The 2016 political landscape in America will go down in history as being replete with undesirable candidates and voters tasked with the obligation of holding their collective noses while doing damage control at the voting booth.
Nationally, the choice is between presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, who struggles with issues of trustworthiness and judgment, and Donald Trump, whose arrogance, poor temperament, bigotry, sexism and vulgarity are legendary.
However, the political turf in St. Clair County, Illinois is equally interesting, especially in the races for St. Clair County Board chairman, state representative of the 114th Legislative District, coroner and circuit judge.
St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern, one of the godfathers of St. Clair County “politricks,” will square off against former Belleville mayor Rodger Cook. Kern has used the city of East St. Louis as a political plantation throughout his three terms in office, harvesting the black vote to win elections for himself and his political sycophants, while more than doubling the MidAmerica Airport construction debt from $40 million to $88 million. He also contributed to the negative political climate which caused St. Clair County to lose the much-publicized NGA West project to St. Louis.
Rodger Cook has vowed to have a more transparent governmental structure and to aggressively formulate a plan to stop the financial bleeding at MidAmerica.
Bob Romanik, aka “The Grim Reaper of Radio,” an admitted felon and controversial local radio personality, says that if elected as state representative of the 114th Legislative District he will refuse to take a salary or per diems and will work tirelessly to do the will of his constituents, holding both Illinois Republicans and Democrats accountable.
His opponent Latoya Greenwood, a professional politician, is an ESL city councilwoman, as well as hustling an additional $91,000 as a director of human resources for ESL School District 189. Her father, Lonzo Greenwood, is president of the District 189 Board of Education and chairman of the ESL Democratic Club.
Then there’s the race for coroner. Former ESL Mayor Carl Officer and his family have comforted the bereaved for three generations through the Officer Funeral Home. Their name is synonymous with service to the grieving families of ESL and the St. Louis area. Yet, the St. Clair County political bosses have pitted Calvin Dye, a 68-year-old retired Illinois State Trooper, bailiff and state’s attorney’s investigator against Officer. Dye, not-so-coincidentally, happens to also be black. While Dye is a nice gentleman, he is cooperating in being used to divide the black vote in hopes of punishing Officer, who is more than amply qualified.
And, finally, there’s the race for circuit judge by former Associate Judge Laninya Cason. She served on the bench for 12 years before being railroaded from her job. In 2015, St. Clair County Judges (more than likely steered by Chief Judge John Baricevic) cowardly cast anonymous ballots to deny her retention. They based their votes on a bogus poll by the Illinois State Bar Association (75 percent of whose lawyers never appeared in Cason’s courtroom). Cason was, therefore, forced to switch her allegiance to the Republican Party as a tactical move to appear on the ballot. Laninya was a well-respected judge and hosted educational forums as well as inspired many young black women through her community work.
I’m hoping for change in 2016.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com; Twitter@JamesTIngram.
