Anita Alvarez may have launched her first run for office without any political experience or Democratic Party support, but just a year later she looks like she’s figured a few things out.
“I don’t think there’s room to have officers who are abusive on the force,” she said. “I’ve worked with some very good police officers and outstanding police officers, but I’ve also prosecuted and convicted three members of the now infamous SOS unit. So I know there are officers who do abuse that badge and it makes our life and our job that much harder to do…. We will continue to be vigilant from this day on….“
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Alvarez, 48, grew up in Pilsen and graduated from Loyola before going to law school. She joined the state’s attorney’s office when it was headed by Richard M. Daley and over the next two decades rose through the ranks to the number three spot there, including stints leading its public corruption and narcotics bureaus. But she wasn’t part of the Cook County political machinery. She hadn’t spent time cozying up to Democratic regulars by doing campaign work, and except for $225 she’d given to Devine six years earlier, she hadn’t spread cash around. One well-placed political activist actually told me she’s made so little effort to reach out to important party leaders that she’s destined to be undercut and limited to a single term.
Before the primary, Alvarez appeared to have the baggage of an insider without the advantages. She was vulnerable to attacks from critics of Devine—and there were many—who accused her of being part of an office with a paltry record of prosecuting police abuse and political corruption, while her opponents—two Chicago aldermen, a county commissioner, a respected defense lawyer, and Devine’s top lieutenant—had superior name recognition, stronger political networks, higher-profile endorsements, and more favors to cash in for fund-raising.
That won’t be the case this time around. Since the primary, she’s made the rounds of Democratic ward organizations and black churches. The Service Employees International Union has paid for robocalls promising that she’ll work to keep the streets safe from gangs, guns, and drugs. Alvarez says she doesn’t like fund-raising, but she’s not so bad at it: she’s raised more than $1.3 million since the primary, including thousands of dollars from Cook County Democratic Party insiders and thousands more from employees of the office she would be supervising if elected. Alvarez says people in the office are just excited about the possibility she’ll be running it; Peraica says she should return the donations from them to avoid a conflict of interest.
Here her spokeswoman Sally Daly let loose a fake cough that sounded a lot like kiss ass.
The state’s attorney’s office should be as free of politics as possible, she said, which is why “Mr. Peraica, I don’t think, is suitable for this position.” Yet Alvarez praised Devine—whom she criticized during the primary—as a model of professionalism. “He didn’t do a lot of political things. I guess when he was running he did, but there were a lot of events he didn’t go to.” As for critics who’ve charged that Devine protected Daley and other local pols—”I know that’s what Tony says, but I don’t think I saw that in him. He really does care about the office. When I supervised the public integrity unit, he said, ‘Wherever it goes.’ I know the critics wouldn’t believe me, but it’s the honest-to-God truth.”
