What do you do when you have to choose between a complete incompetent Democrat and a competent Republican who is a right wing nut job?
I have been wrestling with a tough vote I have to cast in November and thought I would seek advice from the blogging multitude on what do to. Since this involves a local race I will give you the background.
The race at issue is Cook County, Illinois' board president. This post was held for years by John Stroger, a black machine Democrat. He was being challenged in the Democratic primary by a more reformist candidate, Forrest Claypool. The race was very close but then Stroger had a stroke days before the election. The machine, including Mayor Daley, pulled out all the stops for Stroger and he won the primary 54% to 47%, even though we did not know how bad the stroke was.
It turned out the stroke was pretty bad and John Stroger resigned as president of the Cook County Board and dropped out as the Democratic candidate in the November election. It then fell to the Democratic ward committeemen to choose a replacement. After a secret meeting they chose Todd Stroger, John's son, as his replacement. Todd is presently a Chicago City Councilman. The method of his selection outraged most reform minded Democrats, like me, and his knowledge of county matters and gravitas are sorely lacking. Imagine Urkel from Family Matters running for an office he knows nothing about and you get the picture.
When Todd Stroger was named his father's successor as the Democratic candidate for president, the Chicago Tribune was filled with outraged letters to the editor saying "I'm voting for the Republican." But probably none of them knew who the Republican was.
The Republican candidate is Tony Peraica, who has been on the county board for a while and has aligned himself with the reformer Democrats, at least when it comes to curbing patronage hires, cutting waste and fraud and trying to cut taxes. Unfortunately, Peraica is also a hard right religious conservative Republican. He's vehemently anti-choice, homophobic and well you get the picture. Both candidates were interviewed by the Chicago Tribune and Peraica clearly had a much stronger grasp of the issues facing the county and what to do about them. Stroger came across as clueless. It is also clear that the machine wants Stroger in there so the real powers behind the throne can control all of the jobs the county has to dole out. Also, not that I think it matters, but Todd Stroger is black and Peraica is white.
At their first debate, Peraica painted Stroger as a clueless machine hack with no ideas about the county and Stroger painted Peraica a rightwinger out of touch with a more liberal county.
So what's a good reform minded, liberal Democrat to do? I was truly urked by the way Stroger got the nomination and I can't stand that he is a machine hack with no knowledge of the job he is running for. On the other hand, I am not sure I can actually cast a vote for a real right wing Republican. Do I stay loyal to the party and vote for Stroger, vote for the competent but repulsive Republican or vote for neither?