Why has the local Democratic Party pushed Eddie Washington off the raft by running a canddiate agianst him in the primary fpor the 60th District house race?
No question about it. Illinois is a pork state.
You can tell because a state congressman running for re-election equates almost all the good he has done by the sweetheart slices of pork rinds directed into his towns.
In Washington’s case, he identifies $100,000 for an elevator at College of Lake County, $25,000 for the Greenbelt Cultural Center for “seed money,” $29,000 for some improvement at the Waukegan library.
Washington has turned out a pair of campaign brochures touting his successes. The one for Waukegan he entitles “Profiles of Achievements”, and the one for North Chicago/Park City he labels “Profiles in Achievements.”
Not exactly the high-minded moral achievements John Kennedy identified in his “Profiles In Courage”, but you ride whatever bus gets you to the party. But at least Eddie lifts his directives from solid source material.
In addition, his brochures claim he’s solely responsible for renaming the Amstutz Expressway as “The Honorable Bobby E. Thompson Expressway” in honor of the former North Chicago mayor. This will come as something of a surprise to local officials.
We’ll just call it the BETE, for short.
Of course, if this is true, what Washington more likely did is get a small slice of the road renamed as an amorphous honorarium. It’s the way they do it in Chicago. It’s about as real as UFO sightings in Utah.
But more to the point, Washington’s brochures are rife with odd syntax and flummoxed grammar. If anyone in the party was embarrassed by clumsiness, these would be exhibit “A” in the indictment.
As in this pearl: “Provided additional moines (sic) for the children of the 60th District, creating a balanced budget.”
Or this: “Plans are presently underway w/Foss Park Commissioner Wade to provide water park environment for our babies during summer of 2008-2009 – ‘God Willing’ .” (Sorry, folks, no clue on that one).
If he is as precise in his legislative proposals, there’s a large loose cannon on the deck.
Or maybe county party chairman Terry Link now supports Angelo Kyle for the seat just because he thinks Washington is a doofus.
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