Suddenly, Cynthia Soto looks like a Machine flunky

"Cummings is now in appeal and will be lucky if she gets onto the ballot in time." "Let your opponent get on the ballot, Cynthia. Do the debates. Win on your record. Don't go the way of the Machine."

Chicago Journal
10/11/2006

Suddenly, Cynthia Soto looks like a Machine flunky

PETER ZELCHENKO
Skulking around Chicago Board of Elections headquarters a few weeks ago, I heard a commotion in the back room. "Oh, it's just a petition challenge," the receptionist told me. I looked over the partition and spotted friendly looking young people in beards and T-shirts. Even their chatter sounded liberal. What were these lefties doing messing around election HQ? It's not something you see every day.

I headed back to investigate. Ahh, yes, of course. The Greens! Dorian Breuer, John Otrompke, and other familiar faces from West Town, Pilsen, and elsewhere. Did I want to help out? They said they were running a state representative candidate whose access to the ballot is being challenged by House Speaker Mike Madigan's people-see all those burly city payrollers on the other side of the room? That's them, all right.

Staring down Madigan's flunkies was young Christina Tobin. The daughter of former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Jim Tobin, Chris appears as frail and helpless as Emily Dickinson. But, described as "perky and pert" by her own Libertarian Party, she's arguably the feistiest ballot-access champion in the city.

It is perhaps one of the oddest contrasts in Chicago politics to see youthful idealists of various stripes banding together to face off against the Machine. It is also one of the most inspiring.

You're darned right I wanted to help.

Some clown was out to get a very nice woman named Kathleen Cummings knocked off the November ballot. The challenge process is a tedious legal proceeding involving one-by-one verification of voter registrations and signatures. The plaintiff's challenge most signatures in the hopes of getting the candidate below the minimum required number of signatures. It's the de rigueur way for a Machine candidate with deep pockets to harass or eliminate a weaker independent opponent.

As I paged through my challenge sheets, I kept seeing a very familiar signature at the bottom of each one. I told Dorian Breuer how nice it was that 4th District state Rep. Cynthia Soto was helping the Greens take on the Machine in this way.

"What are you talking about?" he roared back at me. "She's the one trying to kick us off the ballot!"

There must have been some mistake. Backed by practically every progressive in Chicago, Cindy Soto was the First Ward's liberal candidate for alderman in 1999. Why would she be fighting the Greens?

But it turns out, it's true: Cynthia Soto wants Kathleen Cummings, who is also running for 4th District state representative, off the ballot.

Kathy Cummings is the soft-spoken former editor of Nit and Wit literary magazine and an outspoken activist on health issues. She leads a number of very warm initiatives, such as the Alliance of Nonsmokers and the Milk Outrage Organization (a group fighting the use of Bovine Growth Hormone in milk, rBGH, to increase milk production in cows). A special education and gifted teacher by training, she wants Soto's seat in the statehouse.

Cindy Soto is the strong mother of three, the former county child-support supervisor who very nearly unseated First Ward wise guy Jesse Granato in 1999. The protégée of our own state Sen. "San Miguel" del Valle, since 2000 Soto, has been our diligent voice in Springfield, working with the senator on issues important to working families. She was the chief sponsor of the Living Wage Act and bills to expand medical coverage. Her district cuts a four-mile swath from Eckhart Park to West Humboldt Park.

Ideologically, these two women are like soul sisters, no?

And who do I see later that very day at her cozy fundraiser on Grand Avenue? It's Cindy Soto herself. I get a nice big hug from her. Then, in a conspiratorial whisper, I tell her what I was doing all day at election HQ.

She pushes me away. "What?! Why is that woman doing this to me?" she says, referring to Cummings' run against her. "Doesn't she know how hard I'm working? Doesn't she know I'm one of the good guys?"

Two of the nicest women you could know-two women whose world views are very similar-are fighting tooth and nail. Cynthia Soto has been victim herself of the Machine's gritty tactics. In fact, Madigan was instrumental in knocking her out in 1999. Why in the world would she be pulling a stunt like this?

Things are looking grim, too, for Cummings. The Greens had more than twice as many signatures as they needed, quite enough to withstand the challenge. But what Green Party leaders are calling two apparent judicial sleights-of-hand may have caused Cummings to lose her case. Cummings' campaign manager, Walter Esler, says that the first judge ordered Cummings' name off the ballot without giving each of the 3,400 signatures a full and fair hearing. And on appeal, a second judge threw out the appeal because a certain motion was supposedly stamped one day late, though the attorney produced a stamped copy of the motion with an earlier date.

Cummings is now in appeal and will be lucky if she gets onto the ballot in time.

Until July, Cummings' only problem with Soto was her acceptance of big corporate campaign money, which is exactly what Soto criticized her predecessor for. Now, Cummings has a really big problem with Soto, who is looking more like a Machine flunky every day.

Let your opponent get on the ballot, Cynthia. Do the debates. Win on your record. Don't go the way of the Machine.

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Speaking of our very own Sen. del Valle, have you heard? He's been selected to replace convicted ex-City Clerk Jim Laski. I spoke with a few of the senator's friends recently to try to persuade him to run for mayor. I've also been trying to coax Bill "Dock" Walls to run for clerk. Walls is the former Harold Washington aide and 2003 city clerk candidate, who was knocked off that ballot by the once independent Laski-in true Machine fashion, I might add. Wouldn't it have been true justice for Walls to take that position? And he'd be great at it.

But it seems the roles are reversed: Walls is running for mayor and del Valle will be appointed by Daley as city clerk. This office, with broad citywide name recognition, is one of the ideal stepping-stones toward a mayoral run. Guess who's suddenly the most likely candidate for mayor of Chicago when Daley retires-unless this is Daley's way of kicking del Valle off to the side so that he can appoint someone less appetizing in mid-term. That's the problem with politicians: they conspire like the wind.

Copyright 2006, Chicago Journal