Bernard Carey former Cook County State's Attorney, RIP

I retweeted this over at my other twitter today. Bernard Carey was slightly ahead of my time. He was a Republican Cook County State's Attorney who faced down the machine of Mayor Richard J. Daley. It was certainly hard to do it as a reform Democrat and definitely as a Republican in an area that probably has solid Democrat support. Though I recognize that the Cook County of say the 1970s & 80s probably wasn't as solidly blue and it would be now.

Here's the tweet from a Tribune reporter

Bernard Carey, former GOP state's attorney who helped spark Operation Greylord, opposed Daleys, dies https://t.co/wtg9XrEGhj

— Liam T.A. Ford (@ltaford) June 5, 2018

The question I have to ask now is where are these Republicans today. Chicago & Cook County have gotten so solidly progressive that well could a Carey be elected countywide or citywide today. I have a hard time seeing it you'll be demonized as a Republican and one would have to do nothing more than fool these low-information voters to cast a ballot for a faux Democrat. There is an unfortunate precedent for this...

All the same, we see that Mr. Carey had a hand in these corruption probes of county judges and what not. You can say he in some ways drained the swamp of Chicago politics. Problem is old habits or perhaps some form of old school political wheeling and dealing are very hard to break. What do you do if you want honest government?

Regardless whether Republican or Democrat we need these reformers now more than ever. Unfortunately the process is hard but very necessary.

Here's a campaign commercial for Mr. Carey from 1972 or 46 years ago running for Cook County State's Attorney for the first time. [VIDEO]

I should note as this is more interesting, anger over what happened on Chicago's west side with the Black Panthers and Fred Hampton - a botched raid orchestrated by the State's Attorney he defeated Ed Hanrahan - is what allowed him to become state's attorney. Black voters chose him over Hanrahan, it just shows it is possible for Black voters to be angered by the actions of Democrat leaders. For this race for sure, they were angry at the machine that prevailed in Chicago during that period of time.