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Since her solid win in the nasty, expensive Democratic primary for state’s attorney, career prosecutor Anita Alvarez has kept a pretty low public profile. That’s because she’s been playing it safe and smart, traveling the county to meet with party committeemen and raise money. After all, if she gets the Democratic organization behind her she’ll win handily, especially with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket. Alvarez would have to do something outrageous—like explain why she and others in the state’s attorney’s office have never made a priority of prosecuting abusive cops, from the time Richard M. Daley ran it until now—to have a chance of alienating the party apparatus and losing.
Who wouldn’t rather face Stroger? Voters in Palatine have talked about seceding from the county over the tax hikes he’s engineered, and Stroger is unpopular even among the rest of us resigned to staying in it. Over the weekend the Trib ran a forceful editorial encouraging Cook County citizens to vote him out of office—even though he’s not up for reelection till 2010.
