Tuesday, September 19, 2017

No Nekritz, No Burke, please

Fred Klonsky
It seems nobody is quite sure why Lisa Madigan has suddenly decided to step down from her attorney general post. It's especially bewildering since Madigan just sued the city of Chicago, asking a federal court to stop the city's police department from engaging in what the suit calls a "pattern of using excessive force" and other discriminatory misconduct against Chicago's African-American and Latino residents.

Did she find a horse head in her bed?

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz wants to replace Madigan as IL Attorney General. She tells POLITICO that the AG post is an even better fit for her and that she is seriously considering a run. "I think there is a path for someone like me. I want to keep this option open," she said.

But I say, no no no. No path.

We still remember that Nekritz was one of the architects of the pension-theft bill that was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court. Anyone with such disregard for the state's Constitution and disdain for the state's pensioners, shouldn't be trusted with it's top prosecutor's job.

The question is, what's wrong with POLITICO's Natasha Korecki? She calls Nekritz's pension theft debacle, the "crowning period" in her legislative career.

The AG candidate swamp gets even swampier...Next in a line of opportunists stepping forward for a chance at Madigan's job is Jennifer Burke (who?). Oh, that Burke. Yes, she's the daughter of the city's most powerful and most premier machine alderman (going back to the Harold Washington days), Eddie Burke, whose wife Anne already sits on the State Supreme Court. A win for little Burke would mean a hat trick for Eddie. I guess he figures, if Mike Madigan's kid can hold the job, why not his?

Burke and Trump
Jennifer's qualifications? A job at daddy's law firm and then an appointment by then-Gov. Pat Quinn to a post at the Illinois Pollution Control Board. You mean you didn't know, she was a "pollution expert"?

It's worth mentioning that prior to Jennifer's appointment, Eddie Burke lent $200,000 and gave an additional $52,000 to Quinn’s campaign.

The topper... According to Clout Street, daddy gave Cook Democratic Party Chairman, Joe Berrios, a "heads-up" over the weekend that his daughter was circulating petitions to run for attorney general.

Berrios is the county's tax assessor and a close ally of Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle. Burke's law firm, Klafter and Burke, specializes in representing clients in property tax appeals before the Cook County Assessor's Office. Get it?

Burke's firm helped Donald Trump cut property taxes on his downtown Chicago hotel by nearly 40% over seven years, saving Trump and his investors $11.7 million at the expense of city tax payers. Yes, let's put Jennifer Burke in the AG post. You bet.

As you may recall, Berrios is also the state's master of nepotism. He's notorious for loading the bureaucracy with his family members. His daughter Toni was a state rep who lost her seat to progressive, Will Guzzardi.

Now we need a Guzzardi-type progressive (Kim Foxx?) to step up and defeat the likes of Burke and Nekritz and drain the swamp.

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