Burke and Harris epitomize what is wrong with electoral politics
Both are celebrating abysmal results, yet the news media played an unimpressive key role.
Cook State’s Attorney candidates former judge Eileen Burke and university lecturer Clayton Harris III both got high marks for the genteel campaigns they both ran. Even after the March 19 results in which Burke came out the winner, kudos were still pouring in because there had been no mudslinging, name-calling, or traditional election underhandedness.
The praise, however, is tremendously misplaced- even when they heaped it one another after the win. After a drawn out counting of the variety of ballots; Burke edged out Harris by 1,500 votes; and that is the shame-not her slim margin of victory but the fact that in the second most populous county, candidates for essentially the most important law enforcement job in the county were only able to muster one-half million votes collectively.
The basic reasons the voter turnout was so paltry is both candidates ran pathetic campaigns. Do you recall either of them giving us anything other than platitudes? No matter how hard you think back, it is not likely you can recall either of the candidates relating how they were going to implement and sustain the changes they were pushing. They opted to pick the low hanging fruit and focus on voters on the North Side and north and western suburbs and skirting or avoiding all together the South Suburbs and South Side of Chicago where the plurality of folks who are tried by the state’s attorney’s office live.
Both implied that nearly every case the office handles or sees are touched by the state’s attorney rather than some underling. From their speeches and commercials. the average citizen would have no idea there are more than 1,200 employees and about half that number of investigators. Common sense tells us the overwhelming majority of cases never make it to the boss’ desk; but that was not the scenario the candidates crafted.
It was if they had colluded that less information and fewer facts would rule both campaigns.
The news media couldn’t have been more disappointing
In the past we have heard from news outlets that they no longer had the personnel to extensively cover beats and stories as they did in the 1970s and 80s due to buyouts, retirements and downsizing brought about through corporate acquisitions. However, in the last 10-12 years most, if not all of these news operations have had the ability and knowledge to right size their coverage.
We don’t see that though. How much different was Sun-Times story about the state’s attorney race different than the one in the Tribune? They both provided nearly identical coverage and offered nearly identical omissions. After reading the stories there were no specifics about the litany of duties the state’s attorney has. Newspapers could argue that the list is too expansive to print and bump other news. That however would not preclude them from adding them to their respective web sites. Had they done so we would have learned that office through state law is supposed to:
Section 55 ILCS 5/3-9005 - Powers and duties of State's Attorney
(1) To commence and prosecute all actions, suits, indictments and prosecutions, civil and criminal, in the circuit court for the county, in which the people of the State or county may be concerned.
(2) To prosecute all forfeited bonds and recognizances, and all actions and proceedings for the recovery of debts, revenues, moneys, fines, penalties and forfeitures accruing to the State or the county, or to any school district or road district in the county; also, to prosecute all suits in the county against railroad or transportation companies, which may be prosecuted in the name of the People of the State of Illinois.
(3) To commence and prosecute all actions and proceedings brought by any county officer in the county officer's official capacity.
(4) To defend all actions and proceedings brought against the county, or against any county or State officer, in the county or State officer's official capacity, within the county.
(5) To attend the examination of all persons brought before any judge on habeas corpus, when the prosecution is in the county.
(6) To attend before judges and prosecute charges of felony or misdemeanor, for which the offender is required to be recognized to appear before the circuit court, when in the State's Attorney's power so to do.
(7) To give the State's Attorney's opinion, without fee or reward, to any county officer in the county, upon any question or law relating to any criminal or other matter, in which the people or the county may be concerned.
(8) To assist the Attorney General whenever it may be necessary, and in cases of appeal from the county to the Supreme Court, to which it is the duty of the Attorney General to attend, the State's Attorney shall furnish the Attorney General at least 10 days before such is due to be filed, a manuscript of a proposed statement, brief and argument to be printed and filed on behalf of the people, prepared in accordance with the rules of the Supreme Court. However, if such brief, argument or other document is due to be filed by law or order of court within this 10-day period, then the State's Attorney shall furnish such as soon as may be reasonable.
(9) To pay all moneys received by the State's Attorney in trust, without delay, to the officer who by law is entitled to the custody thereof.
(10) To notify, by first class mail, complaining witnesses of the ultimate disposition of the cases arising from an indictment or an information.
(11) To perform such other and further duties as may, from time to time, be enjoined on the State's Attorney by law.
(12) To appear in all proceedings by collectors of taxes against delinquent taxpayers for judgments to sell real estate, and see that all the necessary preliminary steps have been legally taken to make the judgment legal and binding.
(13) To notify, by first-class mail, the State Superintendent of Education, the applicable regional superintendent of schools, and the superintendent of the employing school district or the chief school administrator of the employing nonpublic school, if any, upon the conviction of any individual known to possess a certificate or license issued pursuant to Article 21 or 21B, respectively, of the School Code of any offense set forth in Section 21B-80 of the School Code or any other felony conviction, providing the name of the certificate holder, the fact of the conviction, and the name and location of the court where the conviction occurred. The certificate holder must also be contemporaneously sent a copy of the notice.
(b) The State's Attorney of each county shall have authority to appoint one or more special investigators to serve subpoenas and summonses, make return of process, and conduct investigations which assist the State's Attorney in the performance of the State's Attorney duties. In counties of the first and second class, the fees for service of subpoenas and summonses are allowed by this Section and shall be consistent with those set forth in Section 4-5001 of this Act, except when increased by county ordinance as provided for in Section 4-5001. In counties of the third class, the fees for service of subpoenas and summonses are allowed by this Section and shall be consistent with those set forth in Section 4-12001 of this Act. A special investigator shall not carry firearms except with permission of the State's Attorney and only while carrying appropriate identification indicating the special investigator's employment and in the performance of the special investigator's assigned duties.
Subject to the qualifications set forth in this subsection, special investigators shall be peace officers and shall have all the powers possessed by investigators under the State's Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor's Act.
No special investigator employed by the State's Attorney shall have peace officer status or exercise police powers unless the special investigator successfully completes the basic police training course mandated and approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board or such board waives the training requirement by reason of the special investigator's prior law enforcement experience or training or both. Any State's Attorney appointing a special investigator shall consult with all affected local police agencies, to the extent consistent with the public interest, if the special investigator is assigned to areas within that agency's jurisdiction.
Before a person is appointed as a special investigator, the person's fingerprints shall be taken and transmitted to the Department of State Police. The Department shall examine its records and submit to the State's Attorney of the county in which the investigator seeks appointment any conviction information concerning the person on file with the Department. No person shall be appointed as a special investigator if the person has been convicted of a felony or other offense involving moral turpitude. A special investigator shall be paid a salary and be reimbursed for actual expenses incurred in performing the special investigator's assigned duties. The county board shall approve the salary and actual expenses and appropriate the salary and expenses in the manner prescribed by law or ordinance.
(c) The State's Attorney may request and receive from employers, labor unions, telephone companies, and utility companies location information concerning putative fathers and noncustodial parents for the purpose of establishing a child's paternity or establishing, enforcing, or modifying a child support obligation. In this subsection, "location information" means information about (i) the physical whereabouts of a putative father or noncustodial parent, (ii) the putative father or noncustodial parent's employer, or (iii) the salary, wages, and other compensation paid and the health insurance coverage provided to the putative father or noncustodial parent by the employer of the putative father or noncustodial parent or by a labor union of which the putative father or noncustodial parent is a member.
(d) (Blank).
(e) The State's Attorney shall have the authority to enter into a written agreement with the Department of Revenue for pursuit of civil liability under subsection (E) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012 against persons who have issued to the Department checks or other orders in violation of the provisions of paragraph (1) of subsection (B) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012, with the Department to retain the amount owing upon the dishonored check or order along with the dishonored check fee imposed under the Uniform Penalty and Interest Act, with the balance of damages, fees, and costs collected under subsection (E) of Section 17-1 of the Criminal Code of 2012 or under Section 17-1a of that Code to be retained by the State's Attorney. The agreement shall not affect the allocation of fines and costs imposed in any criminal prosecution.
What we got from reporters day after day was tantamount to a horse race being called. There was not an abundance of getting into the neighborhoods and asking voters what they thought of how different the candidates were, or what changes they wanted to see, if any in that office; or the most basic question of whether they know what the state’s attorney actually does.
One should expect such puny reporting from television news, given their time constraints; but like their print counterparts all local network affiliates and WGN could use their respective websites to educate and inform voters and would-be voters.
De Priest has partnered with Stony Island Polling
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