BREAKING STORY: 'PAY-TO-PLAY' IN LG?

A downtown La Grange business owner and unsuccessful candidate for Lyons Township Republican committeeman in 2006 is accusing his onetime opponent, Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica of Riverside, of the same brand of illegal "pay-to-play" politics allegedly practiced by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

But in this case, says Roly Poly Sandwiches owner Michael LaPidus, -- an outspoken political activist and downtown business leader -- the Repulican Party of which he is a part is acting as though it is above the law, by illegally requiring that the party loyal pony up annual membership fees before they are allowed to cast their votes at party meetings.

LaPidus, who plans on seeking the GOP committeemanship again next winter, presumably against Peraica, has been busy trying to recruit his own candidates to run for open township seats instead of letting Peraica co-opt with Democratic Township Committeeman Steven Landek of Bridgeview by forcing upon the party a move to form a so-called "unity ticket" in which members of both parties will avoid an April contest by hooking up on the same uncontested slate.

Hours after the governor gaveled in the "new" state Senate in Springfield and ushered in newly elected president John Cullerton of Chicago and minority leader -- former La Grange trustee Christine Radogno -- the reform-minded Peraica was at the Robert Coulter American Legion Post in La Grange chairing a quadrennial party caucus, which LaPidus said was a sham and should be negated by state law enforcement or election authorities.

Shortly after arriving at the Jan. 13 meeting with Palmer Place co-owner Steve Palmer and another man, GOP caucus spokesman and Town Board incumbent attorney Tom Garrette
said LaPidus was denied entry into the voting portion of the meeting by a judge at the door because his "credentials didn't check out," as his party dues were delinquent and he was "not a member in good standing" at the time.

Peraica was unavailable for comment the day after, but his aides referred calls to Garrette.

LaPidus, whom Garrette said had been calling party members of late to run against the township slate or slates as the case may be, appeared to show up just to "raise a stink" about the slating and push his second committeeman candidacy in the February 2010 party primary.

"They were just there to make trouble," said Garrette, an attorney from Justice who formerly worked for Peraica and who serves as a monthly administrative adjudication hearing officer in Justice.

But LaPidus, admitting he was not current on the $25 membership fee considered one criteria for being in good standing with the party, said he lawfully called police when he and his colleagues were "locked out" of the meeting -- which prompted him to file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's office and the state Board of Elections.

"That's a poll tax and (is) a criteria you have to meet before you're allowed to vote," he said after the meeting that ended with a unanimous slating of an April 2009 general election ticket headed by businessman Bill Baker of Hinsdale. "We were supposed to be in that room ... That's pay-to-play, and with everything going on right now with Blagojevich, it's unbelievable he did this. He has a total disregard for any rules or democracy."

LaPidus, who said he filed the complaints along with his chronology of events and the police report from that night, is seeking a reversal of the slating vote to "expose" Peraica's alleged unethical behavior.

Regardless of the legal opinion for which he still has received no reply, he said Jan. 15 he also intends on pursuing legal action -- not just to prove his point but on behalf of party members being "illegally" cheated out of participating in party matters because they don't pay up.

Furthermore, he said he was "amazed" that he watched La Grange attorney Tim Sprague, who sits on the Town Board and was endorsed for re-election with Garrette that night along with a host of other political newcomers, allegedly lock the doors in front of him.

"How dare them taint the Republican party," LaPidus said.

Sprague and Garrette are the only two Republicans on the incumbent Town Board led by supervisor Pat Rogers until he was elected judge last fall and were part of a similar unity ticket in 2005 which now-Supervisor Russell Hartigan said he would like to see Peraica and Landek create again.

Landek also has not returned calls to his offices since a day after his caucus slating, not just because the unity ticket is not together yet -- presumably -- but because he rarely returns media telephone calls.

Over at the Democratic caucus at Toyota Park in Bridgeview -- where Landek is mayor -- the caucus doors were never locked and party members did not have to prove they paid up, but just that they were registered voters who voted in the last primary -- even though Landek has instituted a nominal membership fee since he first won the position a decade ago.

Garrette defended Peraica's directive for members to lock the post doors and contended that's how the GOP caucuses are always held.

It was a move, said an admittedly tardy Justice village president Kris Wasowicz, that also left Willow Springs Mayor Alan Nowaczyk and former State Rep. Eileen Lyons of Western Springs in the cold for being late.

(Wasowicz didn't complain, even though his village contracts with Garrette for the handling of certain ordinance violation tickets, but if he had voted he would have been forced to support the candidacy of highway commissioner hopeful John Small of Justice, chairman of the village party the mayor ran on two years ago whose faction he is now running against.)

Garrette said Lyons claimed she came to the post hall prior to the 6:15 p.m. published caucus start time, and maintained "nobody was locked out" who was prompt.

And while both parties have until Monday, Jan. 26 to create a unity ticket -- a goal clearly not known or embraced by all rank-and-file party members -- they still unanimously voted in full slates this week. To form such a ticket, party loyalists will have to accept the replacement of some slated candidates for more qualified and/or compromise candidates.

Others put on the Republican ticket, besides Baker, Garrette and Sprague included Dawn Arayjo of Summit for clerk, Roy Hodson of Justice for assessor and Steve Krueger of Willow Springs for collector, as well as Jean Stack of the La Grange Highlands and Shirley Polaski of Countryside for trustee.

Hartigan, of Western Springs, was chosen by fellow Democrats to run with incumbent Clerk Maryjo Noonan of Western Springs, Assessor Barbara Weyrick of Indian Head Park, Highway Commissioner Landek and Collector Edward King of La Grange, along with trustee hopefuls William Mundy of Summit, Mark Anderson of Lyons, Jerry Strazzante of Willow Springs and incumbent Mary Van Allen of Justice.

Garrette said it is most likely trustee candidates will be traded between parties if a unity ticket is formed, which both he and Hartigan said was in the hands of the committeemen. But it could not be confirmed which are the so-called "swing" candidates.

The first day of the weeklong filing deadline period is Tuesday, Jan. 20 -- which affects races in all Illinois townships, cities and villages, school, park, library, fire and special township police protection, mosquito abatement, sanitary and other special taxing districts.

La Grange will not likely see contests in any of its three governing bodies, except perhaps the Park District, while neighboring Brookfield will see a two-faction race.