the 1960 governor
primary. Dick Ogilvie (R), a former assistant U.S. Attorney, elected sheriff in
1962 in an upset (951,647-921,605), won the county board presidency in 1966 and
was elected Illinois’ governor in 1968. Ogilvie had designs on the presidency
in 1976, but lost re-election in 1972. Ex-FBI agent Joe Woods (R), whose sister
was President Richard Nixon’s secretary, won the job in another upset
(961,848-945,728) in 1966, crafted a “law-and-order” image, but got trounced by
George Dunne (D) for county board president in 1970; he then spent the next 18
years as an obscure and irrelevant county commissioner.
1970 produced a sea change. The
legendary Shakman decision precluded hiring or firing on a political basis.
Prior thereto, the 3,000-plus court bailiffs, process servers, and Jail
officers were just a bunch of grunts: They worked precincts, donated to their
party and committeeman, and were on the street if their party lost. Shakman
“professionalized.” Once on the job, no coercion or compulsion could be
exerted. .
Dick Elrod, now a Circuit Court
judge, was an obscure Chicago corporation counsel when assigned to monitor a
1969 “Days of Rage” anti-war protest. He tried to tackle a protester, missed,
collided with a post, and was partially paralyzed. In a stroke of genius, Daley
ran the “heroic” Elrod for sheriff in 1970, against Bernie Carey (R), another
ex-FBI agent. Elrod won by a narrow 887,026-876,549 (50.3 percent). Carey
became state’s attorney in 1972.
Able to seek re-election, Elrod won
with ever-increasing majorities: In 1974 he got 53.7 percent; in 1978 he got
56.3 percent; in 1982 he got 69.5 percent.
But then, after 16 years, “Elrod
fatigue,” including a string of mini-timebombs, proved insurmountable.
Ex-Chicago police superintendent Jim O’Grady switched parties to run as a
Vrdolyak Republican, whipped Elrod 706,659-673,233 (51.2 percent), and
proceeded to a swift demise. Harold Washington died in 1987, eliminating the
“race factor,” and Undersheriff Jim Dvorak got enmeshed in controversy.
In 1990, Alderman Mike Sheahan
(19th) ran for sheriff, aided by the clout of Assessor Tom Hynes, the 19th Ward
Democratic Committeeman. In a humiliating meltdown, O’Grady got just 369,631
votes (28.5 percent), to Sheahan’s 719,489 (55.4 percent), and black
independent Tommy Brewer’s 191,101 (14.7 percent). Thereafter, Republicans
imploded. Sheahan won with 65.2 percent in 1994, 71.1 percent against the son
of a black former Chicago police superintendent in 1998, and 76.9 percent in 2002.
In 2006, Sheahan pulled a “switcheroo” – announcing for re-election, getting
slated, but then withdrawing on the last day of filing, with the 19th Ward and
Hynes’ allies submitting petitions for Dart, a 10-year state representative and
2002 loser for state treasurer.
Dart won the 2006 election with 74.9
percent, and was re-elected in 2010 with 77.2 percent. No Republican is on the
2014 ballot. ADD HERE
The primary is dispositive. Palka is
appealing to ethnic voters, particularly Poles. “I am campaigning at all the
Catholic churches,” he said, “People want change. I will hire more deputies and
police. I will stop the endless stream of civil rights and harassment
lawsuits.” Baker, a black 22-year retired sheriff’s police sergeant, lost to
Dart twice. Evans is a 23-year sheriff’s police lieutenant.
In 2006, Dart got 331,318 votes
(61.9 percent), beating Baker (133,944 votes) and Rich Remus (69,899 votes), in
a 535,161 turnout. Baker carried four black wards, and Dart got over 80 percent
in his Southwest Side base. In 2010, Dart trounced Baker with 76.3 percent,
getting 397,844 votes to Baker’s 123,096, in a 520,940 turnout. Baker won one
ward, while Dart got over 80 percent in the Northwest Side 33rd, 36th, 39th
and 47th wards, and over 90 percent in the 11th Ward.
Turnout in 2014 will barely exceed
500,000. Palka projects Baker near 150,000 votes, and Evans at 50,000. That
leaves 300,000 for Dart and Palka to split.
No polls have been taken, but the
“money race” is an accurate gauge. Dart had $310,211 on-hand as of Jan. 1, and
raised $127,430 after April 1, 2013. Palka’s numbers, respectively, were
$44,279 and $52,390; Baker’s were $22,639 and $27,113; and Evans’ were $2,595
and $31,366.
Dart may be forgettable and/or
forgotten, but he still has enough juice to get renominated. He’ll win with 55
percent.
