Mayor Daley's patronage chief found guilty of fraud

There is very bad news this evening for the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization, known outside of Illinois as "The Machine." The handing out of jobs in exchange for political work is a key cog of The Machine. Family ties and political donations get job-hunters special-notice when the "Help Wanted" signs appear on the door of Chicago's City Hall, too.

From CBS 2 Chicago:

A former top aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley and three other onetime city workers were convicted on Thursday in a scheme to load the city payroll with campaign workers in defiance of a federal court order.

Jurors deliberated for three and a half days in the five-week trial before convicting Robert Sorich, Daley's 43-year-old former patronage chief, of two counts of mail fraud. Jurors acquitted him of two additional mail fraud counts.

More....

The case strikes at the city's century-old patronage tradition, the heart of the "Chicago Machine" of yesteryear, in which ward bosses and others could maintain hordes of precinct captains by putting them on the city payroll. Prosecutors say the "patronage armies" based in city departments rather than wards represent an updated version of the system.

Turning out votes and lots of them for Democrats in Chicago and Cook County is what makes Illinois a deep blue state--forty percent of Illinoisans live in Cook.

Without the promise of jobs and promotions, the incentive for Cook County precinct captains isn't as strong, now that the patronage system has taken a severe hit.

Make no mistake, Illinois is not going to turn into the Kansas of the Great Lakes as far as Republicanism, but the playing field for Land of Lincoln Republicans got a little more favorable.

And the magic of "Fitzmas" runs both ways, as Democrats are learning. The office that prosecuted Sorich was the U.S. Attorney for Northern Illinois, which is headed by Patrick Fitzgerald, of "PlameGate" fame.

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