Chicago police announce arrests in gang and drug cases - Chicago Tribune

Driving past a street corner adorned with three spray-painted tributes to young men shot and killed on the streets, Chicago police officers jumped out of their cars and pulled a suspected drug dealer from an apartment.

The scene that played out Thursday morning is a result of an initiative that Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced last month that calls for dozens of officers from several specialized units on West Side and South Side Chicago, which account for a quarter of the city's homicides.

For weeks, the undercover officers have been buying heroin in this West Side area, while other officers have been watching to see where the seller goes, whom he pays, who hands him more drugs and what that person does with the drugs and money he's handed.

That led to 17 arrest warrants for people suspected of dealing drugs in the neighborhood and on Thursday — with The Associated Press and a local television station in tow — they went out to round up suspects. By Thursday afternoon, they said the roundup that began a few days ago had led to the arrests of 11 of the 17 suspects. Most of them were arrested on drug conspiracy charges.

“The key is to get them working in concert,” said James O'Grady, the commander of the department's narcotics division, who likened the operation to a grocery store where a manager oversees the clerks and baggers. He said it doesn't matter if they are selling one bag or 50, “they're all part of the conspiracy.”

And that, he said, means more prison time than had they been arrested simply for possession for sale.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who announced the initiative with Emanuel, said the areas where police would focus their attention were those that have seen both a thriving illegal drug trade but the worst gang violence.

Thursday's roundup followed a similar one targeting gang members late last month, and police say that by targeting those areas they hope that they will drive down violent crime, an issue that has become of particular concern as statistics from late 2011 and January of this year have shown an increase in homicides.

The lethal mixture of drugs and violence was as obvious as the words scrawled on the sidewalk outside the house where one of the suspected drug dealers was captured.

“They worked on this corner, they did,” said Adolph Leggin, 66, motioning to two of the three names he recognized as local drug dealers who were shot to death last year.

McCarthy has said that the undercover operations would be part of a wider effort that will include more uniformed patrols, including foot patrols, in areas to make sure the open-air drug markets don't reestablish themselves.

That is a marked difference, he said, from the department's since-disbanded Targeted Response Unit, when the Mobile Strike Force would swoop into the neighborhood, make arrests and then leave.

O'Grady said residents will now see that the police are committed to their neighborhood.

“We want them to know we're not just an occupying force, (that) we are there every day, that they can depend on us,” he said.

The effort is just a few weeks old, clearly not enough time to determine if what is being done will bring down the crime rate in a significant way as Emanuel and McCarthy hope it will.

Tio Hardiman, executive director of CeaseFire, an anti-violence group, was skeptical that the effort will have the long term effect on the targeted neighborhoods.

“It's been tried before and we wish police the best,” said Hardiman. “At the same time we have to have other solutions than just increased police presence and mass arrests.”

But Leggin said he is encouraged by what he's seen so far in the weeks since police focused their effort on the community where he's lived for more than 50 years.

“I come home now and I see nobody (dealing drugs) on this corner,” Leggin said.

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Poll: Emanuel has early lead for Chicago mayor - Chicago Tribune

Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is off to an early lead in the race for Chicago mayor, but there is plenty of room for other contenders in the crowded field as the fluid contest takes shape, a new Tribune/WGN poll found.

Emanuel had the support of 32 percent of voters, just ahead of 30 percent who were undecided, making him the only candidate in double-digits with more than two months before the Feb. 22 city election. He was well short of the outright majority needed to avoid an April runoff between the top two finishers.

First though, Emanuel has to survive a ballot challenge by those who say he doesn't qualify under rules requiring mayoral candidates to be Chicago residents for a year before the election. While several more of the 15 current candidates could be knocked off or drop out as the race gets serious, the poll showed a splintered field largely defined by name recognition.

Former Chicago Public Schools chief Gery Chico and U.S. Rep. Danny Davis each had 9 percent, with state Sen. James Meeks at 7 percent and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun at 6 percent. City Clerk Miguel del Valle had 3 percent.

Former U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, whose intention to stay in the race is uncertain, had just 2 percent backing. None of the other candidates reached 1 percent in the poll of 721 registered, likely voters conducted Dec. 10-13, which has an error margin of 3.6 percentage points.

The poll came amid the holiday season, when voters typically are more focused on family and friends than politics, and before any of the major candidate forums have taken place. Nevertheless, the race has already become high-profile, with Emanuel running television commercials and many of the big-name candidates holding public events on a near-daily basis.

It's the first time in more than 60 years that a sitting Chicago mayor won't be on the ballot, after Mayor Richard Daley in September announced he would not run for re-election as he neared 22 years in office.

Although Daley's approval rating was sinking, he was still considered a formidable political foe, after years of building support that spanned the city's racial, ethnic and economic divisions. More than any other candidate so far, Emanuel also is bridging those gaps, the poll indicated.

The former North Side congressman is out front on the strength of his support from lakefront wards, white voters and the wealthy, according to the survey. He's also holding his own among Latino and African-American voters.

He has the support of more Hispanics than any other candidate, is backed by more blacks than anyone except Davis and enjoys the backing of 46 percent of whites. More than half of voters who live in households with more than $100,000 in annual income said they would vote for him.

Davis, an African-American political veteran who also served on the City Council and the Cook County Board, was backed by 21 percent of black voters, but just 2 percent of Hispanics and 1 percent of whites.

Among blacks, 30 percent are undecided, 19 percent back Emanuel, 13 percent favor Meeks and 10 percent are for Braun. Burris, once a popular African-American politician, had just 3 percent support among blacks.

Chico — of Latino, Greek and Lithuanian heritage — had 15 percent support among whites, 12 percent among Hispanics and just 2 percent among blacks.

Chico and del Valle combined trail Emanuel in the Latino community. Among likely Hispanic voters, 36 percent are undecided, 27 percent favor Emanuel, 14 percent del Valle and 12 percent Chico.

Most voters are not disappointed by Daley's decision not to run again. Only 30 percent wanted to see him run for a record seventh term, while 59 percent said they would not like to see him run again. The rest weren't sure.

Last July, a Tribune poll found that 53 percent of voters didn't want to see Daley elected to another term, and only 31 percent wanted to see him re-elected. And only 37 percent approved of the job he was doing.

Daley has been hurt politically by corruption scandals under his watch, the perception that not enough is being done to combat crime, and consternation over the effects of his decision to lease out the city's parking meter system.

hdardick@tribune.com

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Defense witnesses flesh out Mitchell's earlier life - Salt Lake Tribune

By Stephen Hunt

The Salt Lake Tribune

Published Nov 16, 2010 08:17PM
Updated 30 minutes ago Updated Nov 16, 2010 08:54PM While working with Brian David Mitchell at OC Tanner during the early 1990s, Doug Larsen came to consider his fellow tool and die cutter “close to being a brother.”

“He and I hit it off really well. We had a lot of similar views about the world and religion,” Larsen testified Tuesday for the defense at Mitchell’s trial for allegedly kidnapping Elizabeth Smart.

Several years later, Larsen spotted a transformed, Biblical-looking Mitchell begging for money at Main Street and South Temple — a man who now refused to even acknowledge his former friend.

Larsen, hoping to find out what Mitchell had done over the years, said: “You gave that guy a ‘God bless you’ for fifty cents. Will you give me five minutes of your time for five dollars?”

Mitchell, money in hand, looked at him and said, “The Lord be praised. God bless you.”

Larsen said, “I will pray for you,” and then he started to walk away. Mitchell turned and over his shoulder said, “And I will pray for you.”

Before that, Mitchell had been a clean-cut and “utterly sincere” member of the LDS Church, who often was ridiculed by other workers at the Salt Lake City jewelry company for singing hymns and zealously expressing his religious opinions. But after Mitchell quit in 1994 and became a follower of a naturopathic health concept called lymphology, Larsen said he lost track of him for four years prior to the Main Street encounter.

Prosecutors rested their case in chief Tuesday morning after four days of testimony that laid out the alleged facts of Smart’s kidnapping and her nine months of captivity and sexual abuse at age 14 in the hands of Mitchell, 57, and his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 65.

—

The defense » Now, with the start of the defense case, comes what U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball has identified as the real focus of the trial.

Larsen’s testimony — and more to come this week from other defense witnesses who knew Mitchell prior to Smart’s June 2002 abduction — is designed to illustrate Mitchell’s alleged descent into madness.

The defense is asking jurors to find Mitchell not guilty by reason of insanity. They also have the burden of proving he was insane at the time of the alleged crime.

To that end, Mitchell’s father and other family members are slated to testify today about Mitchell’s childhood and teenage years. Barzee, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor and is serving 15 years in prison, could take the witness stand as early as Thursday. She is being held in the Davis County Jail awaiting her testimony.

The defense’s first witness Tuesday was Dru White, who was an LDS high counselor in 1987 when he met Mitchell and Barzee at a Salt Lake City ward. Mitchell was the bishop’s clerk, Barzee the organist.

White said Mitchell was “quite clean-cut and well-dressed — a normal, conservative young man.”

Mitchell had a reputation as “an active member of the ward, and willing to work and serve,” which earned him a promotion to counselor, White said.

“He seemed eager to do a good job,” recalled White. “He was quiet, but friendly. At meetings he was quite attentive and listening carefully to everything that was going on.”

On the witness stand, Larsen said he was devoted to his religion, but that Mitchell was even more devoted.

They both read the same religious books, both assumed the prophesied Davidic king would arise from the upper leaders of the Mormon Church, and both admired then-LDS Church President Ezra Taft Benson as “among the great prophets.”

He and Mitchell also considered most church members to be “largely idolatrous.” He said they often discussed religion at work, and both were viewed by co-workers as “religious fanatic guys.”

Mitchell got into arguments with co-workers over religion because he was “very confident to the point of being dogmatic and inflexible, and he came across as abrasive,” Larsen said. When co-workers became annoyed and called Mitchell “crazy,” he would terminate the discussion by walking away, Larsen said.

But after Mitchell left OC Tanner, Larsen said the man he encountered was not the same Mitchell.

—

A changed man » Speaking to reporters outside of court, Larsen said of Mitchell: “The person I knew no longer exists; he’s completely changed.”

“It’s like Brian David Mitchell died,” said Larsen, adding that he attributed the changes to Mitchell’s experimentation with LSD as a teen.

But Larsen added that he didn’t doubt Mitchell knew what he was doing.

“He’s clever, he’s lucid. He was calculating and in control,” Larsen said, pointing out that Mitchell tried to keep from getting caught by police.

Larsen said that while listening to testimony last week from Smart about what she called her “nine months of hell” with Mitchell and Barzee, he recalled that it was similar to a religious, science-fiction fantasy novel he once wrote and allowed Mitchell to read.

He testified that Mitchell objected to a portion of the novel in which a female character “prostitutes herself” to distract some guards and allow other family members to escape.

Mitchell claimed “he didn’t think God would ask a girl to give up her virtue,” Larsen recalled. Yet Smart had testified to a scenario “almost identical to his objections,” Larsen said, referring to Mitchell’s alleged contention that it was God’s will that they “marry.”

Larsen also told an amusing anecdote about Mitchell from his time as an actor in a Creation play, which used to be held on Temple Square, but has now been replaced with a movie.

Mitchell, who played the role of Satan, was taken aside and told, “You are one of the best Lucifers we’ve had, but could you tone it down a little,” Larsen recalled. “He was amused by their concern [that] he played a good devil and he was convincing.”

—

More witnesses » Also Tuesday, the defense called two sons of the late C. Samuel West, a lymphologist who employed Mitchell to promote the concept that “bouncing” helps the blood and lymphatic system work together to prevent and to cure disease.

Karl West testified that when he first met Mitchell, he was clean-cut and dressed normally, but later wore robes, earning him the nickname, “The Israelite.”

Mitchell and Barzee lived off-and-on in the basement of the West’s Orem home, and also in a teepee in the backyard, while building a covered handcart, which they later pulled across the country, West said.

West testified that the couple left after having a religious disagreement with his father, possibly over the issue of practicing polygamy. West said the couple was also burning something in the basement of his house, which caused him to accuse the couple of “desecrating” the residence.

When Mitchell and Barzee reappeared in the spring or summer of 2001, West said they stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, yelling and “telling us the house was going to be destroyed.”

“I’d never seen him like that,” West told defense attorney Wendy Lewis. “He was off his rocker.”

Asked if Mitchell appeared mentally ill, West replied: “Yeah, in retrospect.”

But when prosecutor Felice Viti asked if Mitchell and Barzee may have burnt incense in the basement to cover the smell of marijuana, West agreed that after seeing pictures of Mitchell on the news with a beer in his hand, he decided it was marijuana.

“Are you saying he fooled you?” Viti asked.

West replied: “Yeah, definitely.”

shunt@sltrib.com

Pamela Manson and Cimaron Neugebauer contributed to this report.

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Complete: The Nov. 9 testimony of Elizabeth Smart - Salt Lake Tribune

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Nevadans hold their nose in this race - Minneapolis Star Tribune

HENDERSON, NEV. - The knock on the front door elicited the annoyed yapping of an unseen dog, followed by the appearance of a gray-haired man busily eating chips from a bag. His callers were two union workers, canvassing the neighborhood on behalf of Democrats, especially Sen. Harry Reid.

The man said that he knew Reid -- and that Reid was an idiot. So was his Republican opponent, Sharron Angle. In fact, said the man, a retired steelworker named Mario Mari, he might very well choose a third option: the phantom candidate known as None of the Above.

"This country is going down," Mari said before closing the door to a bleak Nevada landscape, where jobs are few and foreclosures many.

This is the up-for-grabs Third Congressional District, the most populous in Nevada and the most contested in this state's contentious Senate race, sprawling across the dry terrain to form a kind of martini glass around the olive of downtown Las Vegas. It is here in this packed suburban stretch of terra cotta roofs and crushed-rock yards that the battle for the country's direction is being waged.

The two candidates could not be more ideologically different. But in these last frantic days of an extremely tight and unpleasant campaign, one with implications for the balance of power in Washington, they are united by the same problem: The voters of Nevada do not particularly like either of them.

"More people in Nevada dislike these candidates than like them," said Ryan Erwin, a Republican consultant in Las Vegas. As a result, he said, "It's going to be about which side is going to persuade voters that the other candidate is worse."

Different views

On one side, the incumbent of two dozen years: Reid, 70, the Senate majority leader, a close ally of President Obama and, behind the scenes, a flinty old-school Nevadan. But if a microphone appears, he assumes the persona of a wan undertaker whose own pulse needs to be checked.

On the other side, the challenger from out of nowhere: Angle, 61, an anti-Obama Tea Party standard-bearer. A former schoolteacher, state legislator and competitive weight lifter, she has choice words for Washington and curious words for the rest of the country, as when she suggested that Islamic religious law had taken hold in two American communities. But if a microphone appears, she begins to play hide-and-seek: She hides, reporters seek.

Although Angle usually flees microphones, she speaks clearly through her campaign commercials, which question the source of Reid's wealth and portray him as a calcified Obama toady who all but invites thuggish undocumented immigrants to your family's Thanksgiving.

In their own ways, then, both candidates are asking the same plaintive question in this close race: What are you thinking, Nevada?

Some Republicans fear losing a powerful ally in Washington -- no matter that his name is Reid -- at a time when Nevada is in precarious economic shape. And Angle's relationship with Republicans in Washington is complicated. She eyes them warily, while they fret that their overt help might offend her Tea Party supporters.

Even so, Angle is not above accepting the help of the Republican establishment, whether by receiving significant financial support from, say, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina or promoting an event with Sen. John McCain of Arizona. She melds the inside with the outside, as when, during a recent appearance with Newt Gingrich, she told her supporters that she wanted to cut any federal spending not provided for in the Constitution.

Being herself

Angle's candor caused advisers to suggest that she lie low in these last days, so low that reporters have relied on the Twitter messages of a Democrat dressed as a chicken to track Angle's whereabouts.

But Angle's outlandish comments and harsh commercials -- juxtaposing menacing dark-skinned men with anxious white people -- have not affected her ability to raise and spend money. From July 1 to Oct. 13, her campaign spent $16.9 million, well more than the $11.2 million spent by the Reid campaign.

Well aware that polls show Angle slightly ahead, Reid has been forced to shed his dour Washington persona and stump like a challenger.

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Local Jewish group in spotlight after terror plot from Yemen - Chicago Tribune

About two dozen members of the Congregation Or Chadash were enjoying their usual Friday evening dinner before services at their Edgewater neighborhood headquarters when they got the startling news that they were apparently the target of an international terrorist plot.

The small congregation for gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual Jews that started with an alternative newspaper ad in 1976 had gotten used to a life of relative obscurity — too small with about 100 members to afford its own building or build much of a profile.

How a terrorist in Yemen who'd rigged printer cartridges with explosives would know who and where they are sparked as much puzzlement as fear, congregants said Saturday.

"I thought 'Wow, I didn't know we had such visibility,'" congregation member Marvin Levin said.

Pausing, he added: "I don't know that we want such visibility."

But that's what the tight-knit group got as federal officials announced Saturday that a woman in Yemen had been arrested in the alleged terrorist plot that sent several packages to the U.S. loaded with the industrial explosive, PETN.

Authorities have not said which two Chicago addresses the packages were mailed to, but a source told the Tribune both were Jewish congregations on the North Side, home to a thriving Jewish community. Chicago police Saturday said they were making increased checks in areas with a high number of synagogues, including Edgewater, Rogers Park and West Rogers Park.

Or Chadash has for seven years shared space on North Sheridan Road with another Jewish congregation, the Emanuel Congregation. The squat brick building yards from Lake Michigan also is home to a day school for about 140 children between kindergarten and seventh grade.

Or Chadash leaders said they learned that their group was an intended recipient of one of the Yemen packages from Emanuel's Rabbi Michael Zedek.

"It was just a surprise," said Rabbi Larry Edwards of Or Chadash. "When I was first hearing news (about the packages), I assumed there were probably bigger targets. We're a small congregation. Either we were selected at random or it's because we're a mostly gay congregation."

Or Chadash, which is officially aligned with the Union of Reform Judaism, began after somebody placed an ad in a local paper in 1976, seeking to meet with like-minded gay and lesbian Jews, Levin said.

"At that time, it was probably one of the few places gay and lesbian Jews could openly worship in the area," he said. "Today, there are many more options, and some people like to be part of a congregation that's more mainstream, while others like to worship with people like themselves."

Over the years, the group has expanded to include Jews from more traditional backgrounds, said Bill Wahler, the group's co-president. With Edwards working part time, volunteers frequently conduct services to lend a diversity of perspectives to how they practice their faith, he said.

Until now, Or Chadash had never received threats of violence, Edwards said.

While Or Chadash members vowed Saturday against letting the threat affect their how they operate, members of the Emanuel Congregation reacted with a mix of weary humor and sadness over the idea that harm might have come to students at the day school.

"There is nothing shocking in (the threat)," Zedek said during a service Saturday punctuated by the whir of a high-speed camera shutter emerging from the cadre of media at the synagogue's rear. "We're heartbroken. But realistically, as well, one lives in this world."

"The real tragedy of this is if it caused us to hate," said Shifra Werch, an Emanuel congregant.

Considering the day's school children, Zedek spoke of his own grandchildren during the service.

"It does pain me, the kind of world that we're leaving for them," he said.

Tribune reporters Caroline Kyungae Smith and Jeremy Gorner contributed.

jebyrne@tribune.com

dlhinkel@tribune.com

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Tom Dart won't run for Chicago mayor - Chicago Tribune

Tom Dart, on paper, looked like an almost ideal candidate for Chicago mayor: A likable Cook County sheriff who had attracted positive press and boasted a solid, South Side pedigree.

So it was easy to overlook a few factors. He lost the only tough race he'd ever run, for Illinois treasurer eight years ago. He's a father with several young kids. And he's never raised the kind of cash he'd need to run for such a high office.

When it came time for a final gut check, Dart looked inside and decided running for mayor wasn't for him.

"I'm disappointing people, but at the end of the day I have to look myself in the mirror," said Dart, clad in jeans and a Mount Carmel High School basketball fleece at a hastily called news conference outside the County Jail he oversees.

Dart's decision clears the field of one of the top candidates vying for the job to succeed Mayor Richard Daley, who said last month that he wouldn't seek another term in February. In recent weeks, the field has thinned as numerous aldermen, congressmen and county officials have bowed out.

Since Daley's announcement, Dart had been telling supporters he planned to run and was gearing up his campaign, even gathering more than 25,000 signatures — twice the required amount — to get his name on the ballot.

Dart was expected to be a top-tier candidate, a counterweight to Rahm Emanuel, the former North Side congressman and White House chief of staff who has been bruising his way through Chicago as he ramps up a run. Dart, who hails from the 19th Ward, had stronger ties to progressive unions and working-class voters who weren't necessarily predisposed to support Emanuel.

Dart has long yearned to be mayor. But as he sought support around the city, the contrast with Emanuel was clear to ward committeemen and political powerbrokers.

"(Dart) wasn't making the hard sell," one committeeman said. "There was an opinion out that that he wasn't up to the battle, especially with Rahm coming in like a bulldozer."

Even when Dart was aggressive in working the phones, he trod into territory Emanuel already covered, sometimes twice. Many Democrats said they noticed Dart's fledgling campaign was somewhat disorganized and having difficulty gaining traction.

Although Dart had hired Joe Trippi, a political strategist with a national profile, the two had never worked together. In the past, both Dart and Emanuel employed AKPD Message and Media, the political consulting firm once run by President Barack Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod. But Emanuel hired them before Dart had a chance.

Dart's departure was viewed in many political circles as a boon for Emanuel.

"There's little doubt this helps Emanuel's campaign," said another Democratic ward committeeman who spoke on the condition of anonymity, "but it helps all the candidates in the race to some degree."

One of the city's most knowledgeable political pros, Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, said Dart's decision gives Emanuel a distinct advantage. "I think Rahm would be the beneficiary of that," he said.

Emanuel acknowledged Dart's decision changes the race's "dynamics" but dismissed the idea he pushed him out.

"He took a gut check of that decision," Emanuel said. "Tom Dart does not get scared" out of a race.

Dart said no back-channel overtures were made by other candidates to encourage him not to run.

Others potential candidates include City Clerk Miguel del Valle, former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, former Chicago Board of Education President Gery Chico, Ald. Robert Fioretti, 2nd, state Sen. James T. Meeks, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, and Cook County Board of Review Commissioner Larry Rogers Jr.

Dart said fundraising, political support and the fear of losing had nothing to do with his decision. Instead, it was all about his family. He and his wife, Patricia, have five children ranging in age from 1 to 9. Dart said running a mayoral campaign and then running the city if he won was too much.

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First lady stumps for 'handsome' Giannoulias - Chicago Tribune

First Lady Michelle Obama offered a personal character reference Wednesday for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, whose integrity is under attack from Republican opponents.

On her first day on the campaign trail since 2008, Obama told about 250 donors at the University Club that Giannoulias has maintained high ethical standards both as state treasurer and candidate.

Obama noted that the president had praised Giannoulias' character.

"I know that he will be a phenomenal U.S. senator. I am proud of him. We have seen him grow. He is always pushing to the next level, and he is doing it with grace and dignity," Obama said.

Giannoulias has faced questions about his role as a senior loan officer at his family's failed Broadway Bank when it made loans to convicted felons. In addition, the GOP has targeted him with campaign ads accusing him of misleading investors about the losses in a college savings program overseen by the treasurer's office. Giannoulias has said he did nothing wrong in either case.

Obama spent most of her speech touting health care reform, tax cuts, access to education and a laundry list of the president's achievements, rather than Giannoulias. But she described the Senate race as a key to ensuring the president's promise of change will become a reality.

"My husband can't do this alone," said Obama, who drew laughter when she referred to Giannoulias as a "handsome young man."

Obama did not mention Republicans, including Giannoulias' GOP opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk.

Giannoulias introduced the first lady as "someone I love dearly."

Obama was also in Chicago for a separate fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raised money for incumbent U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Debbie Halvorson and for Dan Seals, who is seeking Kirk's North Shore congressional seat.

A Giannoulias spokesman did not immediately have figures on how much Wednesday's event raised.

oavila@tribune.com

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Kirk, Giannoulias trade ethics shots on 'Meet the Press' - Chicago Tribune

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October 10, 2010Kirk and Giannoulias trade ethics shots on 'Meet the Press'Share|

Posted by Oscar Avila at 9:50 a.m.

U.S. Senate candidates Mark Kirk and Alexi Giannoulias traded sharp attacks on each other’s character and credibility this morning in a wide-ranging debate televised on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The character question remains front-and-center in their bid to fill President Obama’s old Senate seat as polls show voters hold deep doubts after scathing reports of Democrat Giannoulias’ tenure at the failed Broadway Bank and of Republican  Kirk embellishing his record in the Navy Reserve.

The debate aired live in parts of the country but airs locally at 11 a.m. after NBC’s coverage of the Chicago Marathon.

Moderator David Gregory pressed Giannoulias, Illinois' state treasurer, on whether he knew his family’s bank lent money to convicted criminals with ties to organized crime. Giannoulias, a senior loan officer at the time, did not claim total ignorance of their “colorful pasts” but said “I didn’t know the extent of their activity.”

Kirk did not disavow campaign ads equating Giannoulias with television mobster Tony Soprano and said the candidate should have known better because the criminal convictions had been widely reported in local newspapers.

“You don’t have to pull their rap sheet,” said Kirk, a five-term congressman.

Giannoulias, who has portrayed Kirk as a Washington, D.C. insider, said Kirk didn't know what it's like to work in the private sector.  "Again... the congressman has never worked in the private sector. Doesn't know what it takes, what a bank does when they look at whether or not to approve or deny a loan so he pulls some names and tries to make a political attack," Giannoulias said. " People aren't buying it."

Gregory, meanwhile, pressed Kirk, an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, as to why he embellished parts of his military record. Gregory  read off a string of examples, including that Kirk came under enemy fire in Iraq, that he ran the Pentagon war room, served in the Gulf War, and that he was named the Navy's intelligence officer of the year.

Kirk did not fully explain how the exaggerations occurred but said, “I am completely accountable for this.”

Giannoulias tried to use the misstatements to cast broader doubts on Kirk’s candidacy. As Kirk rattled off examples of how he bucked Republican leadership, including supporting stem-cell research, Giannoulias wasn’t having it.

“The truth is that the only thing he’s been independent of in this race is the truth,” Giannoulias said.

Likewise, Giannoulias implied that Kirk’s misstatements on his military record should lead voters to question his other claims, including that he would be a “fiscal hawk” and take on the ballooning budget deficit.

“The congressman has told some real whoppers during this campaign, but that might be the biggest one of all,” Giannoulias said. “Congressman, saying you’re a fiscal hawk doesn’t necessarily make it true.”

Much of the policy debate centered on whether Obama’s economic policies have worked.

Kirk said the health care and financial reform bills had the net effect of being tax increases. Kirk held up a chart – a la former presidential candidate Ross Perot – to show that the administration’s economic policies, including the stimulus package, have only swelled the debt without truly creating jobs.

“We recognize that the stimulus has largely failed,” Kirk said.

"The key danger," Kirk said, "is will our policies increase the chance of a double-dip recession?"

While he did not agree with all the details, Giannoulias said the stimulus package helped the U.S. avoid a “second Great Depression.”

“I think (Obama) has done everything he can to turn this economy around,” Giannoulias said.

 

Posted at 09:51:21 AMin 2010 Illinois election, 2010 Illinois U.S. Senate campaign

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Your alderman's expense account
How Chicago's 50 aldermen are using their expense accounts

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All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

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About CloutClout has a special meaning in Chicago, where it can be a noun, a verb or an adjective. This exercise of political influence in a uniquely Chicago style was chronicled in the Tribune cartoon "Clout Street" in the early 1980s. Clout Street, the blog, offers an inside look at the politics practiced from Chicago's City Hall to the Statehouse in Springfield, through the eyes of the Tribune's political and government reporters.
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Jewish voters don't reflexively back Rahm Emanuel for Chicago mayor - Chicago Tribune

Some might assume that the idea of a Rahm Emanuel candidacy for mayor would be cause for celebration along Devon Avenue, the longtime rialto of Chicago's Jewish community.

After all, Emanuel attended an Orthodox synagogue before going from Chicago to the White House, and his family is highly respected in West Rogers Park, where his father, Benjamin, was a pediatrician. The numbers of those who say Dr. Emanuel took care of their kids is roughly similar to the legion that claimed to have witnessed Babe Ruth point to the Wrigley Field bleachers and hit that famed home run.

But Rahm Emanuel, who begins his Chicago "listening tour" this week, is about to discover that all politics aren't local.

In the Jewish neighborhoods on the Far North Side, Rahm Emanuel is more associated with what he did in Washington than what he might do in Chicago's City Hall.

"There are questions about his positions on Israel," said Chesky Montrose, 32, who was wearing a skull cap and pushing one child in a stroller while keeping an eye on two others bicycling down Devon. "It's not logical that international policy would influence a race for mayor. But there is some resentment here, no doubt."

There was rejoicing along Devon on Friday because it was Simchat Torah, a festive celebration of the divine laws Moses received on behalf of the ancient Israelites. But there also were questions about Emanuel timing his White House farewell announcement for that day.

"On yontif?" said Montrose, using the Yiddish for the holiday.

During the run-up to Simchat Torah, it's traditional for Jews to take their meals in a sukkah, an improvised hut like their ancestors dwelled in during their wandering years in the deserts of Sinai. A fast-food restaurant on Devon provides customers with a sukkah.

With rituals marking their forebears' exiles, it's hardly a wonder Jews fret over modern-day Israel. Obama got a huge percent of Jewish voters, many of whom assumed Emanuel would give voice to their concerns as chief of staff, noted Cheryl Jacobs Lewin, Chicago co-chair of Americans for a Safe Israel.

"That has not happened, judging by the White House's heavy-handedness toward Israel," Lewin said in an e-mail.

A spokeswoman for Emanuel said Sunday he is a strong backer of Israel.

"Rahm's support for Israel is well known, and he had many supporters in the Jewish community when he represented a half-million Chicagoans in Congress. But he takes nothing for granted and will work to earn the support of every voter in communities across the city," said Lori Goldberg, Emanuel's spokeswoman.

Another person leery of Emanuel on the Israel issue is Norm Levin, who said, "I used to be a devout Democrat."

Levin is president of the Great Vest Side Club, an alumni association of the West Side neighborhood that was once the epicenter of Chicago's Jewish community. (The pronunciation "vest" commemorates the immigrant accent of members' parents.)

"I like to vote for Jewish people," Levin said. "But if they're sort of negative on Israel, they lose me."

Yet that very quality could be a plus for Emanuel among lakefront liberals, many of them secular Jews uncomfortable with a right-leaning Israeli administration.

"I'm sort of hostile to Israel," said James Alter, a founding father of independent politics in Chicago.

He and his late wife, Joanne Alter, also Jewish and a Metropolitan Water Reclamation District trustee, made their Lakeview home a longtime clubhouse for anti-machine activists.

Even so, there are other issues on which liberals clash with Emanuel, said political consultant Don Rose, who is Jewish, a reigning guru of the independent movement.

"We progressives found him unresponsive as a congressman when we wanted him to speak out against the Iraq war," Rose said.

Then there could be a linguistic problem attached to an Emanuel candidacy. Jews think of a Jew in the public eye as representing all of them with his or her behavior, said Chayim Knobloch, a rabbi and proprietor of the Kol Tuv supermarket on Devon.

Emanuel is famous for peppering his conversations with swearing, while Jews have a longstanding caution: "Don't make a shandah for the goyim" — be aware of your behavior in gentile company.

"So I have a small request," Knobloch said. "Rahm should watch his language."

rgrossman@tribune.com

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