CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in Proft defends storming the county building

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

gregerman — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:11:03 -0000

hours at Cicero? HA. You should file a freedome information act and find out how much this guy is taking out of that town and the schools. Although he is getting nervous cause he found out Larry Dominick is done.

Stroger's race was a black and white issue. That is the only reason Tony did as well as he did.

On the other hand I would like to hear you explain why he didn't do so well against Gomolinski? His performance as an incumbent with all the press you had was shameful. The storming of the ballots did one good thing. Assured the 16th district they will only have to deal with 4 more years of this guy. he finally nailed his coffin

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Truthful James — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:08:45 -0000

Alan Keyes was virtually out of control. His imported manager could not control him, Dan Proft could not control him. Keyes was not running to win, not running and did not care about Illinois issues. Keyes was running for a bully pulpit for Alan Keyes. It was a way of life for him.

Jack Ryan on the other hand got screwed. The divorce papers and his custody fight with Jeri Ryan were unsealed by the Tribune.

The allegations made in the custody fight were recorded without further investigation. It is of interest that Jeri, asked many, many, many times, would not repeat or confirm separately the truth of those allegations.

Ryan was a strong candidate -- to strong for the IllGOP of which JudyB was the head. Too strong for the old guard including the Eunuch of Charleston, Jim Edgar. If he had been elected -- and it was a not impossible task at the time --he would have been the senior Republican elected official and the counterpart to Peter Fitz. This scared the drawers out of the old guard.

The supposed scandal was raised by General Borling, one of the defeated candidates.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Ned Flanders — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:37:15 -0000

Hey Dan,Where is your sidekick Frank(the mooch)Coconate?Are you both still employed now that phony Tony lost?Way to go big shot.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Narco L Eptic — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:38:45 -0000

I have never been more bored with this board than with this topic.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Tom — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:31:53 -0000

Bill, the reason Peraica got so close is that many voters recognized how vapid Todd is. The Atilla the Hun reference is typical of the hysterical cheapshot garbage the "Rod and Todd" team perpetuated. Just keep barfing up whatever Corruptovich tells you to. I'd rather have Rod and Todd Flanders in charge.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Snidely Whiplash — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:31:12 -0000

Mr. Proft, you failed to address the issues: I still wanna know about that town spokesman gig, like how you can actually do that high paying job while running a county-wide campaign (and for a while Rauschy, as well) at the same time? Do you have regular officd hours in Cicero? Also, how many towns actually have, let alone NEED, a spokesman?

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Chris McNeil — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 23:26:41 -0000

Dan,
Many of us appreciate your willingness to get involved in races like this and put up with the grief you will invariably receive. You should be commended for getting out there in the public realm and working to affect change. Thanks for being/staying involved.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Alyssa — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:55:01 -0000

There was no storming of the County building. The police did not let most of the Peraica supporters up (after the Stroger supporters were already there)
The Chicago Police hit a girl in the chest and grabbed Tony Peraica's daughter and wouldn't let his wife and daughter up to be with him.
The only person that was arrested was working for an operative of Jesse White running for alderman. There was not a group of drunk people and there was only one bag that was stopped in even a remotely innapropriate way. It was not stormtroopers it was not hooligans. There were no fights, no violence, no damage to property (besides the elevator by the Jackson for Alderman boxing champ). The Stroger people were there without Peraica poll watchers when a large percentage of the suburban votes were called in.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Reagan Democrat — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:50:11 -0000

Dan Proft may have some blame on Jack Ryan but NONE on Alan Keyes. The Keyes thing is good rhetoric but overblown by the media.

Dan Proft did a good job in Cicero and Chicago Heights. Dan Proft had an interesting and innovative new source (before Capitol Fax was big and Illinoize even existed) in the Illinois Leader (acknowledging some problems).

Dan Proft is intelligent, a good writer, and has some solid wins under his belt. He can come off as arrogant, not as concilitory, and not as unifying as he could or should be. Proft did a good job with Peraica, and Peraica was a hard working and articulate candidate. Proft is not afraid of a fight and brings out issues. Peraica also has a strong sense of honesty and challenges the status qou and is not afraid of a fight nor the powers that be.

I would not brag about working for Lee Daniels.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Bubs — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:40:32 -0000

Bill, I don't recall mentioning any names. In fact, I don't recall ever even speculating that Todd was a target of any investigation, nor do I recall anyone else doing so.

A freudian slip there, fella? ;)

While a few of Todd's associates may walk the plank for past sins, Todd himself was and is such an empty suit that I can't imagine him being involved. Bank robbers usually have the sense to use a getaway driver who can reach the pedals.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Anon — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:37:16 -0000

Proft the guy who gave Jack Ryan the stellar advice, "Don't worry Jack, keep lying about your divorce, there' no way the Tribune will ever find out." ?

Sort of like Custer's adviser who said, "Don't worry General, there's at the most, what, ten, maybe twenty Indians."

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Prog D. — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 22:16:21 -0000

I am a progressive Democrat, but I like Proft. He mixes it up, in real world politics, trying to advance a socially conservative agenda in a blue and bluer state. And he does it with no particular respect for the dinosaurs in both parties. More power to him.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Reagan Democrat — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:45:20 -0000

Dan Proft,
Classy and accurate response.
Ignore the haters.
Tony Peraica is a great candidate.
You (Dan) did a great analysis.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Chinese Fortune Cookie Says — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 21:23:25 -0000

Dan - Your rant ... "Exuses are like ..." "everyone has one". For the love of Pete, please Dan, you are doing more damage responding, then just saying, "I (We) lost, get over it". Then no one can say "boo" to you.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Bill — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 19:38:39 -0000

Bubs,
The poor guy isn't even Prsident yet and you already have him convicted by the feds! Give it a rest and let President-elect Stroger do his job.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Ringmaster Ned — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:32:23 -0000

Dan:

To help our readers through all your bluster, let me translate: your guy lost. I don't care how maany votes he got in a "democratic" year. Let me paraphrase an old saying: "show me a guy who comes in second and I'll show you a loser."

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Bubs — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:10:52 -0000

Bill, it will happen again (and more) once the Feds start hitting the County Building like a buzzsaw. Keep whistling past the graveyard, pal.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Bill — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:47:00 -0000

The only reason that Nasty Tony got as close as he did(not very) was because John had a stroke. The selection process split the party and would have helped Attilla the Hun(a social moderate compared to D and T) win a few Townships and wards.
This won't happen again and I hope Tony and Dan take another shot at it. It will make the re-election campaign much easier.
I hope Beth has better taste in the future.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

JESUS FREAK — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:33:47 -0000

HEY DAN,I GOT EXTRA SOAP AND SHAMPOO.YOU CAN USE IT

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Randy Alesia — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 17:25:57 -0000

DAN PROFT FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!!!!!OUCH!

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Bubs — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:13:41 -0000

I would only add that Peraica also won several wards in the City, most notably on the North Lakefront, such as 42nd (Gold Coast/River North), 43rd (Lincoln Park), 44th (East Lakeview / Wrigleyville) and 32nd (West Lakeview, Roscoe Village, western Lincoln Park).

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Pat Hickey — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:09:18 -0000

Dan, well said. I was surprised that you let Kid revolution eel his way out of his cork-screw answers to his cork-screw moral sense - real reform begins and ends with Mike Quigley - the Uriah heep of illinois politics. You had him on the ropes at the start of Tom Roesser's show, but TR is a pretty nice host, I suppose.

Imagine what you could have done handling a candidate whose eyes don't roll counter clockwise - you have been asked to walk some unruly dogs.

I would imagine that the operatives snarling at you from my Party feel the same way. You are a credit to your vocation.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

danproft — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:14:42 -0000

I want to thank all those commentators who have expressed such concern about my (1) W/L record and (2) my financial condition and who have offered thoughtful, well-meaning suggestions about my appearance and wardrobe. Thank you.

With that said, I'd like to offer the following thoughts about the Peraica race:

In the biggest Democrat year in decades a Republican candidate for Cook County Board President, a county that is normal 3-3.5 to 1 Democrat to Republican and this year was 4-4.5 to 1 Democrat to Republican, got nearly 600,000 votes.

The base GOP vote countywide was anywhere from 7-10 points below historic base numbers. Consider other GOP countywide candidates which were admittedly just names on the ballot lost SUBURBAN Cook by 75-25 margins while Peraica won suburban Cook 62-38.

In part, Peraica did so well because of the Chicago media taking Cook County government off the pay-no-mind list (where it had resided for most of the last half-century) beginning in the primary and carrying through to the end.

Considering that Todd Stroger probably will have ended up spending more in the last 10 days than our campaign spent in 18 months, the earned media Peraica was able to generate and the media scrutiny on Stroger was a major factor in making the race as close as it was.

The point here is that the pundits weighing in and ed boards (particularly the Tribune) weighing in heavily did make a difference even though Peraica (and the reform message) ultimately fell a bit short. Peraica literally received millions of dollars worth of earned media by relentlessly pursuing the reform issue and independently shining the disinfectant that is sunlight wherever he could.

Something for future GOP candidates for high office to consider as this state continues sink into the quagmire of political corruption.

However, the papers also critically hurt Peraica's efforts at key points in the campaign---e.g. it wasnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t the Sun-Times endorsement of Stroger that really hurt, it was their bogus poll 10 weeks out showing Stroger up 52-19 stalled the campaign (particularly on the money end) and made us have to re-convince a lot of people that Peraica winning was actually doable. This was the biggest mountain to climb in the entire race.

HereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s some other facts (actual numbers) to inform some of the hysterical rants that have been posted that, no surprise, have less than a toe-hold on reality.

Facts:

--Peraica doubled the vote total of "moderates" (whatever these words mean anymore) on the swide ticket in Chicago-e.g. JBT got 15%, Peraica got 31%.

--JBT lost suburban Cook by approx. 100,000 votes while Peraica won it by approx. 140,000 votes even while the GOP lost two state senate seats and a 20-year incumbent state rep. in NW Cook County (which helps to actually explain why we fell just short of our suburban Cook vote goal)

--Peraica won liberal iconoclastic suburban townships like Oak Park
Township.

--Peraica got over 70% of the vote in the very independent-minded, squishy bell-weather townships (as far as IL races are concerned) of New Trier and Northfield. Both New Trier and Northfield townships went for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004.

--Peraica won white ethnic Democrat townships like Niles (60-40) and Norwood Park (70-30) going away

Despite what some have posted here, no one is Ã¢â‚¬Å“blamingÃ¢â‚¬Â anyone for PeraicaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s loss, certainly not I. Rather, what I and others have offered is simply the typical post-mortem of how the race was lost, what the actual landscape/vote totals after the fact tell us. Such subtleties are lost on some, I understand.

I prefer to use hard data to back up my suppositions while I know other prefer to comment on my fashion sense to explain their positions. I leave it to the independent-minded out there to determine the relative weight each position merits.

Let me be clear: Todd Stroger won the election, perhaps in spite of himself. But he won the election and we lost the election.

There are a lot of additional reasons on the margins that contributed to itÃ¢â‚¬â€I let others argue on the margins.

The numbers underscore the reality that those marginal reasons, even taken together, pale in comparison to the impact of the anti-GOP attitude nationally and the weak GOP effort locallyÃ¢â‚¬â€-statewide and in key legislative races.

Regards,

Dan Proft

P.S. Since there are so many interested in my Ã¢â‚¬Å“recordÃ¢â‚¬Â, in the time I was with Lee Daniels which was all of 16 months, I ran two races, I won one (Beth Coulson) and lost one (Flora CiarloÃ¢â‚¬â€1996 Ã¢â‚¬Å“Punch 10Ã¢â‚¬Â year when the House GOP got swept in south suburban Cook County).

P.P.S. I know I am a fanatical right-wing lunatic bent on destroying western civilization when IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m not hanging out on Lower Wacker Drive torturing small animals, but some will be surprised to learn that one of my best relationships in the House GOP is with perhaps its most socially moderate member, Beth Coulson, whose race I have done successfully three times. Coulson and I donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t agree on social issues and never have. But she is a smart, honest, thoughtful andÃ¢â‚¬â€-are you ready for thisÃ¢â‚¬â€-independent-minded legislator.

I have also been part of a number of winning local races and, like virtually every other GOP candidate/operative, have been part of several losing statewide GOP campaigns in the last three cycles---for those of you scoring at home, the GOP has only had one statewide win since 2000 so pretty much everyone else in the GOP has the same record as me, even though there are many with big offices and big titles who could have brought far more resources to bear during that time than I but did not.

A final comment, 2004 with Jack Ryan and Alan Keyes was an unmitigated disaster. I personally made several errors in judgment and have said so repeatedly to those who can stop screaming long enough to listen. I know I will forever wear the Ã¢â‚¬Å“Scarlet AÃ¢â‚¬Â (for Alan) and so be it. But just to restate for the record that, unlike many in the IL GOP, I try not to make a habit out of defending the indefensible.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Guy Smiley — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 09:19:17 -0000

Can anyone ...anyone...name any IL House race Proft won when he worked for Lee? Can anyone ... anyone ... point to wins outside Cicero? Can anyone...anyone...point to wins, where the candidate had to win a primary and THEN a general election, and succeeded in both? (getting your candidate humiliated by having them hide behind their child as a strategy doesn't count). The point here? Due dilligence on a candidate's part, no matter if they are conservative/moderate, would weed out consultants that, well, love to kick up dirt, but at the end of the day, have rhetoric only to give them, and not winning campaigns.

Re: Proft defends storming the county building

Frank — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:44:37 -0000

Dan Proft is horrible!! How he managed to consult a candidate that only lost by 100,000 votes in Cook County, I'll never know. Maybe he should've consulted Topinka and the others in Cook County. We may have a republican future had he done so.